Tales of the Traveling K

This post is long overdue! Back on February 8, Asa (my speaking partner) taught me how to make takoyaki. We had a party with some of her friends and some of my friends. So, without further delay, instructions in making takoyaki!



First of all, you need a takoyaki-ki (takoyaki machine) and some ingredients. We used a bag of takoyaki-mix for the batter, so I'm not entirely sure what goes in if you make it from scratch. You will also need octopus. Tako means octopus, and yaki means baked/grilled, thus takoyaki is grilled balls of octopus. You could use the machine to make balls of pretty much anything, but if there is no octopus, it's not takoyaki! (^_^)

Get your mix and fillings ready, and oil the takoyaki-ki.



Fill the holes of the takoyaki-ki with the takoyaki batter.



When there is a good amount of batter, put in your ingredients of choice. We put one or two pieces of octopus in each, and added other things like kimchee, onion, cheese, tenpura balls, tuna, and even natto.



Get the batter nice and full of stuffings and let the bottom half of the balls grill a while.



When the takoyaki have formed a nice crust on the bottom of each of the balls, it's time to flip the them!



Flipping the takoyaki is a bit tricky. You use a little stick, which you slide under the bottom crust, and quickly flip each ball so the extra stuffing and batter than was all over the top becomes the new bottom. If done properly, each one ends up with a nice brown crust showing on top. Then you rotate them in all directions until they are evenly cooked and brown all over.



Time to eat! Toppings may include takoyaki sauce, mayo, and fish flakes. It's especially fun to put the fish flakes on while the takoyaki are really hot, because then they sway back and forth in the heat.



Enjoy! いただきます！

Posted by K. Raila at 9:01 PM Comments