I tried making Takoyaki today following this amazing video tutorial by Just One Cookbook and it turned out to be simpler than I expected. But there are a few things I wish I knew before I start cooking and I’m writing them down to share with future me & whoever is interested.
Recipe
First quickly go over the recipe. This is my take based on the video tutorial. It does a better job explaining and I recommend watching it first.
Prerequisites
Tools:
- Takoyaki pan * 1
- Takoyaki pick * a pair. You can replace with skewers if that’s easier to find for you.
- Basting brush * 1
I bought all my tools from this amazing kitchenware store called “Kitchen Land” (located in Garden Grove, CA)
Ingredients:
- All purpose flour * 1 cup
- Baking powder * 2 tsp
- Salt * 0.5 tsp
- Eggs * 2
- Soy sauce * 1tsp
- Dashi stock * 1.5 cup
- Octopus 0.125lb
- Onion * half (medium, finely chopped)
- Cabbage * 2 pieces(finely chopped)
Steps
- Chop octopus into small pieces and finely chop onion and cabbage
- Mix flour, baking powder, salt, eggs, soy sauce and dashi stock in a bow and whisk well.
- Heat the pan and brush some cooking oil, pour the mix in each hole
- Add octopus pieces and toppings (onion & cabbage)
- Flip with picks / skewers
And once fully cooked it should look like this
Learnings
- I made dashi stock using the dashi powder I found at an Asian grocery store. It comes in small packages and I used an entire bag of powder for the stock. It’s too salty and in hindsight I should have used half or 1 tbsp instead.
- Basting brush + cooking oil may be better replaced with cooking oil spray.
- The pan I used is not great: it slides often and does not heat evenly (the middle four holes heats much faster than the corner holes). I think this kind of pan would be better.
- When pouring the mix, leave some room in the hole. The octopus and toppings will increase the volume quickly and makes flipping much harder.
