HIROSHIMA-STYLE OKONOMIYAKI

“Okonomiyaki, the savoury pancake filled with ingredients of the customer’s choosing, is mostly associated with Osaka, to the endless ire of people from Hiroshima, who have their own unique style of okonomiyaki. The Hiroshima style is sometimes called ‘Hiroshima-yaki’ to differentiate it, but nothing annoys Hiroshimaites more than this, as in their view, it’s the Osaka style that is the inferior knock-off version.

“I’m not going to get involved in this rivalry, but I will say that Hiroshima okonomiyaki is indeed delicious, especially if you love noodles, like I do,” explains chef Tim Anderson. “In fact, it’s more like layered yakisoba, with noodles, cabbage and toppings griddled separately from the pancake, which takes the form of a thin crepe that gets draped over everything else.”

This recipe makes two okonomiyaki, which is likely to be enough for four people. -

Ienngtrse:di

100g plain flour 120ml dashi

3 eggs

1/2 hispi or flat cabbage, finely chopped 100g bean sprouts 150-200g tin of sweetcorn, drained 4 spring onions , thinly sliced About 40g beni shoga (pickled ginger, available on amazon) Vegetable oil

6 rashers streaky bacon 200g prepared squid, scored and cut into 1-cm wide strips

2 portions fresh yakisoba/egg noodles (or dried noodles, parboiled) About 150ml okonomi sauce (available on amazon) Kewpie mayo (100g mayo, 1/4tsp dashi, 1/4tsp Dijon mustard, salt and white pepper), as needed

A few pinches of aonori (dried seaweed)

A few pinches of sesame seeds Handful of katsuobushi (dried smoked tuna, available on amazon)

Method:

»» 1. Whisk together the flour, dashi and one egg to form a thin batter. In a sepa rate bowl, toss together the cabbage, bean sprouts, sweetcorn, half of the spring onions and half of the beni shoga. Set the griddle on medium-high heat and add a little oil, spreading it out into a thin layer with a spatula.

»» 2. Use a ladle to pour out two pancakes on the griddle, reserving about a third of the batter in the bowl. Top each pancake with the cabbage mixture, then drizzle the remaining batter on the top of each c-abbage pile. Press down on the cab bage pile to flatten it slightly, and cook for about five minutes. Top each cabbage p-ile with three rashers of bacon, press ing them down, then deftly flip each pile so the bacon is on the bottom and the pancake is on top. Press everything down again.

»» 3. Stir-fry the squid in a separate space on the griddle and add the noodles on top of the squid. Toss them together with about a third of the okonomi sauce, then g-ather them into a circle the same diam e-ter as each pancake. Transfer the pan c-ake-cabbage pile to the top of each cir cle of noodles and cook for another five minutes or so (the noodles should be nice and crisp on the bottom).

»» 4. M-eanwhile, fry two eggs on the grid dle - typically the yolk is broken, but I do like a runny yolk on my okonomiyaki. When the eggs are cooked, transfer them to the top of each okonomiyaki, then cover in okonomi sauce, mayo, aonori, sesame seeds, the remaining beni shoga and spring onions and kats-uobushi. Enjoy straight from the grid dle, if possible.