Okonomiyaki - How To Make Nutritious and Yummy Okonomiyaki

I'm looking for some yummy and nutritious vegetable snack recipe and came across this Okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is also called the "Japanese Pizza". 'Okonomi' means 'whatever you like' and 'yaki' means 'cook or fry.' I've found many versions on how to make nutritious and yummy Okonomiyaki in the web, but I like the one posted by visualrecipes.com. It's called Osaka-style Okonomiyaki.

Ingredients:

Base:

1 cup flour

3/4 cup dashi (or water, see below)*

1 egg

1/8-1/4 of a cabbage

Toppings - any of the below:

Chicken

Roast pork or beef

Squid, Octopus, other seafood

Corn

Mushrooms

Onion

Garnishing - any of the below, if you can find it and actually want it:

Katsuo-bushi (dried bonito flakes)

Sakura-ebi (dried shrimps)

Beni-shoga (red ginger)

Ao-nori (green seaweed)

Sauces:

Okonomiyaki sauce (or tonkatsu sauce)

Mayonnaise

Cooking procedure:

1. Chop the cabbage finely. Do not include the white stem parts.
2. Break an egg into a large bowl and pour in the dashi/water, and the flour. Then beat with a whisk until smooth.
3. Add some of the finely chopped cabbage and mix as best you can.
4. Heat up your skillet, electric fry pan, grill, or whatever you're going to use to cook this yummy recipe. Preferably use something that has teflon on it.
5. Prepare your toppings and just chop it all up good.
6. Throw it all in the fry pan with some oil to keep it all well-lubed. Cook until either heated through or in the case of raw meat or veges, for a few minutes until it's getting close to being cooked.
7. Arrange the nearly cooked toppings in a round. Then throw the cabbage/dough mixture on top, also in a round!
8. Turn up the heat a little to medium and let it cook through for 5 minutes or so. Then flip it. Let it cook for another 5-10 minutes. You can break away a bit of the dough bit when it doesn't look raw any more and see if the cabbage and dough is cooked through.
9. Flip it out onto a plate and cover liberally with Okonomiyaki sauce and mayonnaise!
10. Cut, serve and enjoy!

For a detailed cooking procedure with images, go to visualrecipes.com.

Image credit: visualrecipes.com

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Hardinera (Quezon Province Meatloaf)

I was browsing the net for yummy food recipes when I stumbled upon this Hardinera, a famous meatloaf dish from the Quezon province. According to panlasangpinoy.com, hardinera is not that different from pork menudo. But I think the final product looks the same as the embutido. Hmmm, looks really yummy yummy that I'm so excited to share this special dish recipe, the Hardinera (Quezon Province Meatloaf) from panlasangpinoy.com.

Watch Hardinera cooking video below:

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 medium sized onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb pork, diced
1 cup water
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup sweet pickle relish
1/2 cup beef franks or hotdogs, diced
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 beef cube
1/2 cup pineapple chunks
1/4 cup roasted sweet pepper
1/4 cup liver spread
1/4 cup cheese, grated
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 pieces hard boiled eggs, sliced or wedged
2 pieces raw eggs

For those who can't understand the Hardinera cooking video (it's said in Filipino) yet so eager to try this recipe, you may refer to the cooking steps below:

In a cooking pot, add cooking oil and sauté garlic and onions.

Add the diced pork and cook for 3 to 5 minutes.

Put-in the beef cube, water, and tomato sauce then bring to a boil. Simmer until the pork is tender and the liquid completely evaporates. Set aside and let cool.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the cooked pork, salt, ground black pepper, beef franks, bread crumbs, liver spread, sweet pickle relish, pineapple chunks, raisins, and cheese.

Mix all the ingredients until everything is well incorporated.

Grease a llanera and arrange the sliced eggs and roasted sweet pepper.

Pour close to half of the beaten egg mixture and ensure that the eggs are well distributed on the llanera.

Scoop the pork mixture in to the llanera until it occupies at least 3/4 of the total volume.

Cover the whole llanera with aluminum foil.

Pour at least 6 cups of water in the steamer. Arrange the containers in the steamer and steam for 50 minutes.

Remove the steamed mixture from the llanera and transfer to a serving plate.

Serve either hot or cold.

Image credit: panlasangpinoy.com

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