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Japanese kitchen

Okonomiyaki

A cabbage pancake the size of a dinner plate, striped with mayo and dancing bonito flakes. The name roughly means cook what you like, which is the most generous instruction in any cuisine.

Total time
17 min
Serves
2
Effort
Easy

What you need

Written for 2 — nudge the counter and the numbers follow.

Cooking for
2 people

0 of 10 in the basket.

How you make it

  1. Whisk the flour, dashi and eggs into a thick batter, then fold in the shredded cabbage and spring onions until every strand is coated.

  2. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a frying pan over medium heat and spoon in half the mixture, shaping it into a round about 2cm thick without pressing it flat.

  3. Lay half the pork belly slices over the top and cook for 5 minutes until the underside is deep golden and set enough to move.

  4. Flip confidently with a wide spatula, press down once, and cook for another 5 minutes so the pork crisps and is fully cooked through with no pink remaining.

  5. Flip once more for 30 seconds to firm the pork side, then slide onto a plate and repeat with the rest.

  6. Paint with okonomiyaki sauce, zigzag over the mayonnaise, and shower with bonito flakes so they curl in the heat.

Read all that and thought “absolutely not”?

Completely fair. Okonomiyaki is sitting in the Japanese kitchen right now, it costs nothing, and it will never arrive.

Order it instead

Quiet, precise, and secretly the coziest food there is.