Taiyaki Japanese Fish-Shaped Hot Cake Maker

I searched online for quite a while before finding this taiyaki-ki (taiyaki cooker). All the others I found were either in Japanese-only site or much too expensive. I stumbled across this one by accident, and a happy accident it was!

Taiyaki are tasty little fish-shaped cakes with red beans in the center. That doesn't sound that good, but Japanese red beans anko, or adzuki are sweet and quite suitable for snacks and desserts. Taiyaki are easy to make, which is good considering that the packaging and documentation for this cooker is all in Japanese.

Basically, you heat this over your stove. I tried using it on an electric burner, and believe it or not it works just fine that way. Heat the taiyaki-ki up on both sides until water sizzles on the cooking surface, then give it a light dash of cooking spray and spoon in a thin layer of batter, working from the tail to the body. (You can Google up a recipe, but I'm lazy and use pancake mix.) Add some red beans to the body area, then more batter to cover, and then close the mold. Cook for a few minutes on each side until golden brown. Voila, tasty sweet fish-shaped snack cakes!

You can vary the recipe by using chocolate, shrimp paste, peanut butter, or whatever you like as fillings.

After I recvd this one, I asked my Korean friends to read the instruction for me. I am quite sure any items to be sold in the US, one needs to have instruction in English. This is not the case. Anyway, the instruction was to tell you to be careful in handling this pan they will be come very hot during cooking.

I used waffle mix and put some red bean paste (Oriental store) as fillings and make some fish cake, very cute. I also used raspberry and blueberry as alternatives. I am going to let my imagination juice flow and seek for some other fillings. (Chestnut paste, sesame paste, berries w/marmalade, custard cream........) Um..... they are so yum yum.

I'd recommend using waffle mix rather than pancake mix waffle mix gives you a much lighter and fluffier texture. However, if you'd like to have a fish with substance (smile), use pancake mix the texture is much more heavy. Just like a pancake fish and fillings cannot be easily put into the fish.

Do not put the fish maker on the BBQ, a regular stove top will do the job. Always heat up the maker first for a few minutes and spray with some PAM or spread a bit of butter inside it prevents stickniess. Turn down the temperature to medium and pour some thin batter to coat the fish maker pan (one side only). Do not over fill. Put your fillings carefully into the center of the fish they will sink into the batter or you can use a small spoon to help them sink. Pour in more batter to cover the fillings. Close it tight and turn it around to warm the other side. Monitor the temperature as it burns easily.

After 2-3 minutes voila here comes 2 lovely fish with yummy fillings splashing onto your table. I make them on the weekends and my friends just love them. They are more popular than the English tea that I usually prepare.

The little fish cake reminds me of my childhood when I spent my early life in Asia. They have so many types of interesting snacks on the streetside!

1/24/2012 Update:

I was told to add a few teaspoon of BEER into the batter and it works like magic! Same for tempura batter adding BEER gives you the crispiness. Now the outer is crispy and the inner is as soft as mashmellow. Thank you for sharing the tips, Marsa.

I also use my home made vanilla custard cream as fillings. I sprinkle powder sugar on my fish after it is toasted. 1/2 of the sugar is elminated in the batter and it is healthier. Well, at least my waistline appreciates it. :>

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