Married Cooking: Okonomiyaki

So what do you do when you have a lot of vegetables, flour, and an almost empty bottle of Kewpie? Make okonomiyaki of course! 

We tried out the recipe from this video. But since we didn’t have dashi, pickled ginger, broth, bacon, or okonomiyaki sauce on hand, we made do with what we have just before this pandemic Christmas.

Ingredients:

½ head Cabbage

1 pc Carrot

¼ kg Baguio beans

1 ½ cup All-purpose flour

¼ cup Cornstarch

2 pcs Eggs

1 cup Water

1 bottle of Kewpie mayo

Steps:

1. Chop or shred the vegetables finely to your preferred size, but smaller pieces are easier to manage.
2. In a separate bowl or container, sift in the flour and cornstarch, add the two eggs and mix.
3. Pour the water in and mix further until the batter has a smooth consistency. 
4. Add the vegetables and mix in again.  
5. In a flat pan (or in our case, a non-stick wok), place some oil to make sure the batter mix doesn’t stick.
6. Pour some batter into the pan once the oil is hot and leave for around 10 minutes over medium to medium-low heat. For best results, cover the pan to get that golden brown color on top.
7. Flip the okonomiyaki to cook the bottom for 5 more minutes.
8. Serve on a plate with a generous helping of Kewpie mayo on top.

I made more than enough for breakfast the next day as well, so this recipe would probably serve around 4 to 6 people. 

Rating Score:

GERD Score: 5 / 5: As long as one remembers to chew slowly and thoroughly, as well as go easy on the oil, this recipe should be an easy-to-make meal for many of us dealing with GERD. 

Neurodivergent Score: 5 / 5: Fresh ingredients galore make this a friendly dish. It may be possible to substitute wheat flour with gluten-free alternatives (after all, there is okonomiyaki made with mochi) for those with gluten intolerance or celiac disease. The best part about okonomiyaki is that it is a flexible dish, and ingredients can be added or substituted into the basic pancake to suit one’s health needs. 

Team Glasses Score:  5 / 5: Looks like this recipe’s a keeper and something we will try again here at home. It’s easy to make, filling, and can be healthy too, as long as one preps it right.

Married Cooking: Making Passata

Welcome to another edition of Married Cooking. This time, Kat and I made some passata by using this recipe from Stefania Balducci. We bought our tomatoes along with other vegetables from Session Groceries. For this batch, we used around 1kg of tomatoes.

Stefania’s recipe was as simple as it gets, with some tomatoes, a pinch of salt, and some fresh basil leaves for a fresher taste. In our case, we didn’t have any basil on hand so we made do with what we have.Chop the tomatoes into cubes with a sharp knife. The goal is to keep as much of the juices and flesh as intact as possible. 

1. Place the cubed tomatoes into a stainless steel pot (in our case, a non-stick one) and add a pinch of salt.

2. Cover the pot and let it gently simmer for five to ten minutes.

Simmering the Tomatoes

3. Take the tomatoes out of the pot and separate its flesh and juices from the skin and the seeds. In the video, she uses a food mill but since we didn’t have it, I made do with a strainer and a wooden spoon. Using the latter is a tedious process so we’re definitely getting a food mill soon.

Straining

4. Place the strained tomatoes back into the pot and reduce it for fifteen to twenty minutes.

Voila, you now have passata.

A few hours later, we used it with some black olives, garlic, and Parmegiano Regiano. It’s less acidic and watery to use than typical store-bought tomato sauce, making it a tasty alternative. We highly recommend using it not just for pasta dishes, but also as a topping for homemade pizzas, bruschettas, or anything needing a good dose of tomato sauce.