Disaster Balls

There's nothing quite like seeing a disaster slowly unfold in the kitchen. What started off as my optimistic try at making takoyaki balls turned into half-edible disappointment. I love love takoyaki balls and even had the privilege of eating them fresh off the pan at a street vendor in London. What a surprise that was!! What are they? Pheh! Don't ask, go find and eat them! They're a favorite Japanese street-vendor food of wheat-dough balls with a hunk of boiled octopus inside. They're crunchy on the outside and slightly soft and chewy on the inside. I love them so much, I asked for a takoyaki nabe (the cast iron pan of half circle for making takoyaki balls) for Christmas to make my own!

I finally got a chance to whip this out (I'd been staring at it since xmas) as my dad bought a bunch of octopus that he said was good but it wasn't. =6 So I chopped some up for takoyaki balls! Woo hoo! Except not so woo hoo as I had to eat the abomination I created. It was the only lunch I had on hand!!! Anyhow, I found a recipe that seemed pretty darned authentic as it used seaweed and bonito shavings to flavor the water that goes into the flour. That's gotta make it tasty! And ya know, it was! Tastewise, these were pretty close. Texture wise, they were way off. Why? Well, part of the problem may have been that I mixed metric and and American measurements out of convenience. I've always heard never to do this and you should use one of the other.

When I added the "flavored" water to the flour mixture, I created dough, not batter. Ack!! I could have kneaded it and baked it! So I threw in more water...whisk...ack!...more water...whisk...ack!...even more water...and so forth. I watered it down but I didn't know how thick a batter it should be so I chose to err on the thicker side. I presume my problem can be traced to this decision. It didn't help that I did not turn the balls fast enough. In with the octopus, I included some chopped green onions (supposed to be negi but I didn't feel like getting it) which was great. So the first sign that things were not happy-go-lucky was the batter. The 2nd sign arrived when I turned the balls a quater turn and saw white edges. They're supposed to be a nice brown! Augh!!


I continued to turn and cook them over and over again and even slathered more oil on top in hopes of getting some browning but it didn't really happen. The extra cooking time at least helped the thick, raw dough cook through. Most balls were not the desired perfect circle. Most were 3/4ths of a circle and only a few were nearly perfectly round.


I was pleasantly surprised that they tasted pretty authentic (must have been the konbu and bonito!) and that I could *just* discern the chewy texture of the innards of the dough. The outside was much too chewy and thick. Blech. Much more experimentation to do! Considering I *have* the pan, I should definitely make some use of it and hopefully become an expert takoyaki maker! If that fails, I had also planned on using the pan to make aebleskiver though they actually require a pan with deeper indentations. That's ok. I'll have miniature versions. ;D I've been wanting to make these balls since...high school. That's a long time so it's about time I try, eh? Stay tuned for another slow-mo disaster... ;P