Udon with Sesame Dressing and Squid Tempura

Crispy squid tempura with udon noodle. As you can just buy the sauce from Asian grocery shops, it’s very easy to make.

What you need is ….

• udon noodle
• goma-shabu sauce / goma-shabu dressing
• squid tubes
• tempura flour
• red ginger (beni shouga)
• spring onion and black sesame for garnish

For udon noodles, you can buy either dried or frozen.   I don’t recommend to buy vacuumed fresh udon noodles though… they taste quite bad :p

<Udon Noodle>

Boil plenty amount of water in a wide sauce pan.  Drop udon into water, and cook until it’s al dente.  If you are using frozen udon you don’t need to cook in hot water for long.

Drain, set aside.

<Squid Tempura>

If you don’t have tempura flour, or you want to make it from scratch, here is the recipe :

• 1 cup cold water
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 cup plain flour

Yaki Udon

• 1 portion udon noodle
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp mirin
• 1/2 tsp dashi powder
• 1 tsp oyster sauce
• 1/2 tsp grated ginger
• 1 tbs spring onion – chopped
• 1/8 onion – sliced
• 1/8 carrot – jullienne
• few pieces squid – defrosted

Fried Noodle Wrapped in Omelet (Omu-soba)

Similar to omu-rice, omu-soba is a dish which yakisoba (stir-fried noodle) is wrapped in thinly cooked omelet.  This is not really yo-shoku (Japanese Style Western Food) nor Japanese food.  Someone made up this dish like “hey, if you can wrap up rice with omelet, why don’t we do that for yakisoba too?”

Yaki-soba is Japanese style stir-fried egg noodle (thin).  It’s usually cooked with thinly sliced pork, onion, carrot and cabbage, and topped with ao-nori and bonito flake, then served with red pickled ginger.  We use yakisoba sauce which you can easily buy from supermarket in Japan.  The sauce is quite exensive in Asian grocery shops in Perth, so I normally season the noodle by myself.

< Yaki-soba > for one

• 1 portion of yakisoba noodle (or any thin egg noodle)
• onion, carrot, cabbage, beanshoots, some meat or seafood (up to you)
• 2 tsp Worcester sauce
• 1 tsp tomato sauce
• 1/2 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp oyster sauce
• salt & pepper
• tomato sauce + Japanese mayonnaise + ao-nori to garnish

1. Heat 1 tbs of oil in a frying pan.  If you are using thinly sliced pork, cook the meat first.  If you are using some other meat/seafood, saute sliced onion and carrot, then add meat/seafood.  Season with salt&pepper.
2. Add roughly chopped cabbage.  Stir-fry for about 1 min, and add yakisoba noodle.  Try to loosen up the noodle with chopsticks, and drop 1~2 tsp water.  Stir, turn down the heat and cover with lid.
3. Once the water is absorbed into noodle, take off the lid and turn the heat to medium.  Pour the sauce and stir-fry.  Season if required, and set aside.
4. In another frying pan, cook thin omelet.  Turn off the heat.
5. Place yakisoba noodle onto the omelet.  Place a plate on the top of frying pan (the serving side down), and flip it around.
6. Curl the edge of omelet in and completely wrap up yakisoba.  Drizzle mayo, tomato sauce and sprinkle ao-nori.

Spicy Seafood Japanese Curry

It was another hot day…  Onece I stepped outside, I could feel that my body was getting cooked in this heat.  Japanese people tand to eat hot/spicy food in summer to overcome the heat, and today was the day for me.  I cooked spicy Japanese curry with seafood.  I chose Udon noodle to accompany the curry instead of steamed rice as I wasn’t in a mood for rice.  I prefer noodle to rice in such hot days.

It’s always easy to cook Japanese curry: you just need to buy Japanese curry roux which is available from Asian grocery shops or some supermarkets.  Then you can arrange any flavor: pork, beef, chicken, veggies and seafood.

The key for tasty curry is the cooking time.  Longer you simmer, deeper the taste develops.  I used Japanese curry mix “Hot” and added extra chili to make it really spicy!

<Spicy Seafood Curry> for 3~4 ppl

• 1/2 Japanese curry sauce mix “hot” (about 110g)
• 3 cups water
• 1 onion
• squid, prawn about 250g

1. Slice onion and squid.  Heat a sauce pan and saute onion.
2. Add squid and prawn into the pan.  Saute until lightly browned.
3. Add water and bring to boil.  Turn down the heat and add curry sauce mix.  Simmer over low heat for about 20~30 minutes.  Add chili (or chili powder) if you like.
4. Enjoy with steamed rice, noodle, whatever you like.

The standard Japanese curry uses sliced meat (pork, usually), potatoes, onions and carrots.  They are the ingredients that you can see at the back of the Japanese curry mix package “how to cook Japanese curry”.  The standard curry tastes great, but why not try more varieties??  You can add any vegetables like cabbage, eggplant, capsicums, corn, and broccoli.  Or, add boiled eggs (shells off) into curry and simmer.  The egg absorbs the flavor of curry, and you can enjoy the different texture.

By the way, I also like eating pieces of bread dipped in Japanese curry too.

Cold Soba Noodle + Japanese Chicken Salad

It’s a soba season for Japanese people here.  Eating this buckwheat noodle with refreshing ginger dipping sauce can make you forget the hot air outside.

<Dipping Sauce> for two

• 4 cups water
• 2 tsp Dashi powder (Japanese fish stock)
• 2 tbs sake (cooking wine)
• 3 tbs soy sauce

Enjoy with cooked soba noodle

This is just an easy side dish

<Japanese Chicken Salad>