Takoyaki

I LOVE these things. I will usually go to the Summer International Night Market just for these. Sure there are other foods, but there was always this one vendor who did these really awesomely. No one has ever done them as nice so I go less often. Maybe once a year now...

The other day I was totally craving these, so I decided to borrow a pan and make some. Now I have my own pan (yay!) so I'll make these another time. I overloaded myself last time so YEAH...Hubby and I can polish off a batch of this and we'd be stuffed (and I had made two batches...yikes!), so you probably can serve about 4-5 people as appetizers.


Takoyaki
(makes 24-30 balls)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups dashi (I use instant and then cool it down to room temperature before using)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 2-3 green onions, finely chopped
• 2 Tbsp pickled ginger, chopped
• 180g cooked octopus or 7-8 baby octopus, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• Canola oil (for greasing pan)
• Okonomi sauce
• Japanese mayo
• Bonito flakes/some sort of furikake
• Dried seaweed flakes (optional)

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, mix together dashi, eggs and soy sauce. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together flour and salt. Whisk in the wet contents from the small bowl until the batter is no longer clumpy.
3. Heat your takoyaki pan over medium high heat. Using a napkin or a brush, generously grease the pan well. When the pan starts to smoke, carefully fill the holes in the pan with batter. 
4. (If you need to do this in a couple of batches, then portion out your octopus, green onion and pickled ginger accordingly.) Drop a piece of octopus in the center of each hole. Sprinkle with green onion and and pickled ginger. 
5. Lower heat to medium and cook for another minute or two, until golden brown and you can use a skewer/takoyaki pick/chopstick to break the contact between the takoyaki and pan. Using the pick, turn/flip the takoyaki over to the other side, while stuffing the batter that overflows over the edges/from the turning ball into itself using another takoyaki pick (1 per hand!).
6. Cook until golden brown, crispy on the outside and they turn easily in their holes. Transfer balls to a plate. Repeat with remaining batter, if necessary.
7. Drizzle okonomi sauce, then Japanese mayo, then bonito flakes/furikake and seaweed flakes (if using) over the takoyaki. Serve hot, but be careful because the inside is super hot.