In the Kitchen : Okonomiyaki

It was Saturday afternoon, it was a quiet, rainy day at home. Husband was industriously playing away on his Xbox, and we were getting a little peckish, so I decided to make Okonomiyaki. The great thing about Okonomiyaki is that you can add whatever you like to them. Even the name reflects this: okonomi means "what you like". So as long as you have flour, you can make them with whatever is to hand. This is what I managed to find in the fridge:

Fresh and frozen vegetables, herbs and some chorizo. Chorizo and other specialty sausages are very expensive here, but occasionally the supermarket has the 2-kilo bag half-price, so we always snap up a bag whenever we see it. We're into cooking, buying in bulk and preserving food, so we have a big freezer:

Doesn't look too dirty, phew! On the right-hand side of the crisper drawer, you can see the acorns I'm hibernating from my last post. Next, I cut up all the fresh vegetables and the chorizo. It turns out that I didn't need too much of the frozen veggies after all -- I just added a little for variety.

Mixing up the batter. I just used plain flour, milk and water for the batter. We were out of garlic, so I added some horseradish paste instead.

The first batch was a bit of a failure unfortunately. They stuck to the pan!

For the second batch, I turned the heat down and used rice bran oil instead of olive oil in the pan.

Much better!

And of course, what is Okonomiyaki without toppings! I collected together all the ones I thought would taste good: mayonnaise, sweet chilli sauce, Japanese barbeque sauce, parsley, squeezy sour cream (it's a new product meant for topping Mexican dishes, but who cares?), seaweed flakes and some leftover chutney from last week's Indian takeaway.

Well, the result might not look so appetising, but we both at it very fast!