Thursday, July 2, 2009

"Wow! Look at those balls!"

After a ten month delay, we finally got around to having takoyaki night at Eric's. In case you aren't familiar with them, takoyaki are Japanese pastry balls, traditionally made with octopus. I first learned about them through the "Cooking with Dog" channel on YouTube.



"Cooking with Dog" is a great show. It also reminds me that I will never, ever begin to understand Japanese culture. It's a cooking show hosted by a poodle... and yet it somehow works.

Anyhow, we made both the traditional octopus version (and the smell of boiling octopus is just another reason I'm glad I'm a vegetarian) and a couple vegetarian versions. I think everyone agreed that using crimini mushrooms as the filling produced the best tasting ones.

The first attempt was, well... Okay, so it's a special takoyaki pan, and it's cast iron, and it didn't occur to me to season the pan. We also weren't sure what temperature to use, and the video makes it look much easier to turn the balls than it is when you try it for the first time. So, yeah, the batter stuck to the pan and the presentation left something to be desired.



For the second batch we greased the hell out of the pan and it worked a whole lot better. Good enough, in fact, that all the people that had been sitting around drinking wine started making somewhat off-color remarks about the balls. Just use your imagination.



By the end of the evening they looked pretty much like they were supposed to, even to the people who hadn't been drinking.

8 comments:

johanna said...

You were at Eric's? Who cleaned up the Diet Coke cans?

Theresa B (of Nebulopathy) said...

I know. Amazing, isn't it? No Diet Coke cans in sight.

JJ said...

OK, that video was awesome. The dog and the host had so much energy!

Once the kitchen is done, we might have to start producing our own cooking show. My puppy is way more charismatic. So is my stove.

Theresa B (of Nebulopathy) said...

JJ, those videos embody everything that I like about Japan. And they make me laugh.

I haven't met your puppy yet, but it doesn't sound as if he would be willing to sit on a bar stool in the kitchen while you cooked... Maybe you could capitalize on that and call it "Logan destroys another recipe". I'll have to remember to check out the perfectly painted walls, though...

Eric said...

I still think that silly octopus design on the top of the pan is totally anti-practical. It took forever to clean.

Theresa B (of Nebulopathy) said...

Yes, but how else would you know it wasn't, say, a pancake griddle if you saw it in your cupboard? I mean, aside from the little hemispheres...

A Free Man said...

Cooking with Dog could kind of go a couple of different ways, couldn't it?

Theresa B (of Nebulopathy) said...

AFM: It really could, but since the dog is introduced as the narrator in the beginning, you know everything's going to be okay. Unless it's like that one famous movie that's narrated by a dead man. But cooking shows don't usually do that...