Hello foodies! Today I present to you my first attempt at making takoyaki. I recently traveled to Japan and had a taste of their popular street food from Osaka, the takoyaki. With bits of octopus and dough inside a slightly crispy shell, garnished with takoyaki sauce, mayo, and Aonori - Takoyaki is just so good in taste and texture. In this blog, I want to show you my attempt to recreate takoyaki with the ingredients that I have at home.

Ingredients

For the butter

1 cup of flour
2 tbsp of potato starch
2 whole eggs
soy sauce
pepper
1 1/2 cup of cold water

For the sauce

catsup
oyster sauce
Soy Sauce
Brown Sugar
Water

Toppings
Mayo
Seaweed

Fillings

Ham and Cheese

Procedure

First I prepared the batter, I have 3 attempts on perfecting what taste I really like. In the first attempt, I tried using beef stock, it's a hot batter and the texture is good but not that awesome. Also, it was a little bit too salty for me. I figured that takoyaki balls should not have a strong flavor because the sauce and fillings should carry the taste.

My second and third attempt is just to perfect the measurement. Instead of the stock I used cold water for the battle. This will give the mixture to expand when cooked as I do from the batters I use in coating my favorite fried food.

This is my first attempt at frying, this batch has beef stock in the batter. The shape does not look good and it's a little bit on the salty side.

This is my second attempt, It looks way better and the consistency is spot on. It is firm outside and chewy but soft on the inside.

I also have practice in making the takoyaki a perfect round shape, I made use of a chopstick to form them.

Putting oil in the pan is really important, it prevents the balls from sticking and gives the takoyaki balls the little crisp that they need.

My pan can cook 12 takoyaki at one time, but since this is a trial I just went for 6 to not waste the mixture and master the technique.

After two batches I was confident and had mastered the art of rolling takoyaki balls.

Another thing to take note of is controlling the fire. You need to watch closely when the sides of the takoyaki balls are firm and ready to be rolled.

once the side is set they are ready to be rolled then you flip them and pour more mixture into the pan to complete the form.

This is the photo of my second attempt. It was a disaster, right?

The benefit of cooking for yourself at home is that you control the flavors and the amount of fillings. I used smoked ham and a lot of cheese in my balls and yes they taste so good!

Topping the meal with mayo and seaweeds elevated the dish to a whole new level. I do suggest checking out kewpie mayonaise. This is a Japanese mayo that gives a real Japanese taste to the dish.

I shared the ingredients with my girlfriend and she tried to do it with her sister. look at them working hand in hand to form the takoyaki balls. I also recommend putting the batter in a container similar to the one in the photos, it makes forming the balls easier.