Street Food Adventures #02: Takoyaki [ Japan ]

Street Food Adventures Chapter 02

Country : Japan

Type: Snack

Name: Takoyaki

Takoyaki is a type of grilled Japanese savory street food. Although "tako" is japanese for octopus, it's filling can be very versatile, ranging from cheese, kimchi or even whole baby squid. Takoyaki is a must eat when you visit Japan. They even have a giant Takoyaki called "the grilled bomber".

We own the takoyaki pan for quite a while and have made it many times for an easy snack, it isn't until recently that we have launched the new series "Street Food Adventures" that we decided to film this video because it is so popular.

Some of our favourite fillings, other then boiled octopus, are big cubes of mozzarella cheese and garlic saute baby scallops *yum* 

Below are a few links that helps us out along the way to explore more of the world and for you guys to have some easy access to recreate what we have tried here :) 

Multimaker Pan

Okonomiyaki Sauce

Bonito Flakes

Bamboo Skewers

* The multimaker has plates for Takoyaki, Imagawayaki and Crepe, it even doubles as a griddle for so many things

**Using bamboo skewers rather than the metal picks they use in the stalls will protect the non-stick surface of your pan / cake pop machine

Leave any request in the youtube comments section or hashtag #SFABI on instagram, so we can learn more about your countries Street Food and explore the world together :)

For more info on [Street Food Adventures] Click ME:) 

Takoyaki
Yields 16 spheres

Ingredients
Batter:
330g (1 1/3 cups plus 1 tbsp) Hot Water
A hand full Dried bonito flakes
10g (2-3 cubes) Ice
5g (1 tsp) Dark soy sauce
2g (1/2 tsp) Salt
1 Large egg
100g (1 cup plus 2 tbsp) Cake Flour

Filling:
115g (4 oz) Boiled octopus
Pickled ginger
Green onion
Vegetable oil

Topping:
Okonomiyaki sauce
Mayonnaise
Green laver
Dried bonito flakes

Method
1. Combine hot water and dried bonito flakes
2. Brew the flakes for 10 minutes
3. Filter the water through a sieve or paper and squeeze all the water from it
4. Discard the flakes and add in ice to cool down the broth quickly
5. Refrigerate broth until ice cold before use
6. In a mixing bowl, combine cake flour and salt, make a well
7. Pour in ice cold broth, egg and dark soy sauce and whisk until smooth
8. Cut Octopus into bite-size pieces
9. Finely chop pickled ginger and green onion
10. Heat the takoyaki pan on medium high heat and brush a coat of vegetable oil
11. Pour in the batter until the cavities are 3/4 full with overspill on the sides
12. Sprinkle green onion and pickled ginger
13. Drop 1 piece of octopus into each cavity
14. Cook until sides are firm but the middle is still liquid
15. Use 2 bamboo skewers to cut them into individual pieces
16. Starting from the middle, tuck in the overspill cooked batter and rotate 90 degrees
17. Repeat with all the cavities
18. Going back to the first one, rotate another 90 degree to form a sphere, tuck in any overspill
19. Repeat with all cavities
20. Let them cook for around 1 minute
21. When it starts to brown, rotate the spheres once in a while to unsure even colour
22. Remove from pan and it reaches desire crisp
23. Serve it with Okonomiyaki sauce, mayo and a sprinkle of green laver and dried bonito flakes

Tips
I. Takoyaki is meant to be soft and fluffy on the inside, a little undercook is ok
II. Cannot find octopus? You can substitute with anything you like, eg. Cheese, Kimichi, Shrimp etc
III. Okonomiyaki sauce can be found at Asian markets
IV. Dark soy sauce’s flavour is a sweeter version of the normal soy sauce, if you cannot find it you can use normal soy sauce and add a pinch of sugar
V. You can even make use of a cake pop machine, which you may already have, to make delicious Takoyaki (Babycakes Mini Cake Pop Maker )

Hope you guys enjoy this weeks [How To's] See  you next week :) xo  D