Hellobee

Sometimes our CSA order comes with weird and wonderful things. Last week’s item was the leafiest, beefiest head of cabbage I’ve ever seen. My immediate thoughts for uses: borscht and cabbage rolls (the Ukrainian in me, no doubt), but these are laborious endeavors. I remembered a Japanese homestay had made my family Okonomiyaki years ago – basically a cabbage pancake. Boom! Easy lunch.

But the sauce was important. When I look for sauces at the Asian food store, I try to stay away from those made in China and those with MSG – and oftentimes it’s almost impossible to find a particular product like this (mushroom soy sauce anyone?). And even then, I’m left with half a dozen jars of different sauces and pastes that take up room in my fridge and live there until the end of time.

But I found homemade sauce with 4 ingredients — yes please!

4 ingredient okonomiyaki sauce source

• 2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 Tbsp + 2 tsp Honey
• 1 1/2 tsp Ketchup
• 1/2 tsp grated ginger

I love that my Trader Joe’s ketchup doesn’t have high fructose corn syrup and tastes almost the same as Heinz. Yes, you could probably sit this on the stovetop and whisk in a bit of cornstarch to thicken it up a bit, and yes, other recipes involve Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce, mirin and sake, brown sugar and honey, but I’m all about the shortcuts and this tastes like the real deal.

Okonomiyaki translates to “grilled as you like it,” and in the US it is sometimes referred to as “Japanese pizza.” I’m not even going to pretend I know anything about making proper okonomiyaki, because my pantry certainly isn’t stocked with any of the following – nagaimo, aonori, katsuobushi, dashi stock…the list goes on. For legit looking recipes, try here and here. The basic premise is eggs, starch, cabbage, and I made mine with a basic zucchini cake recipe (subbing cabbage for the zucchini). I pressed the batter to the edges of the pan for a cleaner presentation instead of making several misshapen fritters. My photos show the product of a mini cast iron pan that’s the size of a small cookie.

These types of savory pancakes are great because they freeze well – save the toppings for later and toss a few into a ziploc bag. Then when you need to use one, throw it in the toaster oven for a few minutes. I topped mine with fried onions in place of bonito flakes, and for my hodge podge version of “as you like it,” I threw in chunks of cheddar cheese, and a bit of leftover black beans, corn, and tomatoes. Ideally you’d drizzle on okonomiyaki sauce and mayonnaise, but my mayonnaise didn’t have a spout so I dabbed it on.