Japanese pancake with chicken and mushroom

Filled with shredded vegetables, minced lean chicken and protein-packed eggs, this version of a Japanese pancake makes a nutritious and filling lunch or light dinner. In Japan it’s traditionally served with mayonnaise, but I prefer to skip this in favour of a little sweet soy sauce and some salad leaves.

Credit: Murdoch Books

• makes

  8

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  35 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• ½ cup (75g) wholemeal spelt flour or plain (all-purpose) flour
• 3 eggs
• ⅓ cup cold water
• 1 ½ tbsp peanut or  macadamia oil
• 200 g chicken or pork, minced
• 150 g mushroom,  finely chopped
• 2 tsp ginger, finely grated
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 ¾ cup (130 g)  savoy cabbage, shredded
• 1 large carrot, coarsely grated
• 2 tsp sesame seeds,  lightly toasted
• Sweet soy sauce, for drizzling
• Sliced spring onions,  to serve
• Baby kale leaves, to serve

Instructions

Whisk together the flour, eggs and ⅓ cup cold water until smooth. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Heat 2 teaspoons of the oil in a large non-stick frying pan. Add the chicken and cook, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, for 5 minutes or until browned. Add the mushrooms, ginger and garlic and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until golden. Leave to cool completely.

Stir the chicken mixture, cabbage and carrot into the egg batter.

Heat half the remaining oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium–high heat. Ladle ½ cup of batter per pancake into the pan and spread out to 1 cm-thick. Cook for 3 minutes each side or until golden. Transfer to a plate and keep warm while you cook the rest, adding a little more oil when necessary.

Serve the pancakes drizzled with a little sweet soy sauce and scattered with the sesame seeds, spring onions and kale leaves.

Recipe and image from Real Delicious by Chrissy Freer (Murdoch Books, $35 hbk).

View an edited extract and more recipes from the book here.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.