17 May 2010

Chef's Armoury: How to make Takoyaki, Rosebery (15 May 2010)

Shop 251, 747 Botany Road, Rosebery NSW 2018
http://www.chefsarmoury.com


Fun way to cook

This was a free cooking session on making Takoyaki which are round savoury pancakes filled with Tako (octopus) smothered in a tasty bbq style sauce and Japanese mayo. We learnt Takoyaki is the quintessential street food of the Kansai district in Japan and traditionally these sticky fried balls are filled with octopus (tako) but in recent times ingredients such as prawn, crab, wiener sausage, mochi and cheese are also used. When you cook a few different fillings at the same time it becomes a bit of a mystery bag of what you'll end up eating. It's a fun a way to cook if you've got a few party guests around — and they might even want to have a go themselves.

After the session I bumped into a fellow food blogger Yee from Brunch Lunch Munch who had found out about the cooking class through my last post on the Wagyu tasting event. The next free cooking class is How to Make Japanese Soups and Stocks on 19 June — bookings essential.

RECIPE NOTES – Chef's Armoury

The Takoyaki Pan
Make sure you choose a heavy cast iron takoyaki pan, as these are best for even heat distribution. The pan must be properly seasoned. Before first use and any time when the pan starts to stick, fry some vegetable scraps in the pan with neutral oil such as rice bran or grapeseed.

Pan set includes oil brush, turning spike, takoyaki flour $68.50

Basic Takoyaki Batter – makes about 60 balls
300g plain flour
3 eggs
1 heaped tablespoon kuzu
1 litre pre made dashi stock
2 tsp salt
2 tsp soy sauce
1.5 cups finely diced cabbage
1.5 cups finely sliced shallots – green part only

Mix all ingredients well and chill in fridge for 1 hour. The batter should have a consistency of pouring cream. There are some pre seasoned takoyaki flours on the market that you can simply add water and egg.

Other visits to Chef's Armoury:
19 June 2010 - Japanese Stocks and Soups
15 May 2010 - How to make Takoyaki (fried balls of octopus)
27 Mar 2010 - Wagyu Tasting
30 Jan 2010 - Professional Knife Sharpening Service

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:
PROS: Free lesson, Tasty sample, Fun way to cook
CONS: Takes a bit of time to cook a batch of takoyaki
MUST TRY: Visiting Japan one day for culture and food

Mochi, prawns and fish cake cut up for fillings

Cooked octopus

Cooked octopus cooled to room temperature then sliced up

Oiling the pan

Pouring takoyaki batter

Fillings added

Pour batter over

Fold over edges


Turn balls over to cook other side

Takoyaki BBQ sauce added

Japanese mayonaise added

Katsubushi fish flakes added

Katsuobushi fish flakes

Bulldog Osaka Takoyaki Sauce $7.50, Kenko Ofu Mayonnaise $7.95

Kenko Ofu Mayonnaise $7.95, Bulldog Osaka Takoyaki Sauce $7.50

Kibun Kamaboko fish cake $5.95

Takahashi kintsuke mochi $17.25 (1 kg)

Yee from Brunch Lunch Munch and me

Brunch Lunch Munch blogger in photographic action

9 comments:

Renita said...

OOh,I'd love to learn how to make tokoyaki! Free cooking class? Are they still running it? (i'll check out the site) Having a tokoyaki pan around seems quite cumbersome though.

YW said...

hey Simon, it was great to get to meet you at Chef's Armoury :) Very good and extensive coverage on how to make takoyaki too!! Great job!!

Brenda said...

Ooooo looks yum and loads of fun cooking it too!

YaYa said...

Wow these look great! I wonder if you could adapt the pan to cooking other stuff too like poffertjes, hehe! Or maybe Yorkshire puddings, multiple usage would make it easy to justify the purchase!

Maria said...

I had booked a spot at this class but couldn't make it! :( I love takoyaki...

Maria@TheGourmetChallenge said...

oh yum!!! I gotta get myself one of those pans and make some at home. Sadly I would put on 4 kilos in the first day making them!

Simon Leong said...

hi renita, they have listed another one as yet but that's not to say they might again. the pan isn't too big and worked well on a little portable korean gas burner thingie.

hi YW, great to meet you too. you sure got the hang of cooking up some tasty tokoyaki. looking forward to reading your blog post if you do one. i'll be sure to add your link it to my review.

hi brenda, the chef of the day said it's a great thing to have at a party when guests are arriving and you could get them to cook their own nibbles hehe

hi yaya, actually funny you mention that. the chef mentioned you can adapt for sweet style dumplings as well. perhaps even put a little bit of chocolate in the middle and then cover with sugar after. i think you're only limited by your cooking imagination.

hi maria, hopefully you'll be able to get to one of their other classes. they seem to have a couple of other free events coming up.

hi maria, it would get quite addictive i think making tasty little dumplings. best to have a few other people over to share the food and also the cooking. :-)

April @ My Food Trail said...

How awesome they are having free classes! I wish they would do something like that here in Melbourne! It's cool to see that no matter how messy the first pour of batter is, the takoyaki turns out perfectly round! Yum!

Simon Leong said...

hi april, i'm sure if you search hard enough you'll discover some free cooking classes somewhere in melbourne. it is quite amazing how after that first turn they look like perfect — and so yummy! :-)

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