Takoyaki Recipe (Octopus Balls)

One of the famous Osaka street foods, Takoyaki (Octopus Balls) is a small dumpling with a piece of octopus in the middle. Crispy outside and gooey inside, Takoyaki is fun to make and delicious to eat. I also have a video for this recipe!

Osaka is famous for many delicious street foods. In my mind, Takoyaki (たこ焼き) comes first or second. The strong contender to takoyaki is kushikatsu (deep-fried meat and vegetable on a skewer). I must publish a recipe for this as soon as I can.

About Takoyaki

Takoyaki originated in Osaka, with a street vendor called Aizu-ya (会津屋). Aizu-ya was originally serving a ball with beef inside instead of octopus. But one day in 1935, a customer who ate Aizu-ya’s meat ball muttered: “Is it beef inside in the Osaka balls? It’s octopus in Akashi.” Akashi is the city in Hyogo prefecture and is famous for its local specialty dish called Akashi-yaki (明石焼き) – egg balls with octopus inside, dipped in dashi stock before eating.

The owner of Aizuya quickly changed the filling from beef to octopus to challenge the Akashi invention.

Original Takoyaki was eaten only with sweet sauce until the end of WWII. During the Occupation of Japan, the owner of the takoyaki shop called Botejyu (ぼてじゅう) saw the American soldiers eating mayonnaise. He thought it could go well with Takoyaki and started serving mayonnaise in addition to the sweet sauce.

There are so many different toppings and sauces experimented with and served these days, but I only used a most common combination of toppings and sauces in today’s recipe.

About Takoyaki Grill Pan/Takoyaki Pan

To make Takoyaki, you need to use a special pan called a ‘takoyaki grill pan’ so that you can make a ball-shaped soft dumpling. But I understand that not everyone has a takoyaki grill pan, so I included a takoyaki pancake recipe as an alternative.

A takoyaki pan is traditionally a cast-iron griddle with semi-sphere moulds of about 4cm in diameter. You simply place the griddle on a cook top to make Takoyaki. These days you can also find a griddle made with aluminium alloy, with non-stick coating like the pans in the photo below.

There are also electric Takoyaki grill pans that are made up of a griddle with a heater attached to it. They usually come with a temperature setting so that you can maintain a consistent temperature when cooking Takoyaki. The only thing is that they are a bit bulky.

The shape of griddles can be either squarish or round with usually about 16 -20 moulds. Most griddles have the elevated edge around the pan to prevent the Takoyaki batter from overflowing.

You can buy takoyaki grill pans at Japanese grocery stores or online shops such as Amazon.

Things to watch for when buying Takoyaki Griller

Regardless of whether you are buying just a griddle or an electric one, you need to pay attention to the structure of the griddle.

• The outer edge of the griddle is slightly higher, preferably by about 5mm / 3⁄16″ – this prevents the Takoyaki batter from overflowing from the griddle. This is most important. The grill pan on the right in the photo above is my first Takoyaki grill pan. It has a very low edge and I spilt a lot of batter.
• There are grid lines between the moulds – this makes it easier to divide the batter into equal portions and turn over the Takoyaki balls. You can get away with it even if there are no lines.
• The griddle has a non-stick coating, which makes it easier to handle, particularly for infrequent users of a takoyaki pan. But it is not a must. If you are buying a cast iron takoyaki pan, which is more expensive, take care of it just like a cast iron pan.

My second Takoyaki griller that I used today is an Iwatani brand and is square. It is made with an aluminium alloy with a non-stick coating (the left grill pan in the photo above). The pan has 16 moulds and sufficient height of the outer edge. It also has grid lines between the round moulds. I place it on a cooktop to make Takoyaki.

What’s in My Takoyaki

There are three components to Takoyaki – Takoyaki batter, fillings, and toppings.

Batter:

• Dashi stock
• Egg
• Flour
• Soy sauce

Just like any other street foods in Japan, there are many variations to the Takoyaki batter. Even if the ingredients are identical, the proportion of each ingredient can be different, which gives a different flavour and texture to the Takoyaki.

I use 450ml / 1pt of dashi stock for 100g / 3.5oz of flour with an egg. It makes my batter quite watery but the inside of the Takoyaki becomes very soft. I understand that the professionals use more dashi stock to the same amount of flour to make the inside runnier when cooked. But the watery batter is more difficult to cook as the Takoyaki balls are so soft to turn over.

Fillings:

Takoyaki fillings are typical ingredients that you find in store-bought Takoyaki.

• Boiled octopus – cut into 1-1.3cm / ½” cubes (about 80g)
• Tenkasu (天かす) – deep-fried tempura batter bits, also called ‘agedama’ (揚げ玉)
• Finley chopped shallots (Aussie) / scallions
• Finely diced benishōga (red pickled ginger)

There are two ways to boil octopus legs:

a) Boil the octopus for  about 5 minutes, then turn the heat off and leave the octopus in the hot waterfor another 5 minutes or so. Please visit the section HOW TO BOIL OCTOPUS in my post Octopus and Cucumber Sunomono.
b) Put the octopus in the boiling water and simmer for 30-40 minutes.

I give two options because I found that the option b) makes the octopus so tender that you may not recognise there is an octopus piece inside the Takoyaki ball.

Octopus legs are thick at the base and very thin at the tip. If the legs are very thick halve it lengthwise so that you can make appropriate size of the octopus pieces. Here is how to cut the octopus legs.

Toppings:

Toppings are also very much the same across the most Takoyaki shops.

• Takoyaki sauce – Takoyaki specialty shops do make their own sauces. You can buy Takoyaki sauce from Japanese/Asian grocery stores, but I use Bulldog brand chūnō sauce or tonkatsu sauce.
• Mayonnaise (not in the photo below) – this is optional, but if you are using it I strongly recommend a Japanese mayonnaise such as Kewpie brand.
• Aonori (青海苔) – dried seaweed flakes.
• Bonito flakes.

Store-bought Takoyaki sauce and Bulldog chūnō sauce are similar in texture and thickness but Takoyaki sauce is sweeter. If you add a small amount of tomato sauce/ketchup and sugar to the chūnō sauce, you can get close to the store-bought sauce.

How to make Takoyaki

The steps to making Takoyaki on a takoyaki griller are quite simple and there is no time pressure while cooking Takoyaki (even if there are 16 of them to cook at once!).

1. Mix the Takoyaki Batter ingredients.
2. Place the Takoyaki griller on medium heat and oil each mould and surface of the griller well.
3. Fill each hole with the batter.
4. Put fillings in the batter, then cover the entire surface of the grill with more batter.
5. Using a long bamboo skewer or a long pointy chopstick, draw grid lines between the moulds to partition each Takoyaki portion.
6. Using one or two long bamboo skewers or chopsticks, turn each balls 90 degrees, while tucking in the excess batter.
7. Turn another 90 degrees so that the balls are completely turned over.
8. Cook for about 5 minutes, during which turn over the balls from time to time to brown them evenly.
9. Transfer the balls to a serving plate, smother them with Takoyaki sauce and mayonnaise (if using), and sprinkle aonori and bonito flakes over them.

I made a video for today’s recipe but here is the step-by-step photo of how to make Takoyaki.

You need to use a long skewer or a pointy chopstick to avoid your hand getting too hot. If you are using a pan with a non-stick coating, do not use a metal stick or an ice pick. It will scratch the coating.

It’s a bit tedious to rotate 16 balls many times but you will have enough time to rotate them without feeling pressured. As you rotate them, each ball starts forming a perfect ball. It’s fun!

It is exciting to witness the messy state of the batter with fillings turning into perfect golden brown balls. When you bite into a Takoyaki, a little piece of octopus comes out with the wet and gooey batter. It’s so tasty that you won’t be able to stop eating!

Yumiko

Watch How to Make It