Takoyaki is Addie’s favorite food. They are fried octopus spheres and topped with a thick sauce and topped with bonito flakes.
When I ask my 12 year old daughter what her favorite food is, she will say without hesitation, “takoyaki!” For those of you who aren’t familiar with this Japanese snack, it is a fried pancake-like sphere that contains octopus. It’s garnished with a sweet and salty sauce, kewpie mayonnaise, bonito flakes and ginger.
I think the first time we had takoyaki was at a ramen restaurant. It sounded like something we needed to try. Once Addie had one bite, she was hooked. Every time we visit a ramen restaurant, she has to order the takoyaki. There have even been times when we would get 2 orders of takoyaki, and she gets an entire order to herself.
One Christmas, Santa brought her a takoyaki maker. We tried recreating the snack at home, but it was a huge fail. We watched YouTube videos for some tips and finally tried making it again.
Although we aren’t the best at shaping the takoyaki (there is a trick to flipping them, which we have not come close to mastering yet), the taste was spot on. We were supposed to visit Tokyo in March 2020 but obviously had to cancel that trip. We had been looking forward to eating our weight in takoyaki (and other Japanese food), but until we can find some time and budget to finally go to Japan, we will continue to make this fun snack at home.
Husband’s rating: 3 out of 5
Addie’s rating: 4 out of 5
My rating: 3.5 out of 5
Takoyaki
Equipment
- Takoyaki pan
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 and 1/2 cups dashi I boiled 1 and 1/2 cups of water with about 2 teaspoons of dashi powder
- 4 ounces octopus I found frozen mini octopus at the Asian grocery store and cut them into small pieces
- 2 scallions chopped
- dried bonito flakes optional
- Takoyaki sauce optional
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, preferably one with a spout, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt together.
- Add the eggs, soy sauce, and the dashi broth and mix well until no lumps remain.
- Heat up the Takoyaki pan and grease the wells with a neutral oil. Once smoke starts to appear, you are ready to cook.
- Pour the batter into the molds, filling them about 3/4 full. Add octopus and scallions to each well. The wells will overflow, which is expected and OK.
- Using a skewer, score the batter between each well and rotate each piece 90 degrees so the Takoyaki is standing straight up. Let it cook about 45 seconds.
- Pour more batter to fill the empty parts of each well. Cook another minute or so and flip the Takoyaki once more, another 90 degrees.
- Remove the Takoyaki from the pan and drizzle with sauce and top with bonito flakes as desired. Repeat with remaining batter.
- Serve and enjoy!