Ebiyaki

Our group, oh yes, we are definitely all FOODIES. But I mean, everyone loves food right? Asian food is our specialty! Not the take-away fast food kind of Asian food, but more authentic, fun and interesting kind that you may have never tasted…but so GOOD!

On this blog post, we will learn how to make Ebiyaki! A Japanese street food dish that is so hot and gooey on the inside you may burn your tongue, a little crispy on the outside, covered in a sweet and sour okonomiyaki sauce and creamy mayonnaise and garnished with dancing bonito flakes, strings of roasted seaweed and roasted sesame seeds. Seriously, this is so good you will all love it. No joke. Originally called Takoyaki, made with octopus, we thought Ebiyaki (ebi = prawns) would be better as it easier to get a hold of prawns, but tastes just as delicious.

To be honest, this is not one of those recipes where you can just gather ingredients from what you already have in the cupboard. You may actually have to leave your house in order to get all the ingredients to make it. I know, I know! Really tragic…although, you could also just purchase everything on Amazon or online shopping (Yay for internet!)

So less blah blah and on to the recipe!

You will need:

2 Cups of flour
1 Teaspoon of stock (we used seafood stock)
2 Eggs
3 ½ Cups of cold water
1 ½ Teaspoons of soy sauce or salt
Prawns (fresh or thawed)
Spring onions
¼ Cup of Oil (for frying)
Roasted sesame seeds
Bonito flakes
Roasted Seaweed
Okonomiyaki sauce
Mayonnaise
Takoyaki Pan
Chopsticks

We started off by doing all the prep work. Chopping the spring onions and slicing the thawed prawns into smaller pieces. Tip: you can thaw the prawns faster if you just soak them in room temperature water.

Next, you put the dry ingredients together: flour, salt and stock. Add the wet ingredients: eggs, water, soy sauce (if you didn’t use salt) together with the dry ingredients. Mix mix mix! Make sure the batter is as smooth and silky as possible.

Also, Clean as you go. Makes your life easier 😀 A messy kitchen is not advised. Make cleaning great again!

Ok next, you can finally heat up your Takoyaki Pan and oil it very well! In every nook and cranny. No but seriously, make sure you oil it so the batter doesn’t stick and everything turns into a nightmare.

Once the pan is hot enough, add some batter into each hole about half way up. You can then add the prawns, spring onions and some sesame seeds. Add more batter in until it overflows the hole… the takoyaki pan holes…Now use your chopsticks to separate each section. After a couple of minutes, you can start turning them! They will slowly form into ball if you keep turning them. We will have a video coming up soon so refer to that! It’s really hard to explain through text.

After they are light golden brown, you can plate them up and add some sesame seeds, okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise and seaweed on top. We had a lot of fun making them and devouring them as well! They were gone so fast! Mind you, we made around 25 – 30 Ebiyaki balls… It’s a fun thing to do with your friends, but you could enjoy them by yourself! No judgement.

Signing off,
Your Chopsticks Team