Lyndey Milan's Japanese pancakes are delicate yet so complex, so your wine choice will need to be subtle and layered. It's hard to go past a Riesling or Marsanne as the ideal pairing.
Ingredients
For the okonomiyaki sauce
2 tablespoons tomato ketchup
3 teaspoons (15ml) Worcestershire sauce
3 teaspoons runny honey
1½ teaspoons dark soy sauce
For the okonomiyaki pancakes
1 cup (150g) plain flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons dashi powder dissolved in ¾ cup (180ml) water
2 large free-range eggs
½ cup tenkasu (tempura batter bits)
4 green onions (shallots), thinly sliced
½ small or ¼ large (450g approx.) cabbage, finely shredded or chopped
2 tablespoons Japanese red pickled ginger julienne (Beni Shoga) + extra to serve
200g very thinly sliced skinless pork belly
Vegetable or extra virgin olive oil, to cook
To serve
½ cup Japanese mayonnaise (Kewpie)
1 cup bonito flakes (katsuobushi)
2 tablespoons seaweed flakes (aonori)
Recipe by Lyndey Milan
Photography by John Paul Urizar
Styling by Michaela Le Compte
Food prep by Wendy Taplin
Method
1. For the okonomiyaki batter: combine flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Whisk in dashi stock and eggs. Rest in fridge for 30 minutes. Combine the tenkasu, green onions, cabbage and ginger with the batter and mix well.
2. Meanwhile for the okonomiyaki sauce: whisk together the tomato ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, honey and dark soy sauce in a small bowl until combined. Set aside. Makes ½ cup.
3. Heat enough oil to just cover the bottom of a large frying pan over a medium–high heat until shimmering. Spoon half the cabbage mixture into the pan into two rounds. Press down with the back of the spoon and layer pork in overlapping slices
on top. When firm and brown underneath, use two egg slicers to turn. Press gently. Cover and cook for a few minutes to cook through. Flip and cook, uncovered for 2 minutes. Transfer to a warm plate. Repeat with remaining mixture.
4. To serve, spread each pancake with okonomiyaki sauce, squeeze mayonnaise from the bottle in 2cm parallel lines. Top with bonito flakes, pickled ginger and seaweed and serve immediately.
Lyndey’s note:
Otafuku okonomiyaki sauce is available along with the other Japanese ingredients and pork belly from Japanese grocery stores.
Wine Match
Riesling or Marsanne