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Okonomiyaki-Style Gromperekichelcher

This dish is a special nod to both Luxembourg and Japan. It was created for a very special occasion: the Luxembourgish national day celebration in Japan!

You can’t imagine my excitement when I was asked to create the menu for the Luxembourg National Day reception in Tokyo, Japan!!! The Luxembourg embassy had approached me earlier this year, as they knew about my love for international dishes with Luxembourgish twists, and they were looking for a quirky menu to serve the 300 invited guests.

So, here I find myself now in Tokyo, cooking up traditional Luxembourgish dishes such as Feierstengszalot and Kachkeis sandwiches, as well as other dishes from my two books. It’s quite funny going shopping for European ingredients in Japanese supermarkets – you have to keep a very open mind as lots of products are hard to source. I had to replace the broad beans for edamame means in my Judd mat Gaardebounen for example, and I had to really fight to buy 6kg of butter (as they have a butter shortage in Japan and you’re only allowed to buy 400g per person!!! Not good for someone like me who uses butter in everything.)

When I designed the menu, it was clear that I also wanted to create one token Japanese/Luxembourgish fusion dish. I quickly settled on the idea of giving the traditonal Luxembourgish Gromperekichelchen (potato cake) a Japanese dimension – by making it okonomiyaki style. Okonomiyaki is proper Japanese comfort food: a cabbage-based pancake which is smothered in a dark, sweetish sauce. There are endless Okonomiyaki varieties – you can add porkor seafood to it, sprinkle it with seaweed, spring onions or seasame seeds etc. Usually, people also add mayonnaise to their okonomiyaki – which is definitely something the Luxembourgers would appreciate.

So, here you go, my Luxembourgish Gromperekichelcher with home-made okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise and bonito flakes (to give it a slightly smoky dimension).

I hope the guests will enjoy this fusion creation at the National Day reception next week. And I hope you will love it just as much when you recreate this at home.

June 21, 2015
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