Takoyaki Recipe (Octopus Balls)

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 450ml / 1pt dashi stock
• 100g / 3.5oz flour (all purpose)
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 60g / 2.1oz boiled octopus (I used legs, note 2)
• 3 tbsp shallots (Aussie)/scallions finely chopped
• 1½ tbsp benishōga finely diced
• 2 tbsp tenkasu
• Bulldog chūnō sauce (note 3)
• Japanese mayonnaise (optional, note 4 )
• Aonori (青海苔) – dried seaweed flakes
• Bonito flakes
• 1 Takoyaki grill pan/griller (note 5)
• 1-2 long bamboo skewers or pointy chopsticks (note 6)

Steps

1. Dice the octopus into 1-1.3cm / ½” cubes.
2. Crack an egg into a jar with a capacity of 750ml / 1.6pt or more. Beat the egg.
3. Add dashi stock and soy sauce to the jar and mix well.
4. Add flour in 3-4 batches to the jar and mix well each time until lump free.
5. Heat the Takoyaki Griller over medium-low heat.
6. Oil each mould and the surface of the griller generously. A little bit of extra oil makes the Takoyaki crispier on outside.
7. Fill each hole with the batter without overflowing (note 7). Slight spilling is OK.
8. Put a piece of octopus in each mould, then tenkasu, shallots/scallion and benishōga on top of octopus. Leave some tenkasu, shallots/scallion and benishōga for the second batch (1/3 in my case as my pan makes 16 balls at once).
9. Pour the batter over the mould and fill the entire surface of the pan/griller.
10. Using a long bamboo skewer or a thin chopstick, draw grid lines between the moulds to partition each Takoyaki portion.
11. Starting from the mould that gets the strongest heat (hence cooked fastest), use one or two bamboo skewers or thin chopsticks to scrape the edges of the batter partition and move them towards the mould
12. Turn the batter 90 degrees, while tucking the excess batter into the mould.
13. Repeat steps 11 & 12 for the rest of the takoyaki moulds.
14. Turn the batter in each mould another 90 degrees so that the Takoyaki batter is completely turned over from its original position.
15. Cook for about 5 minutes, during which turn over the balls from time to time to brown them evenly (note 8).
16. Transfer the Takoyaki to a serving plate, smother them with Takoyaki sauce and mayonnaise (if using), sprinkle over aonori and bonito flakes. Serve while hot.
17. Repeat all of the steps for Making Takoyaki, using the remaining batter and other ingredients.