Udon

This is one of those recipes that is great to have up your sleeve for a quick dinner or side dish. This is the basic incarnation of udon but when we eat it as the main meal I like to add Chinese BBQ Pork or eat it alongside gyoza (japanese dumplings). Even if you don’t like shiitake mushrooms I would still recommend putting them in the soup because they really add depth to the broth. You can get them, mirin and the dashi granules from a lot of supermarkets as well as any Asian supermarket.

Every time I make this I’m blown away by how something so simple can be SO GOOD! Even though you cook the noodles separately they soak up so much flavour from the soup and the same goes for the shiitake. These are the mushrooms that made me like mushrooms. I prefer to use dried udon noodles because a lot of the frozen soft noodles I’ve tried don’t have the chewiness that I look for in udon but substitute frozen noodles if you like them better. This recipe makes one serving so it’s super easy to multiply for lots of people.

Udon

Adapted from Mamaloli’s Easy Udon over at Mamaloli.

1 1/2 cups water

1/2 tsp granulated dashi

1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce

1 1/2 tbsp mirin

5 pieces dried, sliced shiitake mushrooms

1 spring onion, finely sliced

splash of sesame oil

70g dried udon noodles

Combine all ingredients except for the spring onion and noodles in a medium saucepan.

Bring to a simmer and cook for 2 mins.

Take off the heat and add spring onion.

In a separate large saucepan cook the udon noodles in boiling water according to packet instructions.

Drain noodles and place in a bowl then pour over the soup.

Serves one.