A Little Blog

200g bread flour
200g yogurt
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp cooking oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp active dry yeast

Mix all ingredients in a bowl.
Knead mixture until smooth ball is formed.
Leave to rise till roughly doubled in size.
Split ball into two halves.
Roll half into rough flat shape about 1cm thick.
Low heat in frypan, about 2-3 minutes each side or till browned.

This is probably the easiest naan recipe I have worked with. Actually I had modified the one I found by using all yogurt instead of 120cc of water + 2 tbsp of yogurt.

The modification resulted in a sourish bread, not too bad if you like it that way. Otherwise sticking with just water and a little yogurt is just fine. Yogurt comes up regularly in naan recipes, so you might not want to skip this ingredient. Substituting water with milk should be fine too, though I have not tried this.

Once the dough has risen nicely just roll flat half of it and fry. It still turned out soft. You could let the rolled dough rise some more for a fluffier texture.

Cooking oil can be substituted with butter or ghee. In fact the naan should turn out better this way I think.

Using water instead of lots of yogurt, you get a plainer dough which could possibly be rolled really flat for a pizza dough.

As per instructions on recipe-sheet of Japanese-brand gelatin product:

For 15cm round bake pan

Biscuit layer
Biscuit 50g
Unsalted butter 25g

Cheese cream
Cream cheese 200g
Fresh cream 200ml
Sugar 50g
Egg yolk 1
Lemon juice from half a lemon
Gelatin powder 7g
Water 30ml

1. Add crumbled biscuit layer to softened butter, and press mixture onto base of baking pan to form biscuit layer. Refrigerate.

2. Add water to gelatin powder.

3. Mix sugar and yolk in bowl; place bowl in hot water and whip mixture to consistency similar to that of mayonnaise.

4. In another bowl add cream cheese and stir till softened; to this add lemon juice, water and gelatin mixture, and sugar and yolk mixture.

5. Beat fresh cream for around 3 minutes, stir with mixture from previous step, pour into baking pan, and refrigerate.

PS. I have since come across an easier recipe. Essentially you can skip the egg, add 200g yogurt instead. And instead of half a lemon’s juice, 2 tablespoon will do.

2 cup flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup milk
2 large egg, seperated
1/4 cup melted butter
vegetable oil

1. Mix flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and soda

2. In another bowl whisk buttermilk and milk, yolks, butter. Blend into dry mix.

3. Beat whites in another bowl until stiff.

4. Fold into batter.

5. Fry.

1 tsp yeast
3 cup flour (bread flour)
2 tbsp oil
4 tbsp yogurt
1 tsp honey
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup lukewarm water

Mix, rise, grill in very hot oven till puffy, 5-6 min.

Flour 200g
Soba Flour 200g
Egg 1
Salt 10g
Cider 300cc (can be substituted with water, milk, beer)
Water 700cc

Mix batter, leave overnight before use.

Alternative recipe:
1.25 cup milk
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup flour
1 egg
1 tbsp oil

1 cup flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp melted butter

Mix milk + water + eggs
Sift flour into mix
Add salt and butter

For sweet crepe add 5 teaspoon sugar

The easiest way would be to buy a mix for making okonomiyaki, and follow the instructions on it.

(the wonders of camera-rotation..) You would have to add just an egg and some water, in addition to the cabbage and toppings.

Otherwise, for a very basic version:
100g flour
1 egg
100ml water or dashi stock

150g cabbage, finely chopped
toppings eg bacon, prawn, ham, squid

1. Mix flour, egg, water. Add cabbage and mix. You can mix in rest of toppings at this point if you like.
2. Heat pan, oil surface. Pour in batter mixture, shape into round flat cake. Place toppings on top if you haven’t.
3. When bottom is cooked flip the cake over and cook further till both sides done.

Put okonomiyaki sauce, mayonaisse, bonito flakes on top and serve. You can also put dried seaweed or aonori (青のり).

As the name okonomiyaki implies, you can place whatever toppings / fillings you like. Variations include cheese, pork, vegetables, and even Japanese mochi.

The above recipe would be what’s usually known as the kansai style.

If you can find something that’s called a mountain potato (yamaimo or 山芋）add about 1-2 tablespoon grated to the wet mixture. You won’t really need this if you bought a mix that contains yamaimo as part of the ingredients.

Some say yamaimo is an essential ingredient in okonomiyaki. I have seen an okonomiyaki mix that has no yamaimo at a Japanese supermarket. I wondered whether to buy the mix. Then I bought the mix, with 山いも, as pictured above. (”Yamaimo, aplenty”)

And yes, you can find grated yamaimo in some Japanese supermarket stores.

Ingredients:
Eggs 2
Butter or oil

I am still practicing making a good omelette whenever I can. The very first few ones I ever did were too thin, and overcooked - I had too large a pan, and probably used too hot a flame.

Eggs should ideally be at room temperature, lightly beaten will do.

For two eggs, about 18cm pan size is good. You could use smaller pans, and have a thicker omelette. However it may be harder to cook since the bottom gets done way before the liquid parts that linger above.

The Japanese way would have the mixture stirred in the pan soon after it’s poured in. It helps create a fluffy texture.

Flame control: now I have medium or low flame - the omelette might cook slowly, but it’s better than overcooked.

From plain omelettes, variations include adding cheese, ham, and other assorted ingredients.

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Video addition and edit:
Below’s a video showing a Japanese chef cooking an omelette. He’s basically perfected his technique. You will notice that he uses a roaring flame - but since he does everything swiftly, there’s no overcooking of the eggs. After watching the video, I have adopted the same method. Of course, this chef still does it better than me.

Fried rice
Eggs 2 to 3
Milk 1tbsp
Salt to taste

1. Fry rice with your favourite ingredients: ham, peas and so forth are good.

2. Beat eggs with milk. Make omelette in pan.

3. Place omelette over rice in plate, serve with ketchup.

Notes:
The Japanese NHK (their public television) cooking program recommends a 18cm pan for omelette making. With larger pans, you could just increase the number of eggs - and make a bigger omelette.