Monday recipe: udon
My turn to cook tonight and I’ll be cooking Udon. Or my partner will and I will take the credit…
Right, so if I remember this correctly….
Ingredients:
- Pork mince
- Potato flour
- Salt
- Spring onion
- Fresh ginger
- Soy sauce
- Japanese Mirin (sweet cooking Rice Wine)
- Hondashi (Japanese Fish stock)
- Udon noodles
- Seaweed leaves (pages?)
- Eggs
- Chinese cabbage
- Carrots / green beans / any other veg you want really
- Miso
Technique:
Put the mince into a bowl, and knead in some grated ginger, a little spring onion, some salt and some soy sauce.
Add about two tablespoons of the Potato flour to bind the mixture.
Add about a level teaspoon of the Hondashi (fish stock) and about a tablespoon of the rice wine to a nice big pan of boiling water.
Using a couple of spoons, sculpt the mince mixture into balls and drop into the stock. This is a good point to imagine you are an alchemist.
Bring another pan of water to the boil for the Udon noodles.
Oh, and another one to hard-boil a couple of eggs.
Cut a few pieces of the seaweed off the main sheet and put them into a bowl of water to expand and soften.
Chop up a decent amount of the Chinese cabbage and add other veg as you see fit. Add these to the stock.
Once the noodles are nearing completion, take a hefty tablespoon of Miso and lower it into the stock, using chopsticks to break it up into the liquid.
Important: The stock should be just simmering at this point. Under no circumstances allow the mixture to boil when the Miso is added. I am assured this will change the flavour a great amount.
Empty the Udon into a colander, and rinse through with cold water to stop the cooking process.
Then rinse through with boiling water to bring back to temperature.
Serve them into a couple of bowls.
Add the vegetables and pork from the stock, then pour the stock over the dish.
Add your seaweed, your peeled, hard-boiled egg, and a generous sprinkling of chopped spring onion.
Season to taste.
Eat with a spoon and chopsticks, allowing 30 minutes resting time after the meal for a contended snooze.
