Okonomiyakiお好み焼き

Okonomiyaki or お好み焼きis a famous savoury Japanese pancake where you can find it at every corner at Japan. It is originated from Osaka, Japan. Basically, most of the ingredients are available in my country, Malaysia but not for the okonomi sauce or Otafuku. Perhaps, you may get it easily now at hypermarkets which import Japanese products.

My sakura trip to Japan triggered me to buy those ingredients from Japan, planning to make it once I was back. And I had both okonomi sauce and bonito flakes or katsuobushi.

Okonomiyakiお好み焼き

Batter

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

2cups water

¼ tspn chicken stocks (optional)

Other ingredients:

1 Cabbage, sliced

Chicken, sliced

Crab sticks, sliced

1 Onion, sliced

Okonomi sauce/ otafuku

Bonito flakes/ katsuobushi

Mayonnaise

4 eggs

*You may add any of your favourite ingredients like spring onion, bacon, sausage and seafood!

Method:

1. Whisk flour and water until smooth before adding in chicken stock to form a batter.

2. Put suitable amount of the batter into a bowl together with 1 egg, sliced cabbage, onion, chicken, crab sticks and mix them together.

3. Heat up a pan with some oil.

4. Add the mixture on the pan and form pancake using spatula.

5. After few minutes, flip over and cook for another few minutes until both sides turn brown.

6. Add bonito flakes onto the pancake before flipping over. (Notice the dancing bonito flakes! It is really magical!)

7. Flip over again and now drizzle it with mayonnaise and okonomi sauce accordingly. (You may sprinkle it with seaweed flakes/aonori and bonito flakes)

8. Serve it while it is hot.

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Napa Kimchi 배추 김치 Part 1

Kimchi is no longer an uncommon word we notice in our daily life.

The Korean culture has slowly invaded into our country with the sophisticated cuisine. When we think of Korean food, we would link it with kimchi. Yes, the hallmark of Korean cuisine. Most of the Korean cuisine uses kimchi as one of the main ingredients, namely Bibimbap, Kimchi chigae, Kimchi Bogeumbap (Fried Rice).

In this post, I would like to share an easy way of preparing this spicy kimchi. Cabbage kimchi or Napa kimchi, is among the most typical kimchi we can see. However, there are a lot more types of kimchi you can found in Korea. I tried both red and white napa kimchi during my visit to Seoul in 2010.

Napa Kimchi 배추 김치

Soaking cabbage

Ingredients:

2 medium-sized cabbage

1/2 cup salt (sea salt or coarse salt is preferred)

4 cups water

1. Cut the cabbage into half and clean it.

2. Prepare salt water: 1/2 cup salt with 4cups of water and mix well. You may need more if you have more cabbages.

3. Soak the cut cabbage into the water. Make sure the water level is high enough to cover the whole cabbage or you may put a heavy item (big porcelain bowl) helping to push cabbage below salt water.

4. Let it for at least 12 hours at room temperature. You may taste the salted cabbage to make sure it is salty enough.

Stay tuned for the Part 2 - Kimchi Paste!

Nasi Lemak

Nasi Lemak, an authetic cuisine reflecting the truly Malaysia with a blend of people. You can notice a variety of sambal (chilli sauce) prepared by different stalls or restaurants to be served with the coconut-flavoured rice. Even Chinese and Indian are able to produce tasty sambal as Malays. It may be served together with Assam Chicken, fried nuts, fried anchovies, cucumber slice and so on. Anyhow, sambal is the soul of the dish.

In this post, I am going to share the essence of Nasi Lemak, Sambal Cili as well as its rice.

Sambal Chillies

Ingredient:

2-3 cups shallots, cut into small pieces

1-2 lemongrass, cut into small pieces

1-2 cups anchovies, peeled

1 cup dried chillies (put more if you like spicy hot), soaked into water

2 tbsp tamarind pulp with 1/2 cup water to form paste

1 tbsp belacan (dried shrimp paste)

1 large onion, cut into small pieces

3-4 large onion, slice

4-5 tbsp tomato ketchup

1/2 cup oil

Method:

1. Fry belacan over a hot wok or pan till partially dry and fragrant. Otherwise, you can smoke it above charcoal.

1. Deep fry peeled anchovies until crispy.

3. Prepare the cut shallots, lemongrass, large onion and dried chillies before blending it with 1/2 cup oil until a red chilli paste formed.


4. Stir fry the chilli paste in a wok until fragrant.
5. Add sliced large onions.
4. Add tamarind paste/juice, tomato ketchup, sugar, salt to taste before putting crispy anchovies.





5. Cook until gravy thickens.

Coconut-flavoured rice

Ingredient:

2 cup rice

1 slice ginger, gently smashed with knife

1-2 lemongrass, gently smashed with knife

pandan leaves, tied into knot

1/2-3/4 cup coconut milk

water, add accordingly

Method:

1. Put all ingredients together in a rice cooker and adjust water level accordingly.

2. Dish a serving portion coconut-flavoured rice on a banana leave with chilli sambal. Serve it hot.

About me

The creation of this blog was first inspired by my mum, the best chef in my heart. Since small, my brother and I were influenced a lot by her cooking, acting as little assistants in the little wooden kitchen. During university time, I was reluctantly to cook at first in order to survive, considering cooking as a surviving skill. Getting slowly, I found I developed the same interest as mum and also brother where we all love to cook and even bake.

Most of the recipes shared are mostly inherited by mum. Yet, I still have a long way learning from her.