Japanese Okonomiyaki Pancakes

Okonomiyaki is a very popular Japanese cabbage pancake from Hiroshima and Osaka. It is fried and then smothered in a lip-smacking okonomiyaki sauce, then drizzled with mayonnaise and sprinkled with dried tuna flakes. I’ve tweaked the recipe a little bit by using ingredients that are easy to find in Luxembourg. This is now my favourite recipe to make use of any kind of cabbage – savoy and pointy green cabbage work particularly well.

This was made with a large ‘imperfect’ savoy cabbage which was in my Onperfekt box. Onperfekt are fighting food waste by giving wonky veggies and fruits a second chance. To do this, they set up a shop in in Marnach, selling imperfect produce, and they’ve launched a weekly wonky veg box service. Every Friday, the Onperfekt website publishes a list of all the fresh 100% local vegetables they’ve rescued. And you can then order your box until Sunday. You can opt for a subscription of 6 or 12 boxes, and decide when you want to get them (regularly or from time to time). I have partnered up with Onperfekt to create a series of delicious recipes with imperfect vegetables.

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Ingredients

200g cabbage
1 small carrot
2 spring onions
1 tbsp sushi ginger
120g flour
½ tsp baking powder
120ml vegetable or chicken stock
½ tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
2 eggs

For the okonomiyaki sauce:
4 tbsp ketchup
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp mirin
1 ½ tbsp sugar
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
½ tsp fresh ginger, grated
½ tsp mustard
1 garlic clove, crushed

To serve:
Mayonnaise
Black and white sesame seeds

Method

Makes 2 pancakes

Start by making the Okonomiyaki sauce: Put all the ingredients into a small saucepan, add 2 tablespoons of water and bring to the boil. Cook for 10 minutes until the sauce has thickened. Set aside until needed.

Roughly chop the cabbage, grate the carrots (no need to peel them), trim and slice the spring onions and finely chop the sushi ginger. Put everything into a bowl.

Add the flour, baking powder, stock, salt, sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil and eggs to the bowl with the vegetables and mix to combine.
Heat 1 tablespoon of sunflower oil in a 20cm frying pan, add half the batter and form a disc approximately 20 cm in width and 1.5 cm in height.

Fry the pancake for 4 minutes on one side until golden, flip and cook for another 4 minutes on the other side.

Slide the pancake onto a plate, brush the top with some Okonomiyaki sauce, drizzle with mayonnaise and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Repeat with the remaining batter to make a second pancake.