Takoyaki
Osaka's street-corner spheres: crisp-edged batter balls with a molten center and a piece of octopus in every one, under dancing bonito flakes and takoyaki sauce.
The whole recipe in 60 seconds
Takoyaki, in 5 ideas
- The pan is half the recipe. A cast-iron takoyaki plate, blazing hot and generously oiled, is what browns the shells evenly.
- Fill each well to overflowing. The extra batter is what you fold in as you turn, building a complete sphere instead of a flat-bottomed puck.
- Turning is a rhythm, not a battle. A pick or skewer, a quarter turn at a time, tucking loose batter in as you go.
- The center should stay just molten. Undercooked centers collapse, overcooked ones turn bready and lose the custard heart.
- The topping order is fixed for a reason. Sauce, mayo, aonori, then bonito flakes last so they wave in the steam.
What you need
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 eggs
- 2 1/2 cups dashi stock
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- 8 oz boiled octopus, cut in bite-size pieces
- 4 green onions, finely sliced
- 1/4 cup pickled red ginger, chopped
- 1/4 cup tenkasu (tempura scraps), optional
- Takoyaki sauce or tonkatsu sauce
- Japanese mayonnaise, aonori and bonito flakes, to finish
How to make it
Method
Whisk the flour, baking powder, eggs, dashi and soy sauce into a thin batter, like crepe batter. Rest 10 minutes.
Heat a takoyaki pan until very hot. Oil every well generously, letting a little oil pool in each.
Pour batter into all the wells, filling each to the brim and letting it overflow slightly.
Drop a piece of octopus into each well and scatter green onion, ginger and tenkasu over the whole pan.
When the edges set, about 3 minutes, use a skewer to cut the overflow into each well and turn each ball a quarter turn. Keep turning every minute or so, tucking in loose batter, until evenly golden spheres form, about 6 to 8 minutes total.
Tip onto a warm plate. Stripe with takoyaki sauce and mayonnaise, dust with aonori, and shower with bonito flakes.
Eat dangerously hot, straight away.
No takoyaki pan? An ebelskiver pan or a cake pop pan gets you most of the way; the turning rhythm is the same.