Round batter balls filled with diced octopus, cooked in a special molded pan and topped with takoyaki sauce and bonito flakes.

المقادير

1 cup flour

2 cups dashi stock (or light chicken broth)

2 eggs

1 tsp soy sauce

150g boiled octopus, diced small

2 scallions, chopped

2 tbsp pickled ginger, chopped

Oil for greasing the pan

Takoyaki sauce (or Worcestershire sauce mixed with ketchup), mayonnaise, and dried bonito flakes for garnish

خطوات التحضير

Whisk the flour with dashi stock, eggs, and soy sauce until you get a smooth, lump-free batter.

Heat the takoyaki pan well and grease the wells with oil.

Pour the batter into the wells until each is full, then add a piece of octopus, a little pickled ginger, and scallions to each.

Once the edges start to set, use a thin metal pick to flip each ball 90 degrees, pulling excess batter from outside toward the center to form a round shape.

Repeat flipping several times until the balls are fully round, crispy outside, and cooked through inside (10-12 minutes total).

Lift the balls onto a plate and garnish with takoyaki sauce, mayonnaise, and fluttering dried bonito flakes.

نصيحة

Don't overfill the wells — letting a little batter overflow slightly actually makes it easier to pull and shape the full ball later.

Takoyaki is one of Japan's most famous street foods, born in Osaka in the 1930s and now a symbol of the city's food culture — so much so that many Osaka households own their own takoyaki pan («takoyaki-ki»).

It's made from a light, crepe-like batter poured into a molded pan with hemispherical wells. A small piece of boiled octopus is placed in each well along with pickled ginger and scallions, and the balls are carefully flipped with a thin metal pick until they form a full round shape with a light crispy crust.