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A key step in making the savory Japanese pancake known as okonomiyaki is flipping the substantial round.
It’s a specialized skill, to the point that the ABC Cooking Studio has an honorific for a teacher with a supreme ability at the task: “Ms. Flipper.”
Lifting her skillet and sliding a spatula under the okonomiyaki, “Ms. Flipper” — aka Keiko Uzuki — lowered, then raised the pan and used physics and the spatula to seamlessly turn over the large pancake.
It was all accomplished in one fluid motion, drawing oohs, aahs and applause.
The act took on an even greater level of impressiveness when students in an ABC cooking class at Whole Foods Market Kahala tried to do their own flipping. It was nowhere near as easy as Uzuki had made it look.
Nevertheless, everyone in the end served up a tasty pancake, topped with grilled shrimp and edible flowers.
Okonomiyaki is a popular street food, or “yatai,” in Japan, and is also popular with home cooks looking to use up small amounts of meat and/or vegetables, said Jennifer Suzuki, ABC’s lead instructor.
A cabbage-studded batter serves as an inexpensive, sturdy and filling platform for toppings. Bacon, for example, steams directly atop the pancake and is finished crisply on the bottom once flipped. The pancake can then be topped with additional meat or vegetables, katsuobushi (bonito flakes) or furikake, and a sauce or two.
ABC and class host Whole Foods supplied fresh leafy greens, edible flowers and marinated Hawaiian-style garlic shrimp for toppings. Japanese-style mayonnaise as well as okonomiyaki sauce or, lacking that, katsu sauce are typically drizzled on top.
The two main types of okonomiyaki in Japan are Hiroshima style, incorporating noodles, and the cabbage-filled Osaka style (aka Kansai style), which was the focus of the class.
As with cooking in general, the okonomiyaki- making process starts with good mise-en-place, or ingredients measured and prepared in advance.
Dry ingredients include flour and tempura bits, which you might have left over from a previous night’s tempura-frying but which also can be purchased ready-made at Asian markets. Wet ingredients include mirin, water and an egg.
Ingredients should be combined until smooth, but don’t over-whisk, which develops the gluten in the flour and can toughen the end product. Chopped cabbage is folded in, then the mixture is poured into a skillet, the edges nudged with a spatula to create a nice round.
The batter should not be too thin, or flipping will be even more difficult. Nor should it be too thick, or it might not fully cook. Three-quarters of an inch is just right.
Possibilities for adapting the batter seem limitless. Use leftover stir-fry veggies, corned beef and cabbage, kalua pork and cabbage or even Spam.
The result: a dish made of leftovers that seems like something totally new.
The class at Whole Foods was ABC Cooking Studio’s first one taught outside Asia.
Suzuki said the school has created some 1 million recipes for its curriculum, taught at 135 locations across Japan and 16 schools in other Asian nations. The studio has more than 300,000 active members in Asia.
“Considering the feedback we received from the participants, we hope to be back in Hawaii to conduct more lessons,” said Eiko Okamoto, director of ABC Cooking Studio Worldwide Ltd.
“At the same time, we are now planning on conducting tours for tourists to be able to visit local farms, learn about Whole Foods and cook the food at either CookSpace or any other places where cooking is possible,” she said.
But ABC is scouting locations for a permanent location. “We intend to open our first studio in Hawaii within this year,” Okamoto said. “We believe that Hawaii is a great place to expand our footprint outside of Asia since there is a very deep food culture and interest in healthy cooking.”
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Hawaiian-Style Garlic Shrimp Okonomiyaki
>> Scant 1/2 cup cake flour
>> 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
>> 1 teaspoon dashi (bonito powder)
>> 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon water
>> 1 egg
>> 1/2 small head cabbage, cored and chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
>> 1 tablespoon tempura bits (sold at Asian markets)
>> 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
>> 2 pieces bacon, halved
Garlic shrimp
>> 5 large shrimp, deveined but shell left on
>> 1/3 cup grated onion
>> 1 teaspoon soy sauce
>> 1 teaspoon sugar
>> 1/4 teaspoon salt
>> 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
>> 2 medium cloves garlic, minced
Garnish
>> Okonomiyaki sauce (sold bottled in Asian markets, or substitute katsu sauce)
>> 1 cup loosely packed mesclun salad mix
>> 1 cup loosely packed salad greens
>> Caesar salad dressing, Japanese mayonnaise or other creamy topping
>> Edible flowers (optional)
Combine flour, baking powder and dashi in bowl; whisk thoroughly. Add water and whisk until no lumps remain. Add egg, cabbage and tempura bits; mix well.
Heat oil in a nonstick skillet. Pour batter into pan and let spread to a thickness of about 3/4 inch. Lay bacon across top; cover and cook on high heat at least 2 minutes, until bottom is golden brown. Flip okonomiyaki and cover again, cooking at least another 2 minutes. Remove lid, reduce heat and continue to cook until bacon reaches desired doneness.
To make Garlic Shrimp: Rinse shrimp in salt water, then fresh. Drain. Combine onions, soy sauce, sugar and salt; add shrimp and rub to coat. Let marinate 20 minutes.
Heat oil in skillet; add garlic. Once garlic is fragrant, add shrimp (reserve marinade) and cook on both sides about a minute. Add reserved marinade and saute until shrimp are cooked. Remove shrimp. Continue cooking marinade until it thickens a little, making a sauce. Return shrimp to pan and let simmer in sauce.
Glaze okonomiyaki with okonomiyaki sauce. Top with mesclun, salad greens and garlic shrimp. Add Caesar dressing or creamy sauce, and garnish with edible flowers, if using. Serves 1.
Approximate nutritional analysis (without garnishes and not including salt to taste): 900 calories, 46 g fat, 12 g saturated fat, 270 mg cholesterol, 2,500 mg sodium, 96 g carbohydrate, 11 g fiber, 20 g sugar, 31 g protein
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On the Net
>> To see “Ms. Flipper” in action: 808ne.ws/1QLqRty
>> ABC Cooking Studio: www.abc-cooking.co.jp/english
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