Experience a culinary adventure with Nicolas Kersting's Okonomiyaki smoked trout recipe – a Japanese savoury pancake topped with homemade smoked trout. 

Ingredients

 Okonomiyaki

 100g of flour

 ½ small Chinese cabbage (400g)

 ¼ tsp baking powder

 1 pinch of salt

 1 pinch of sugar

 2 eggs

 A little vegetable oil

 1 onion

 Green onion (scallion)

 140ml dashi stock

Homemade smoked trout

 1kg trout or salmon fillet,

 Coarse salt

 Sugar

 Juniper berries

 Black pepper

Method

 Okonomiyaki

1. Dashi is a simple broth made by boiling kombu seaweed and dried bonito flakes in a bowl. Dashi is a basic broth used by the Japanese in their cooking like ours, saving only the resulting liquid. Fresh dashi is rare 

these days, even in Japan, with most people using liquid or granulated instant substitutes.

2. Mix the flour with the baking powder in a bowl.

3. In another bowl, heat 140ml of water and add your dashi powder, then mix. Add this hot dashi to the flour/yeast mixture.

4. Add the egg and mix to get a smooth paste.

5. Finely cut the Chinese cabbage leaves and the onion and add them to the dough.

6. Take a small ladle of dough and place it on a griddle or a frying pan and flatten the dough into a circle of about 10 cm and cook on both sides. then spread the mayonnaise on the okonomiyaki then put some okonomiyaki sauce on it. Arrange the smoked trout on top and finish with the spring onion.

Homemade smoked trout

Put 2cm of salt in a bowl and sprinkle a little sugar on it. Rub all the black pepper and juniper berries into the trout fillet and lay the fillet meat side down on the salt. Sprinkle 1cm of salt over the fish. put a weight on the fish and let the fish brine for 24 hours in the refrigerator. Remove the fish from the salt and rinse the salt with cold water. Dry the fish well and let it dry in the refrigerator for 2 days until the fish is ready to smoke.

SMOKING

1. Place the fillet on a baking sheet that is not too wide. Fill the coil with shavings and place it on the bottom of the barbecue. Add half an organic cube below in the intended location and set on fire. As soon as it is three-quarters consumed and it smokes well, blow on it to stop the flames. Place a steel plate filled with ice cubes on it so that there is no direct heat. Place the grid with the probe on it, then the fish on the probe. Close all openings and let smoke for 6 hours. Watch the temperature, so as not to exceed 25°C.

2. Let the fish rest 12 hours in the fridge remove the bones with tweezers then slice the fish as thinly as possible.