How to make Hiroshima Okonomiyaki
This recipe contains affiliate links to our partners Amazon and Cornish Sea Salt. Any purchases made after clicking these links provides Cook, Eat, Repeat! with a small commission, which we use to help continue the funding of the site. All our opinions are our own, and we only recommend brands we trust and have used repeatedly ourselves.
Okonomiyaki being cooked in Okonomimura
The ultimate pancake day dish - this Japanese dish (Hiroshima style) is layered and delicious but very unphotogenic!
What is Okonomiyaki?
Okonomiyaki is a Japanese pancake dish, very popular in Osaka and Hiroshima. Hiroshima Okonomiyaki is a layered, filling dish made with cheap ingredients, invented after the Second World War, when residents of Hiroshima, still coming to terms with the atom bomb, relied on American food supplies to survive. Being western in nature, the rations provided were often flour or wheat-based, which was very different from the usual rice and noodle-based diet the Japanese were used to. Okonomiyaki was a quick, cheap and very filling dish that used available resources and helped feed a recovering population.
It is now extremely popular in Hiroshima, and different restaurants and eateries pride themselves on the variety and quality of their okonomiyaki. There is even the Okonomimura, which, when we went there, was a sprawling food hall dedicated just to okonomiyaki, every restaurant on the four floors serving their version of this delicious dish. It is cooked on a hot flat top and often served with a small spatula/shovel on your own section of flat top - so you can continue cooking it as you eat!
As a basic recipe, Hiroshima Okonomiyaki consists of two pancakes with a filling of pork, cabbage, noodles, spring onions and either bonito flakes or seasoned nori flakes on top. It’s finished with an egg, which in Japan is usually served raw (the quality of their eggs is fantastic). In this recipe, we have fried an egg quickly to place on top just before serving.
Elevating Okonomiyaki with Cornish Sea Salt Kits
In this recipe, we use different flavoured sea salts from the Cornish Sea Salt Brunch Kit to elevate and deepen the seasoning for the pancakes, and when we add the cabbage. Cornish Sea Salt is produced in Cornwall, in the south west of the United Kingdom. Its large flakes have a distinct flavour that sets it apart from standard sea salt, and when added to noodles, pasta, stews and ragu, it can add a real punch of seasoning compared to standard salt.
We use Cornish Sea Salt for all of our recipes. For this Okonomiyaki dish, we added the Really Garlicky garlic sea salt to the pan when we added the cabbage, and the Sea Salt Smoked Flakes to the Okonomiyaki sauce and the pancake mix. The smoked flakes are cold smoked over oak, apple and cherry and provide a real umami kick to the pancakes and the sauce. The Really Garlicky salt is a mixture of roasted garlic and sea salt, which is both convenient and very tasty!
Really Garlicky Cornish Sea Salt
Add this to almost any dish that requires garlic for a convenient and tasty way to season and enhance your flavours.
Equipment needed for Okonomiyaki
Traditionally in Japan, Okonomiyaki is made on a hot flat top where the individual elements can be cooked and layered and there is space to move, guests then eat sat at their own section and keep cooking their okonomiyaki as they cut chunks off to eat.
At home, this is reasonably impractical, so below are some good recommendations for making this recipe without a restaurant setup:
One large, round wok with a wide base or a deep frying pan you can get a good sized spatula under
A sharp, reasonably large kitchen knife to attack the cabbage with so it shreds finely
Ingredients for Okonomiyaki
Feeds 2-3 people very, very well
For the pancake:
120g x plain flour
1 x pinch Cornish Sea Salt Smoked Flakes
2 x large eggs
200ml milk
For the Okonomiyaki filling:
2 x strips of pork belly, any bones removed
1/2 x head of cabbage, we recommend something like a pointed cabbage as the texture is good and it’s easy to shred
a bunch of spring onions, peeled and sliced. The fatter the onion and the more green section you can use, the better.
1 x stick of noodles per person, already cooked. Try not to use the straight to wok type as the noodles won’t always be on the heat.
Seasoned seaweed flakes to top with
Kewpie mayonnaise to pour over when ready to serve
For the Okonomiyaki sauce:
You can buy okonomiyaki sauce from an asian supermarket such as Food for Foodies or via this link on Amazon, however it takes two seconds to make, and you will probably have most of the ingredients already on your shelf!
2 tbsp x Oyster Sauce
2 tbsp x caster sugar
3 tbsp x Tomato sauce (ketchup, less if the sauce is more vinegary than Heinz)
1 1/2 tbsp x Worcestershire sauce
Preparing Hiroshima Style Okonomiyaki
In a clean, good-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, eggs and milk until you have a reasonably runny consistency. Add the salt; you only need a pinch to have an impact on the flavour. These pancakes don’t need to rise as such, but they don’t want to be doughy - so leave them to rest for 10 minutes before cooking.
While the pancake batter is resting, thinly slice the pork (leaving the fat on) and pop a wok or frying pan on the heat. Now thinly slice the cabbage. You will want it well shredded, so it cooks quickly but doesn’t go too soggy.
Fry the pork. Add a little oil to the pan if needed. If the pork is good and fatty, it should render in its own juices. Continue to fry until the pork is cooked but still moist. Set aside.
In the same pan, add the cabbage and cook quickly in the pork fat. You don’t want to fully cook the cabbage yet, so place it to one side in a bowl when it is still a little undercooked.
Prepare everything before cooking the pancake
Once you start the cooking process, things will happen thick and fast. So prepare beforehand.
If you don’t have any pork belly to hand, then any fatty pork will do - sausages are particularly good!
How to make the Okonomiyaki Sauce
In a bowl, measure out the ingredients for the sauce. We advise you taste carefully as you go, the sauce should be a balance of sweet, sharp, salty and umami.
If any one flavour dominates then adjust by adding more of the other ingredients to balance out. The sauce should be tangy but not too sharp or sweet. Once it lands on the pancake, the flavours will blend with the pork etc and provide a completely different taste profile.
Once it’s balanced and you’re happy with it, pop to one side or in the fridge. The flavours will develop as you cook the Okonomiyaki.
Making the Okonomiyaki
Heat a wide-bottomed wok or a large flat frying pan (any pan you can get a good-sized spatula in) to a medium-high heat.
Place one ladle full of pancake batter into the pan and swirl around so you have a thin layer of batter bubbling away. Once it’s bubbled through, flip over.
Place the cooked pork, spring onions and the cabbage onto the pancake.
pour another ladle full of the batter on top of the pork and cabbage, and then the noodles, and very, very carefully flip it over in the pan
The pancake mix will now be cooking on the bottom, and on the top, you will have a cooked pancake already.
For the egg, you can either
Crack and beat it, then add it to the pan and lift the pancake on top of the egg (so it cooks under the noodle pancake mix)
Crack it on top as you serve, Japanese style
Fry it separately and add it on top at the end of cooking as you serve.
Once the pancakes have cooked through, serve. You can make small individual okonomiyaki and do them one at a time, or, like us, make one large one for 2-3 people and cut it into portions as you serve. In Hiroshima, you normally order one each.
Take the okonomiyaki sauce and the Kewpie mayonnaise and drizzle over the okonomiyaki. Try to ensure it’s covered evenly, but don’t worry about making it look pretty. It’s the taste that counts!
Sprinkle toppings over, such as extra spring onions or seasoned seaweed.
Enjoy!
Other recipes you may enjoy:
Stuffed Onigiri - an amazingly quick lunch or a great snack for a picnic. Takes no time at all to make!
Mochi - a real challenge to make well, but really satisfying when it all comes together
Shokupan - soft, fluffy, perfect bread that’s great with sandwiches or as toast
Frequently asked questions about Okonomiyaki:
Do I need Okonomiyaki flour to make this recipe?
Okonomiyaki flour is a mixture of wheat flour and something called nagaimo, which is a mountain yam. The combination creates a fluffier texture and is a more authentic way to make this dish. You don’t need it for a delicious outcome, however.
What is the difference between Hiroshima and Osaka-style Okonomiyakis?
Hiroshima layers everything one after another on top of the pancake, creating a distinctly different flavour profile (which we happen to prefer to Osaka style). Okonomiyakis in Hiroshima will also usually feature noodles as a key ingredient, adding texture and flavour. This differs from Osaka, where okonomiyaki is usually made so all of the ingredients are mixed into the batter and cooked at once.
Can Okonomiyaki be made vegetarian?
The beauty of this dish is that it can be tailored or customised to accommodate any eating preference or requirement. Simply swap out plain flour for GF flour, or replace pork with mushrooms to create a vegetarian version. This is a very flexible, filling and delicious meal.