Takoyaki!!!
by Tehspiah on Mar.07, 2010, under Misc, Other, Randomness
My friend said that he wanted to make some Takoyaki (Japanese Octopus Dumplings) last year around October, so I watched this:
Cooking Showdown, yakisoba vs takoyaki (from my youtube channel)
and went to eat some at this Japanese snack restaurant called Genki Living. They make their own version of takoyaki, which is more like the size of a cue ball than the regular ones, which are the size of golf balls. So my birthday was coming up and I asked him to buy me a takoyaki pan ($20 from amazon, ty Clarence) for my birthday.
which looks like this and that I’m oiling
Continue reading to get yourself hungry
As with me making food, I usually go all out when cooking, which means no substitution on any of the ingredients. Living in the San Gabriel Valley, which is like a melting pot of Asian people, Asian ingredients are pretty easy to obtain. Mitsua Marketplace had all the ingredients I needed, including octopus.
Octopus, Green Onion, crumbled dried shrimp(optional) and Batter (flour, eggs and dashi soup (basically kelp and fish shaving soup, it’s miso soup minus the miso, tofu and seaweed)) I forgot to add some pickled ginger to it, but then I don’t really like them in this, since all the pickled gingers I ever had were the cheap ones.
Oh yeah! Unfortunately, flipping them is the hardest part (watch the other parts of the video in the link on the top of the post, true masters at work). I tried to make them as perfect as I could, but unfortunately, they always end up having a small hole due to the batter not filling up the gap. Also before this, I tried to make pancake balls… they were a failure.
An example of me going all out on the ingredients: Kewpie mayo>Best foods mayo (it’s the msg) and the okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake) sauce on the left of the mayos. ($5 for the sauce and $3 for the kewpie mayo…) I even use Kewpie on my ham sandwiches rather than that big tub of nothing special.
The finished product, with green laver (powdered seaweed) and bonito flakes(fish shavings, $5 for 100 grams bag) sprinkled on top. YUM!!!
Recipe I used: http://japanesefood.about.com/od/seafoodfish/r/takoyaki.htm
4 Comments for this entry
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Link | Posted on March 7th, 2010 at 10:49 am |
If all Takoyaki is made with that Mayo then I know what I need to avoid (Allergy to MSG runs in my family). On a related note, while my brother does most of the savory Japanese cooking, I focus more on the sweet side of things (go go sweetened Azuki paste) and what ever category Melon Pan falls under. However, I do make a mean curry (mean as in good, not mean as in melt your tongue off spicy). Though we prefer to try and make most of our stuff from scratch when possible (grind the whole spices, make the noodles from scratch, convert soy beans into tofu, etc). Also, Japanese Sweet Potatoes make for awesome microwave baked potatoes.
Link | Posted on March 7th, 2010 at 3:23 pm |
oh dang that sucks, since kelp contains a form of naturally occurring msg, and the stock is made with it.
Link | Posted on March 10th, 2010 at 4:41 am |
I too have tried my hand at preparing my favorite Japanese dishes… forgetting that I’m colorblind to the point where I can’t see when to properly flip the dish. but that hole thing; judging by the flame n the pic i’d say you were using too little heat. your finished product still looks episodes better than mine tho. I think i prefer to keep buying from street vendors only.
Also, I see an eating utensil that is a disgrace to takoyaki in that last picture -_- no toothpicks handy?
Link | Posted on March 10th, 2010 at 9:27 pm |
@lynkz: I had my burner on 8/10 but I only used 9/12 holes, the bottom ones don’t get that hot for some reason, but the middle ones turn out the best =D. I would buy them from street vendors/restaurants, but nobody sells them within a 3 mile radius. Genki living, the place I went to is pretty expensive, and they have their tennis ball sized ones…
And about the toothpicks, I already ate some food earlier with that fork, and I don’t want to wash more dishes. Besides, it’s like 4 toothpicks put together.