The first time I ever had udon noodles it was love at first bite - I had always avoided udon noodles because they kind of looked slimy and I'm really not very good with slimy food - but the first time I had them in a little noodle bar in Colchester they were covered in a peanut sauce and accompanied with shitake mushrooms (another love at first bite from the same dish - what a meal out!) I fell head over heels for these noodles that had an excellent slurping quality and enough bite to really enjoy them.
Interestingly it was about 5 years before I ate udon noodles again because in part I think I was hanging onto that old memory - but since I started to introduce them into my cooking I have found them a wonderful addition to soups and stir fries. I am yet to try noodles with a dipping sauce but that may be next!
Anyway, when it came round to cooking for Japan I wanted to cook everything but couldn't pass the yaki udon by specially as it combined udon noodles with another great food affair of mine (no idea where all this love is coming from - but why not?) dashi! Dashi is a family of stocks used in Japanese cuisine which just has so much umami flavour and makes everything delicious!
For my recipe I used a mix of these two recipes for the sauce and went with cabbage, shitake mushrooms and tofu as my toppings - I will make these time and time again for the rest of my life I am sure! Just be careful with the sauce - make sure you taste, taste, taste, and taste again, as it's very easy to make it unbearably salty as most of the components have salt. They key is balance, mirin, sugar and a little water or fat such as butter or sesame oil will help balance it out!
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