Vegan takoyaki
Japanese takoyaki balls are a streetfood made from stuffed, fried, dough balls. Traditionally made with octopus, this vegan version instead uses king oyster mushroom.
Servings 30 balls
Ingredients
Batter
- 200 g all purpose flour
- 40 g rice flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 piece kombu
- 2-4 dried mushrooms e.g. shiitake
- 500 mL water
Suggested filling
- 100 g king oyster mushrooms
- 2 tsp canola oil
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- 1 stalk scallion
- 30 g pickled ginger see note
Simple takoyaki sauce
- 3 tbsp vegan Worcestershire sauce N.B. Worcestershire sauce is not usually vegan
- 2 tbsp Ketchup
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar to taste depends on sweetness of ketchup
Toppings
- vegan mayonnaise
- aonori flakes see note
Instructions
Dashi
- To prepare the dashi, the stock used for the batter. Soak the seaweed and mushrooms in recently boiled water for 1+ hours.
- If you're short on time, you can grind a smaller amount of dried mushrooms and seaweed and mix them with the flour.
Filling and toppings
- Start with preparing your fillings: shred the pickled ginger and slice the scallions.
- Cut the mushrooms into ~1 cm cubes.
- Heat oil in a pan on medium heat and fry the mushrooms. When they start to brown, add the soy sauce and let it evaporate and coat the mushrooms.
Sauce
- Prepare the takoyaki sauce by mixing all ingredients.
Batter
- Finish the dashi by removing the mushrooms and seaweed.
- Mix the dry ingredients and then whisk in the dashi, a little at a time. The final batter should be quite loose.
Frying the takoyaki
- Heat your takoyaki pan or machine.
- Add oil to each indent.
- Pour in batter until each indent is almost full.
- Add your filling to each ball. It is ok to be sloppy. For the fillings suggested here, I placed one piece of mushroom in each indent and sprinkled on chives and ginger.
- Add more batter to cover the entire pan, all the way to the small rim.
- Wait and let the batter solidify. When it is almost solid, use wooden skewers to cut the batter surrounding the indents. Force this batter into the cups turn the batter, creating round balls with the filling on the inside. It is easier than it sounds.
- Continue cooking the takoyaki until they are brown all around.
- Serve topped with takoyaki sauce, mayonaisse and seaweed flakes.
Notes
Pickled ginger: classic takoyaki calls for beni shoga (young ginger pickled in plum vinegar) but any pickled ginger (such as the gari served with sushi) will add a lot to the dish.
Aonori flakes: aonori (green laver) is similar to the dark/black nori used when making sushi rolls. For this dish, I just ground a sheet of nori in a blender to create some seaweed sprinkles to use instead of aonori.