Delicious traditional Japanese street food that is so easy to make at home and will soon become a firm favourite.

Leftover pancakes can be reheated in the toaster and the sticky pork is equally delicious over rice.

Okonomiyaki with Sticky Pork Belly (Japanese Pancakes)

Print Recipe

Ingredients

  

Pancakes:

• 3 cups plain flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp Nippon Curry powder
• 2 eggs lightly beaten
• 4 cabbage leaves (coarsely torn if Asian, finely sliced if green or purple)
• 4 spring onions thinly sliced, plus extra to serve
• 1 small waxy potato coarsely grated
• 2 tbsp finely chopped pickled ginger plus extra to serve
• 50 ml vegetable oil

To serve:

• Japanese mayonnaise
• togarashi and
• roasted sesame seeds

Sticky Pork :

• 1 kg piece boneless pork belly or 4 – 6 pork chops or rashers
• 375 ml chicken stock 1½ cups
• 125 ml soy sauce ½ cup
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 tbsp finely grated ginger
• 1 Orange Thinly peeled rind and juice

Instructions

 

For sticky pork belly

• Conventional Oven
• Preheat oven to 160C.
• Place pork in a roasting pan large enough to fit pork snugly.
• Stir remaining ingredients in a saucepan over medium-high heat until combined and bring to the boil.
• Pour stock over pork, cover with foil and braise in oven until very tender (2-2½ hours).
• Remove pork from braising liquid, cut into chunks and set aside.
• Simmer half the braising liquid (save remainder and freeze in icecube trays for handy stock cubes) over medium-high heat until reduced to a glaze (10-15 minutes), then add pork and set aside.
• For slow cooker
• Place pork in slow cooker
• Add remainder of ingredients and cook for 8 hours.
• Remove pork and cut into chunks, replace into slow cooker and cook with lid off on high for a further hour.

For Okonomiaki

• Combine flour, baking powder, Nippon Curry and 2 tsp sea salt in a large bowl,
• make a well in the centre, add eggs and gradually add 500ml cold water, stirring until smooth and combined.
• Stir in cabbage, onion, potato and pickled ginger and set aside to rest for 30 minutes.
• Heat one-quarter of the vegetable oil in a 15cm-diameter non-stick frying pan over medium heat,
• add one-quarter of the pancake batter, spreading evenly in pan, and cook until golden on the base and beginning to set on the surface (6-8 minutes).
• Turn and cook until cooked through (6-8 minutes), then transfer to an oven tray and keep warm while you repeat with remaining oil and pancake batter.
• It helps to have two frying pans on the go at once for speed.
• Top hot okonomiyaki with sticky soy pork belly, spring onion and pickled ginger, and drizzle with glaze.
• Serve Japanese mayonnaise, togarashi and roasted sesame seeds separately to add according to taste.

Notes

Serve with Asian coleslaw