Okonomiyaki and Empi

I haven't posted recently so this one will have three main subjects. Apologies if it's a bit long :)

Japanese class started! This tuesday and wednesday I went to Japanese class for the first time! I have two different teachers one for reading/writing and another for listening/speaking. Having separate classes that focus on these language mediums is really helpful, we still do some conversation in the R/W class and vice versa. Both teachers are heaps nice and really helpful. The material so far is a right mix of challenging and comfortable I hope at the end of this year I really improve alot!

Tuesday night was Karate night woo! It appears that the way tuesday works is they practice a specific Kata each month. This month is the before mentioned Kata, Unsu. We went through some practice drills and standard techniques, the most interesting part for me was Yoko Geri Kaege practice. After we finished stretching and warming up sensei asked us to lie on our right side with our right leg bent providing support but the thigh inline with our torso. Next he demonstrated how we were to grab the inside of our left foot with the palm of our hand. Following that he stretched is leg perpendicular to the floor towards the ceiling with the foot parallel to the floor, pointing towards his head. As we followed suite he continued to explain that this position is what you aim to achieve in a fully extended YGK kick. Viewing from side on he showed us his position, then stood up and bent over resuming the same position however standing up and bent over. Next he showed us how it looked from fighting stance, and in all three views the kick at full extension was remarkably similar, including is body posture and angle of the foot. Apart from being similar his kick looked freaking awesome, stepping forward and unloading that kick to someone's nose or throat would hurt. After this we did some more practice on certain points of Unsu Kata and finally we as a class performed the first, second, third Katas followed by Empi and Unsu. It was my first time doing Empi so when went through I paid special attention to the Kata so I could remember it later. Counting it all up now I haven't but don't fully know three black belt Katas - Empi, Unsu and Niju Shiho. I'm definitely gonna keep going to this class, the Kata training is heaps interesting.

Food Update!! This evening I took a shot at making Okonomiyaki (means whatever you like grilled/cooked). Essentially it's a Japanese-style savoury pancake with two main versions that I know of. The Kansai style okonomiyaki is more commonly called Osaka style and in m opinion is a more basic/easy pancake to make. Hiroshima style has some common base ingredients but the cooking method and final result differs. I made both and first I'll start with explaining Osaka-style.

First up mix 2 cups of basic flour with 1ish cups of dashi soup stock and refrigerate for an hour-ish. This is your batter (makes 4 small pancakes), after it has settled in the fridge add to it a handful of finely chopped cabbage (the finer the better but don't go crazy), finely chopped green onion (long thin green stalk with a white base and short roots, make sure of course to chop off the roots) and some tenkasu(tempura flakes, small crispy bulby thingys). Mix that around and just before hitting the pan, make a hole in the batter, crack an egg into it and stir some more. On medium heat with a lightly oiled pan poor your batter contents onto the pan and using two spatulas keep the pancake together with a thickness of about 4-5 cm. On a separate plate start frying 3-5 thin slices of pork, make sure to flip about 2.5-3 minutes in. After about 5-6 minutes places the pork ontop of your pancake base with the less-cooked side facing up and then carefully clip the pancake. Best way is to gently squeeze the top and bottom with your spatulas and then flip in that position. another 5-6 minutes on this side and it's done! Before serving sprinkle aonori (finely finely chopped seaweed you can buy) and katsuoboshi (dried flakes of fish) and okonomiyaki sauce or tonkatsu sauce.

The best way to do Hiroshima style is have all ingredients ready for immediate use and beware you need two pans that can fit the pancake of size you want to make. In one pan (medium heat, lightly oiled) pour only the base batter until it assumes the size you want. Sprinkle ontop in this order: finely chopped cabbage, bean sprouts, 3-5 thin pork slices and some more batter over the top should be 3-4 minutes for it to get ready. In another pan place some soba, shake the pan and move the noodles around while they separate for about a minute. Then add tonkatsu/okonomiyaki sauce and stir-fry for another minute. Once soba is ready, flip and move the pancake base over the top of the yakisoba, you should mould the yakisoba to the size of the pancake and then hold together with spatulas for about a minute while it sticks to the pancake. After 30 seconds-ish crack an egg and break the yolk in the first pan. Flip and move the pancake ontop of the egg and hold there for about 10-20 seconds. Before serving sprinkle aonori and green onion :)

(You can also use beef instead of pork, or be creative and try lamb or duck, just make sure its thin)

Personally I prefer the Osaka-style its much easier to cook but I'll save the judgement for when I go watch some pros make Hiroshima style :)

Also a good tip i learned is to cut the pork slices in half or thirds before using, that way you can pick the pancake with chop sticks easier. I have got a long way to go in making this, in the restaurant it cuts easily but mine doesn't so I'll have to watch some pro's do it. After my batter mixture runs out up next will hopefully be Katsudon!