Monday, 23 December 2024

the official Kit Kelen Ozi-yaki recipe

 



the official Kit Kelen Ozi-yaki recipe

 

product of decades of lazy cooking and distraction

 

is it a pizza?

is it a pancake?

is it a flying omelette of sorts?

 

this is a matter of conscience

and something you must decide

Ozi-yaki  involves these ingredients :

cabbage finely diced

spring onion attacked with kitchen scissors

sunflower seeds

pumpkin seeds

tofu (a whole little packet)

half a dozen eggs of the happily laid variety

potato flour or tapioca flour

boiled potatoes and/or sweet potatoes and brown rice

caraway could also be nice

 

quantities wise

stick to the half dozen eggs and just experiment with everything else

till you think you’ve got it right for you

who knows?

it may be your mission to invent a new yaki

(already there are

Okonomi-yaki (the original)

Ozi (this one)

Arab (with homous and tabouleh)

anyway, you may ponder this at your leisure while sizzling in the pan 

 

but first

put all of the abovementioned ingredients  in a bowl

and with carefully washed hands

squeeze the lot with love

until you feel it’s of a consistency

to cover the bottom of a well olive-oiled pre-heated pan

cook on a high heat

turn it round in a circle as soon as you can

(without dismembering)

keep turning

but keep the lid on for most of the time

(I mean except when you’re turning of course

unless you have that particular superpower)

remember this requires your attention

 

don’t have a cigarette

don’t take the dog for a walk

don’t read the next chapter of your novel

 

pour yourself a drink

and sip and watch
till you feel the crisping in your bones

and take a peak under to check too

 

is it time to flip?

this is a deep question

you must answer it your own way

but when you feel it is time to flip

do it cleanly

with panache

 

(and if it doesn’t flip pancake style

if it for instance falls apart

then back to the yaki-engineering drawing board for you!)

 

so

(assuming we’ve flipped)

let the flipped one sit

keep the lid off it

take another sip

turn it once more

then turn the heat off altogether

give it another three or four minutes of your divided attention

 

cut into as many bits as mouths there are

plate it, as they say

chopsticks beside

 

and on the table you’ll need

okonomiyaki sauce

mayo

seaweed flakes

fish flakes

or whatever you find in the Japanese section of your Asian grocery and decide that you like or would like at least to try in order to find out what you like…

 

nori – furikake – little batter bubble things – cut up your own sheets of seaweed

(folding and scissors, guillotine? you decide)

 

pour on the sauces as much as you like

but with a view to longevity

then sprinkle on the various sundry flakes as wished

 

the mixture with half a dozen eggs does four people

(probably four average sized frypans)

or two people for two nights

keeps in the fridge fine three days (i.e. a third night is possible)

so if you like it and you’re lazy and by yourself

you could have it three nights in a row and thus have minimal washing up over this time

… but probably a more varied diet with less rich sauces would be better for you

… then again, who am I to judge?

 

the principle of okonomiyaki

is simply to cook what you like

which means what you can best accept from what’s available

(in the garden or in the icebox)

fried, with great sauce and stuff on top

that is really the concept

it was poverty food to begin

and still today it’s popular food, people’s cooking

 

of course it will evolve in other hemispheres

 

so how are things in yours?

 

perhaps the deepest question of all will be

when can a poem be a pancake?

and where’s the poem after you’ve eaten?

these are questions only you can decide!

 


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