Fuchu-yaki at Home: Crispy Noodles, Fluffy Center
Translated from my original Japanese post (2020). 日本語の原文を読む →
Salut! It's Yoko, a gourmet home cook.
I'm completely hooked on the Fuchu-yaki I had at Pukuichi, and I happened to have leftover cabbage, so I tried recreating it at home.
Fuchu-yaki
Ingredients for Fuchu-yaki (serves 2)
[Batter]
1/2 cup cake flour
150 ml water
1 tsp fish powder (or the powder from a dashi pack if you don't have it)
1 egg
[Fillings]
Tenkasu (tempura crumbs), as needed
Cut squid or squid tempura, as needed
1/4 head of cabbage
1 portion of Chinese noodles
50 g ground pork
Mochi, as needed (optional)
Salt and pepper, as needed
1 tsp fish powder (or the powder from a dashi pack if you don't have it)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
[Finishing]
Carp sauce (or another okonomiyaki sauce if you don't have it), as needed
Bonito flakes, aonori (dried green seaweed) and mayonnaise, as needed
How to make Fuchu-yaki
- Mix the batter ingredients (except the egg).
- Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan over medium heat, scoop about one ladle of batter from step 1 and pour it into a round. When the batter starts to set, top with the fish powder, cabbage, cut squid and tenkasu.
- Put the ground pork on top of 2 and flip it over, then pour 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil (not included in the ingredients) around the edge of the pan to fry the noodle side.
- When the noodles are crispy, heat vegetable oil (not included in the ingredients) in a separate frying pan over medium heat. Crack in the egg and quickly break it up with a spatula into a round shape.
- In step 4, instead of using a separate frying pan, you can lift the batter and pour the beaten egg underneath, or flip it once, pour the beaten egg over the pork, and flip it again.
- Seasoning the fillings with cut squid and salt and pepper pulls the flavor together.
- Covering the pan to steam-cook ensures the cabbage cooks all the way through.
- Don't forget to get the noodles crispy!
Mix well so there are no lumps.
Shred the cabbage and cut the mochi into 1 cm cubes.
Cut a slit about 1 cm long in the noodle bag and microwave at 500 W for about 1 minute, then loosen the noodles. This makes them easier to use later.
I don't have a hot plate at home, so I use two large frying pans.
Drizzle the remaining batter over the top as you go. This acts as a binder and helps everything hold together.
Put the noodles on top, season with salt and pepper, cover, and cook over medium-low heat for about 8 minutes until the cabbage is soft.
Here goes the flip!
Place 3 on top of it and press down lightly so it sticks.
5. Flip it over once more, add the sauce, aonori and mayonnaise, and your Fuchu-yaki is done!
By the way, in a deep frying pan there isn't room to flip it, so there's a risk of failure.
If it falls apart, just stir-fry it and call it yakisoba lol
Also, Fuchu-yaki has lots of fillings, so it's hard to flip and the batter sticks easily, so I recommend a shallow non-stick frying pan or a hot plate!
Time to eat
Let's dig in.
This time I forgot to put the egg side up.
If you serve it with the egg and soba noodles on top, you should get even more of that crispy texture!
For the side, sliced onion from the new onions that are in season right now.
With just bonito flakes and ponzu, I could eat a whole onion.
By the way, I love Asahi Ponzu so much that I buy it again and again. The flavor is wonderful!
Now, how should I cut this Fuchu-yaki...
Oh, I have just the thing!
This object that looks like the sculpture on the Asahi Beer building is a pizza cutter. Summoned for the first time in years!
I bought it when I was into making Neapolitan pizza at home for a while, but it hardly ever comes out lol
The pizza cutter meets a foreign food for the first time...
It cut nicely.
And yes, the flavor of the Fuchu-yaki itself was spot on.
The authentic version uses a spicy sauce called Carp sauce,
but I didn't have any this time, so I added Worcestershire sauce and the like to regular sweet okonomiyaki sauce to make it spicier.
It turned out delicious, but it cooled down toward the end, so I reheated the last piece in a small iron frying pan lol
Adding the sauce while it cooks makes it taste even more like the real thing.
Phew, I'm full and that was so good!
From now on, maybe I should just make my homemade okonomiyaki Fuchu-yaki style...?
If you're getting tired of your usual okonomiyaki, please try making Fuchu-yaki!
