At the beginning of April, I joined a very unusual enterprise: a year round food challenge. A product of the imaginations of my lovely friends Laura and Kate (and Rachel who I haven't met but am sure is also lovely), the challenge requires all members to submit three ingredients each month which are then placed into a hat. Laura draws out three at random and those ingredients then form the basis of a dish that we all have to individually come up with before submitting our results at the end of each month. While it isn't a competition, the goal is to push ourselves to try out new and unusual recipes. The only rule is that you have to come up with the final dish on your own, although you can look at other recipes for inspiration. I've never tried anything like this before so I was really excited to jump on board and get cooking! I'll be posting my resulting recipes here as well every month. So, without further ado, April's ingredients were: beetroot, cabbage and chorizo.
Now, I'm sure like most of you, my mind immediately went to cabbage rolls. But with the weather getting warmer, I just wasn't in the mood for something that was quite heavy when I'd tried it previously. Another thought I had was of course coleslaw (especially since I immediately remembered my cousin Wendy's delicious version!) but I thought that might be a bit greedy as a main dish. So, I put the food challenge to the side until I happened to be reading an article about Japanese restaurants and they mentioned Okonomiyaki. I'd never heard of this Japanese pancake dish before but since on of the main ingredients is cabbage, I thought it deserved more of an investigation. Much to my surprise, the name essentially means "whatever you want" and you can customize your pancake with whatever ingredients you fancy. Perfect for my first food challenge!
I grated the beetroot so that it would color the pancake and that way we wouldn't have massive lumps of beetroot strewn throughout the dish. I liked the effect but I can understand how others might be a bit put off by a Pepto colored pancake! Another option would be to pickle the beetroot so that it is closer to the original Okonomiyaki dish, which is served with different sauces and pickles. While I'm calling this an Okonomiyaki pancake, I am also fully aware that it's not a very true representation. For example, Okonomiyaki is usually served as one big pancake but my pans weren't going to accommodate a behemoth like that so I split the batter into four smaller versions. However, I really liked the idea of having a dish that would make using leftovers really easy and I think I'll try this again in the future. The only change I would make is to add some green onion for color to the final dish... I didn't have any this time unfortunately. Another dish that I'm looking forward to trying is Kimchijeon (kimchi pancake) with some homemade kimchi I made using the leftovers from this dish... so stay tuned!
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| Food challenge ingredients |
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| Chopped cabbage |
Now, I'm sure like most of you, my mind immediately went to cabbage rolls. But with the weather getting warmer, I just wasn't in the mood for something that was quite heavy when I'd tried it previously. Another thought I had was of course coleslaw (especially since I immediately remembered my cousin Wendy's delicious version!) but I thought that might be a bit greedy as a main dish. So, I put the food challenge to the side until I happened to be reading an article about Japanese restaurants and they mentioned Okonomiyaki. I'd never heard of this Japanese pancake dish before but since on of the main ingredients is cabbage, I thought it deserved more of an investigation. Much to my surprise, the name essentially means "whatever you want" and you can customize your pancake with whatever ingredients you fancy. Perfect for my first food challenge!
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| Chopped chorizo |
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| Grated cabbage |
I grated the beetroot so that it would color the pancake and that way we wouldn't have massive lumps of beetroot strewn throughout the dish. I liked the effect but I can understand how others might be a bit put off by a Pepto colored pancake! Another option would be to pickle the beetroot so that it is closer to the original Okonomiyaki dish, which is served with different sauces and pickles. While I'm calling this an Okonomiyaki pancake, I am also fully aware that it's not a very true representation. For example, Okonomiyaki is usually served as one big pancake but my pans weren't going to accommodate a behemoth like that so I split the batter into four smaller versions. However, I really liked the idea of having a dish that would make using leftovers really easy and I think I'll try this again in the future. The only change I would make is to add some green onion for color to the final dish... I didn't have any this time unfortunately. Another dish that I'm looking forward to trying is Kimchijeon (kimchi pancake) with some homemade kimchi I made using the leftovers from this dish... so stay tuned!
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| Basic batter ready for ingredients! |
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| Pancake ready to flip |
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| Finished version... needs something green! |
Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 10 min
Serves: 2-4
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
2/3 cup water
1 egg
1/4 of a small white cabbage, chopped into thin strips
100g beetroot, grated
100g chorizo, chopped into small pieces
Oil
Method:
Mix all of the ingredients except the oil in a large bowl. Heat a large pan over medium heat and add a splash of oil to keep the pancake from sticking. When the pan is hot, carefully pour in your desired amount of the batter and lightly press with a spatula to help it spread out. You should have about a pancake about a centimeter thick (possibly a bit more depending on your ingredients). Allow to cook until the bottom is nicely browned and a bit crispy. I also followed the age old pancake advice and waited until I saw bubbles on the top before flipping. When it's ready, carefully flip the pancake and allow the second side to brown as well. Serve with your choice of dipping sauce, enjoy!
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