Akashiyaki (Soft Egg-Dashi Octopus Dumplings)
Quick answer
- Total time
- 45 min
- Level
- Medium
- Servings
- 4 servings
- Ingredients
- 9
About this dish
Akashiyaki is an Akashi specialty made by thinning wheat flour and refined wheat starch with dashi, adding eggs, and cooking the loose batter around a piece of boiled octopus in a round copper pan.
Read more
The tender dumplings are lifted into warm or cold kombu or bonito dipping broth rather than covered with thick sauce. Jin-ko, the purified wheat starch, does not firm as strongly when heated, and the high proportion of egg and stock produces a softer, moister result than takoyaki. Locals have long called the dish tamagoyaki. The name Akashiyaki spread around 1988 as part of city promotion. One origin story links it to Akashi-dama artificial coral ornaments made from the late Edo period onward: egg whites were used in their production, and leftover yolks may have been cooked with octopus caught just offshore.
Instructions
Read the steps as a cooking flow: prep, heat, seasoning, doneness control, and finish.
- 1Season
Sprinkle the raw octopus with cleaning salt and rub firmly for 2 to 3 minutes, working between the suckers to remove slime.
Rinse repeatedly under cold running water until no salt or slime remains.
- 2Control
Bring 1 liter water to a boil in a large pot and add the octopus.
Once boiling resumes, cook over medium heat for 5 to 8 minutes, until the flesh is opaque and the center reaches at least 63°C. Cool briefly and cut into 1 cm pieces.
- 3Prep
Combine the wheat flour and refined wheat starch and sift them twice through a fine sieve.
Gradually whisk in the cold batter dashi to make a very loose batter with no flour lumps.
- 4Prep
Beat the eggs in a separate bowl just until whites and yolks combine.
Pour them into the dashi batter and stir slowly until even without creating excessive foam.
- 5Control
Heat a round-holed copper akashiyaki pan thoroughly over medium heat and brush it lightly with oil.
Stir the batter once to lift settled starch, fill each well about 80 percent, and add one octopus piece to each.
- 6Heat
When the edges set but the centers still wobble, loosen each piece with two picks and turn it halfway.
Tuck in spilled batter and rotate repeatedly to form a sphere. Cook gently for 6 to 8 minutes, until pale gold outside and no liquid egg batter remains inside.
- 7Step
Divide the dipping dashi among four small bowls.
Transfer the akashiyaki to a wide board without crushing them, then dip one at a time in warm or cold broth before eating.
Practical Cooking Checks
The cues that matter most while cooking.
- Key technique
- Wheat flour and refined wheat starch combine with dashi and egg into a very loose batter.
- Finish cue
- Once boiling resumes, cook over medium heat for 5 to 8 minutes, until the flesh is opaque and the center reaches at least 63°C.
- Storage and reheating
- One origin story links it to Akashi-dama artificial coral ornaments made from the late Edo period onward: egg whites were used in their production, and leftover yolks may have been cooked with octopus caught just offshore.
Cooking decision evidence
Calculated Charim data and applicable official food safety guidance.
This recipe
45min, 9 ingredients
Category median
30min, 8 ingredients
Based on 162 recipes
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