So anime has had a strange effect upon my food cravings. I end up wanting to try many of the treats I see depicted in various animes. They seem to enjoy it so much! And sure, I know its a cartoon. I'm extremely fond of trying street foods as well when I visit foreign countries. I find it to be the best way to get a bit of local flavor. Considering these two, it seems only natural that one of the foods to catch my eye on animes is takoyaki. They look fabulous. Hot little rounds covered in delectable sauce that students would eat by street stalls, you know, generally right before the giant magical demon mecha that's actually their classmate attacks. THAT SNACK. I read up all I could on it. Scoured the web. It should have a crispy exterior with a custardy interior hidings lots of little goodie bits to give it texture and flavor. The trickiest part seemed to be how the vendors would turn the half cooked balls a quarter turn at a time to spill out and cook the raw insides using what appeared to be two tiny little skewers. To get around my lack of skill (and lack of a takoyaki pan) I used my cake ball pan. I managed to get all the tastes and textures I should have but not the look. I got more of a slightly squished Saturn than a ball. Little, slightly flat balls, with crispy flattened ring of dough attached. Oh well, practice makes perfect right? These were so good that I'm more than willing to try again. For the filling and toppings in the recipe, I listed what I used but generally its up to you. Use chicken, shrimp, cheese, cabbage, soy sauce, ketchup, whatever you want. Its all good.
Takoyaki
Batter:
1 cup flour
1 tblsp corn starch
3 tsp soy sauce
2 cups chicken stock (icy cold from the fridge is best)
2 egg
Filling:
Finely diced octopus, scallion, ginger
Topping:
oknomiyaki sauce, kewpie mayo, furikake, bonito flakes
Sift together flour and corn starch. Beat in egg, soy sauce, and 1/2 cup stock until you get a smooth paste then slowly beat in the rest of the stock. Let rest while you dice up your fillings and heat up the pan. Spray the pan with a bit of oil. Fill the little wells about 3/4 of the way. Add in a bit of each filling until the well is almost full. Top with more batter. Some will leak out around the wells. This is ok! Now, you can do it the right one as depicted
here but I lacked his amazing skills and confidence. Instead, I oiled the top of
this cake pan and just flipped the whole thing to get the top to cook. Top as you'd like.
