Taiyaki is a very common Japanese snack. It is a pancake that is cooked with a sweet red bean paste inside of it. I have seen variations in other Asian countries as well, but for the purposes of this blog post I am focusing on the kind I have seen in anime and manga.
Yakitate!! Japan is a manga and anime series created by Takashi Hashigushi. It focuses on a young boy named Azuma Kazuma, and his journey to becoming a great baker, specifically a bread baker. The series starts off showing us Azuma's childhood and how although his family, and grandfather specifically, always enjoyed traditional Japanese food, Azuma was introduced to bread, and falling in love with it, wanted to show his grandfather that bread could be just as tasty as rice. Thus, his journey to creating a "Ja-pan" (pan is the Japanese word for bread, so the title of the show is a pun) begins.
He moves to Tokyo to start working at a well known bakery, and from there, he meets fellow bakers and eventually joins a competition with his friends to create the best bread and bring success to the shop where he works. This show is really funny, managing to find a way to balance learning about different types of bread, with humor, and I found myself binge watching the whole series in a pretty quick time frame.
About mid-way through the series Azuma and his team are given a challenge to go to a deserted island and create a sweet bread from the fruits found there. Urged by their devious boss, a rival team ends up burning down the forest after they have harvested their fruits, so that Azuma's team can't get fruit. It looks pretty dire for his team, until his usual ingenuity comes in and he decides to make Taiyaki over a fire using potatoes found in the ground combined with Coconut Palm Syrup.
I decided that this blog post would feature Taiyaki, except I made it the traditional way with red bean paste. I found this recipe online for red bean paste that you can make on the stove or in an Instant Pot. Since I recently got an Instant Pot and have been enjoying testing out all of the different foods it can make in it, I made my red bean paste using the Instant Pot method, but I'm sure that it would come out just as well made on the stove.
When given the choice between a sweet or a savory snack, I usually take a savory one, so I decided I wanted to make a batch of the Taiyaki in a savory way as well, so I decided to try making a vegan Crab Rangoon type, with a savory cream cheese inside, and a sweet and sour dipping sauce. The link to those recipes will be in the recipe breakdown below.
The dough of the Taiyaki is basically a thin pancake batter, so it is an easy recipe to find online. I used the recipe that came with the Taiyaki press I purchased. It was quick and easy.
Taiyaki
Makes 6-8
Double the recipe if you decide to make both flavors like I did.
Ingredients
1 C. Unbleached All Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1 T. Organic White Sugar
1 C. plus 2 T. Water
1 T. Vegetable Oil
Fillings:
Red Bean Paste (canned or homemade)
Vegan Hearts of Palm Crab Rangoon Filling (homemade)
Sweet and Sour Sauce (store bought or homemade)
1. Combine flour, salt, baking soda and sugar in a bowl. Add water and mix well.
2. Heat up the pan and turn the heat down to low.
3. Open the pan and grease both the upper and lower fish molds with a light coating of vegetable oil or cooking spray.
4. Pour the batter onto one side of the fish mold until it's 1/3 cull. Add 1 T. of sweet red beans to the center, and then gently fill up the rest of the fish mold with batter to totally cover the red beans.
5. Close the mold and cook for about 2-3 minutes over low heat. You may have to cook yours longer depending on the type of stove you have.
6. Turn the pan over and let it cook for another 2 minutes. Open it and turn it over again for another 30 seconds or until it is golden brown and cooked on both sides.
7. Remove from the pan and continue until the batter is gone.
8. If you make both savory and sweet, at this point you would make the second flavor batch. Make sure to keep them on separate plates because you likely won't be able to tell just by looking at them which is sweet and which is savory.
9. Serve warm.
The savory ones are best with a dipping sauce on the side. The sweet ones are great served by themselves. I had both with tea. The savory was served with a Matcha tea, and the sweet was with a white tea that had a hint of orange in it. Both were delicious!
I hope you try this recipe out, and if you're interested in watching Yakitate Japan you can watch the whole series on Crunchyroll. I haven't read the manga, but apparently it goes beyond where the anime left off, so that is something I've been interested in reading. The manga is available in English, so you can buy it online or large bookstores like Barnes & Noble that have a decent manga section. Perhaps you will be as enlightened after making the Taiyaki as Pierrot, the clown and judge on the show was. :)
