Okonomiyaki—Japanese vegetable pancakes | Oprah

I was reading this post about Your Vegan Mom's obsession with okonomiyaki, Japanese vegetable pancakes, and her obsession soon became mine. All I could think about were those darn pancakes. I actually had the cookbook they were from, and had even reviewed it on this blog last October, so I fetched it from the cookbook shelf and got to cooking. "Japanese Cooking, Contemporary & Traditional" by Miyoko Nishimoto Schinner is a terrific little cookbook filled with simple but delicious traditional and contemporary Japanese dishes. Everything I've made from it has been wonderful, and the pancakes, from the contemporary everyday favorites section, were no exception.



The batter was thick, white and a little weird, and I wasn't sure what to expect, but the pancakes cooked perfectly on a lightly oiled cast iron skillet. There are five cups of julienned vegetables in the mix, though it's hard to tell that from the photos. I used two cups of Chinese cabbage, one cup of carrots, one cup of broccoli stems and one cup of onion. I used white whole wheat flour for the okonomiyaki, as it has become my all-purpose flour, and I thought it worked very well. The thick and savory pancakes, served with a little tamari and some hot sauce, were absolutely delicious, and I will certainly be making them again soon.

The recipe says it serves six, but I got seven large pancakes, and my husband and I could only comfortably eat one each. It was awfully hard to stop, however, so we split an additional one and put the rest away before we had a chance to eat any more. The pancakes reheated well and were delicious for breakfast the next day. (And the day after.)



Savory vegetable pancakes (okonomiyaki) reprinted with permission

• 2 cups water
• 1/4 pound regular tofu
• 2-1/2 cups whole wheat pastry or unbleached white flour (I used white whole wheat)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 4 to 5 cups thinly sliced or slivered vegetables: onions, carrot matchsticks, cabbage, broccoli, green beans, mushrooms, etc.)

Purée the water and tofu in a blender until smooth. Combine the flour, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl, and mix well. Pour in the liquid mixture, and mix lightly. Add the vegetables and mix well to combine.

Cook large pancakes on a lightly oiled skillet or griddle over medium-low heat until browned on both sides. Serve while hot, with soy sauce. (You can also serve plain or with your favorite Japanese-style sauce.)

.........................................................................................

What we've been cooking


Tofu and kale tostados

One of our old favorite quick meals is tofu and kale burritos, which I first made after eating something similar in a restaurant in Santa Fe. The recipe is here. My husband made tostados recently and when I tasted them I recognized the old recipe right away. It's a very easy to make dish with great flavor, and it worked perfectly on corn tortillas.



My son whipped up a batch of English muffins from Vegan Brunch. He loves these, and has now made them three times.

.........................................................................................

Thoughts on Oprah's vegan for a week experiment
The vegan blogs are buzzing with criticism of the way Oprah handled her show about what happened when she and 378 members of her staff went vegan for a week. You've probably encountered at least one blog review of her show. I encourage you to watch the program if you haven't seen it. I was going to spout off my opinion, but Natala of Vegan Hope has said everything I was thinking much more eloquently than I could, so I'll just direct you to her post instead. I certainly agree with all the negative points vegan bloggers have been making; I couldn't help but be disturbed while I watched. But the show wasn't directed towards committed vegans. Oprah knows her audience well, she has the power to influence people, and she probably did more than we know to encourage people to think about what's on their plate.

.........................................................................................

Some of the recipes I've been testing for Urban Vegan
I've been expending a lot of cooking energy on testing recipes for Urban Vegan's newest cookbook. All this testing doesn't leave much time for other food exploits, but I'm not complaining. It's been fun to try so many new recipes.


Spicy tomato lemon dressing


Earthy eggplant

This was so good. We had it as a side dish the first night, then I added sun-dried tomatoes and served the leftovers over brown rice spaghetti.


Mushy peas


Golden millet pilaf

I loved this dish so much but my husband and son didn't like it at all. I couldn't understand why.


Cinnamon-date scones


Island-style tempeh


Island-style tempeh served with rice, roasted veggies and salad

Japanese Cooking | Japanese stewed vegetables

When I was growing up, my mother made her special sweet potato casserole for every holiday dinner. It was filled with apple and pineapple chunks, and topped with marshmallows, which melted and toasted in the oven. All the adults at the table would rave about the concoction, assuring its appearance at the next holiday meal, but when the dish made its way around the table to me, I would carefully remove one marshmallow with the barest amount of sweet potato clinging to it, and place it on my plate. "You really should taste the casserole," my mother would say. "Yes. yes" came the echo around the table." I AM tasting it," I'd reply.


kabocha pumpkin

A similar thing happened whenever my mother made baked sweet potatoes. "I can't understand why you don't like these," my father would say. I just didn't like the taste or the smell. It took me years to develop a taste for sweet potatoes, and because they're similar in so many ways, for winter squash. And although I now cook, eat and really enjoy these vegetables, mainly roasted or in savory soups, I still don't consider them favorites — I'm more of a broccoli and kale person. When I see winter squash at the farmers market, my huge enthusiasm for buying them, I now realize, has more to do with their amazing beauty, and the variety of their shapes and sizes, than for their culinary potential. And I'm also suckered in by their names. How can I resist a squash called "butternut," or "delicata" or "kabocha?" The kabocha pumpkin pictured here was purchased to use in a Japanese donburi, or one-bowl meal, that I wanted to make from my new cookbook.



I received a copy of "Japanese Cooking, Contemporary & Traditional" by Miyoko Nishimoto Schinner from the Book Publishing Company, and, as a big fan of Japanese cuisine, was eager to try some recipes. Most of the recipes I was first attracted to involved making konbu-shiitake dashi, and if you recall my last post, (black worms, anyone?), you'll know why my enthusiasm was momentarily dampened. But I decided to "get right back on the horse" so to speak, and a new bag of dried shiitake mushrooms entered the kitchen.

I finally settled on a recipe for stewed vegetables, and because the sidebar on the recipe page said that "it was more of a method for cooking vegetables" than a recipe, I decided to use the resulting vegetables as a major component of a dish, rather than a dish by itself.


dried shiitake mushrooms and konbu (kombu) seaweed, soaking

As the seaweed and mushrooms for the dashi, or stock, soaked, I was obsessed with any black dots or foreign-looking matter that appeared in the bowl. I picked and scraped, and generally harassed those mushrooms until they were pristine. I was tense.

Kobocha pumpkin was just one of the vegetable choices given in my chosen recipe, and although I had planned to combine several veggies, I ended up with so much cut up squash, I just used that. The directions said the skin was edible and the kobocha didn't need to be peeled, so I left it unpeeled, just scrubbing and scraping away any weird stuff. The pumpkin was very hard (as in VERY HARD) to cut. Using a recently sharpened Japanese chef knife, I got a good workout. I was surprised that it only took about 15 minutes to cook.

The recipe was simple, requiring only the pumpkin, dashi, a small amount of sweetener, mirin, and, near the end of cooking, soy sauce. As I was adding the ingredients to the pot, I have to be honest and admit to not looking forward to eating the result. My "squash-avoidance attitude" was kicking in, and I was also remembering that I didn't love the very dry, flaky texture of kabocha. It didn't look that good to me, and the broth at first had a slightly weird and fishy taste from the konbu. And the shiitake ...



When I tasted the finished product I was shocked — it was fabulously delicious. How did that happen? The simple ingredients had magically transformed. I used the cooked pumpkin and its broth as the basis for a one-pot dish, adding fried tofu (purchased in an Asian market) and serving it over soba (the thin Japanese noodles made from buckwheat). The dish was a huge success. The next day, I added frozen corn and ate it for lunch, and the day after that I added Swiss chard and ate it yet again. I'd eat it right now if there were any left!

"Japanese Cooking" published in 1999, is a very handy collection of vegan, traditional and contemporary Japanese recipes. It contains a group of seasonal menu ideas, a useful glossary for those not familiar with Japanese ingredients, and a collection of easy-to-prepare recipes under headings such as rice dishes, soups and stews, cooking with tofu, fried dishes, salads and cold vegetables, noodles, etc. Many of the dishes will require a trip to an Asian grocery or well-stocked natural foods store to purchase Japanese specialty food such as miso, konbu, enoki, konnyaku, cooking saki (mirin). If you have an interest in learning about everyday Japanese cuisine, this little book might be a good place to start.

Stewed Vegetables (reprinted with permission)

• 4 to 6 cups large bite-sized pieces peeled carrots, daikon, bamboo shoots, lotus root, or kabocha pumpkin
  
• fresh or reconstituted shiitake, sliced
  
• approximately 2 cups konbu broth (to barely cover vegetables)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons sweetener of choice
• 1 to 3 tablespoons mirin
• 2 to 4 tablespoons soy sauce

1. Place vegetable pieces and shiitake in a pot, and pour broth over to barely cover.
2. Add the sweetener and mirin, partially cover, and simmer until tender.
3. Add the soy sauce and simmer for 5 or 6 more minutes. Vegetables should be soft. (except for lotus root, if using)
4. Adjust seasonings if necessary.
   

notes: I added fried tofu purchased from an Asian grocery and cut into bite-sized pieces, with the soy sauce. The cooked vegetables and broth were ladled over soba, into individual bowls.

When I made my dashi, I used both dried shiitakes and konbu since I needed the mushrooms for the recipe, anyway. To make dashi: (reprinted with permission) Soak a 3 x 4-inch piece of konbu and 5 large or 10 small dried shiitake in 1 quart of water for at least 2 hours. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove the shiitake and konbu; they can be used for other dishes.

Miyoko Nishimoto Schinner is also the author of "The Now and Zen Epicure: Gourmet Cuisine for the Enlightened Palate."
disclaimer: The cookbook described in this post was sent to me free of charge by the publisher. No attempt was made by the publisher to influence my review, nor was I paid to write a review.