Monday 30 November 2009

Yaki udon, an easy dinner

Yaki Udon

Yaki Udon is a stirfry noodle and vegetable dish (udon being a  type of wheat noodle - nowdays most commonly made with Australian wheat ).
Just as an aside, there is an interesting article on the decline of Japanese wheat production here.
http://www.tokyofoundation.org/en/series/japanese-traditional-foods/vol.-20-domestic-flour

Recipe
A handful of thinly sliced meat - typically pork but can be anything including mince.
Veges
1 onion
1/4 cabbage
1 carrot
garlic
ginger
black pepper (most recipes don't include this)

2 packets of precooked udon noodles
2 tablespoons of sesame oil (vege oil is ok)

Sauce
2 tablespoons of soy
1 tablespoons of mirin (you could possibly get away with using sugar)
1 tablespoon rice vinegar (probably cider or white or malt would be fine - probably not balsamic)
Method
  1. Put noodles into a saucepan of boiling water until the water reboils.  Take noodles out, set aside. (Most recipes don't recommend this but I think it works better.)
  2. Chop veges 
  3. Put oil in a frypan   Lightly fry veges including garlic.  Push veges to the side of the fry pan
  4. Fry the meat.   Mix meat and veges in the pan.
  5. Grate ginger and black pepper over the top.  Add the noodles, mix,
  6. Add the sauce.  Mix together.
  7. Serve   with white sesame seeds or katsuo bushi, or chopped shallots
Next time I make it I will take a photo.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're either British or Australian. I knew you weren't American as soon as I read a few of your posts and saw the words:

packets
queue
Just home
Mum
Veg

Anyways, nice photographs, especially of the fall leaves, and I hope Vicky enjoyed her trip to Tokyo.

Cecilia said...

You are absolutely correct!
I wouldn't make a very good spy...

I tried to reply to this via mobile phone the other day, but it wouldn't post for some reason...

I had no idea that "packets" and "just home" were not part of the universal English lexicon...

What do Americans say as substitutes?

Vicky did have a wonderful time, all the bureaucratic hurdles of being a Russian in a country that it is still officially at war with, were surmounted. And this reminds me that I should go and visit her in Bangkok...