Kakiage Udon 

The ingredients of Kakiage is varied. This time, I got the seasonal broad beans, spring onion and shrimp.

My Japanese family loves Udon with Kakiage. The crispy kakiage gets soggy soaked in udon soup. It is a luxurious noodle dish. 

It requires a skill to make a large and crispy kakiage as my mum does. Still I'm not as good as she does but hopefully will attain that level in the future.

Dashi

http://japanesegourmet.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=Dashi

Men-tsuyu

http://japanesegourmet.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/men-tsuyu-noodle-soup-stock-as-i.html

Directions of udon sauce without men-tsuyu:

Mix 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of mirin, 1.5 cups of Dashi, the Japanese fish stock. 

Kakiage

http://japanesegourmet.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=Tempura

Directions

1. Cook udon noodles as directed in plenty of boiled water.

2. Add Men-tsuyu (noodle soup stock) and Dashi in the ratio of Men-tsuyu:Dashi=1:5. Adjust the taste by adding water or salt or soy sauce. Should you got a ready made mentsuyu, follow the direction.

 3. Serve Udon with thinly sliced spring onion, black seaweed paper and wasabi or chilli as well as kakiage.

The taste, flavour, methodologies and skills of dashi, men-tsuyu and kakiage would be passed down to the next generation!!

Udon de luxe when too tired to cook                

I believe many housewives sometimes feel tired to prepare or even to think about dinner of the day. Take away food could be a solution. However, in my case, if the take away food is not good, the heavy stomach (from the over used grease and salt) makes me feel more tired and much worse than before dinner. Of course kids always enjoy pizza or tandoori chicken. However, after aged 35, when I am tired, I need something warm, soupy, certainly not heavy. 

In that case, UDON DE LUXE is my solution. 

Udon de luxe is my coined word that udon with veggies are prepared in a large hot pot pan and is served at the dinning table like hot pot. 

Udon is usually served in a deep large soup bowl for each person. 

Udon from Wikipedia

However instead, by serving in a large hot pot with large portins, Udon de luxe entertains family visually to show all the contents and processes to be taken to one's own portion. 

Udon deluxe binds up and warms up family effectively and then the fatigue goes off instantly!!

This time, I got pieces of rice cakes so I deepfried them and added to Udon de luxe.

Ingredients:

• Udon (dry or ready made, 200-300g)
• Chicken thigh (150g, cut into large bite sized pieces)
• Shimeji mushrooms (1/2 portion)
• Spring onions (2 pieces)
• Spinach (boiled and cut into 4cm length, 50g)
• Deep fried tofu
• Mochi/rice cake (2 pieces)
• Soy sauce (3 tablespoons)
• Mirin (3 tablespoons)
• Salt (1 teasoon)
• Dashi/Japanese soup stock (2L)

Directions

1. Add dashi, soy sauce, mirin, salt and chicken into a hot pot (if not cast iron pan) and bring it into gently boil. Skim the scam from the chicken

2. While boiling hot pot stock, cook udon in large deep pan with prenty of boiled water (2L). This process will be skipped if you use ready made raw udon

3. Cut mochi (rice cake) into roughly 1.5cm cube. 

Heat up a small frying pan filled with vegetable oil into 1cm depth, deepfry mochi pieces slowly for 3-4 mins in two sides 

4. Add all ingredients into the stock and gentry boil the contents until raw veggies cooked.

This  article doesn't mean that I am against take away food. 

In fact, I enjoy pizza occasionally especially when I am not tired. 

Total time to prepare: 25 mins

Total cost: 4.3 pounds (1.5 for chicken, 1.8 for udon, 1 for the rest of veggies)

Cold Tempura Udon 

Adding tempura makes the simple udon dish luxury. The combination of cold udon and crispy tempura is very summery feast.

Prawn Tempura and Kakiage (Mixed veggies tempura)

You can add any veggies for Kakiage. My mom loves onion and carrot with some shell fish. In this time, I got squid, broad beans and onion.

Ingredients of Shrimp Tempura and Kakiage for two people

• 4 fresh shrimp without head and shell
• Squid
• Broad Beans
• 1/3 onion
• 200cc of Tempura flour+100cc of cold sparkling water. Alternatively, 1cup of plain flour, 1 egg york and 80cc+ cold sparkling water
• Vegetable oil to deepfry

Directions

1. Slice onion thinly, cut squid into small bite sized and peel the skins of broad beans. 

2. Mix tempura butter. Sparking water helps tempura batter to become light and crispy

3. Put all kakiage ingredients into a bowl. Dust the surface of veggies and squid with plain flour by hand. This helps all kakiage pieces attach together when deepfried

4. Dust the prawns with flour too

5. Fill vegetable oil into the large frying pan at least in 3cm depth. Heat up over medium temperature. Put wooden chopsticks and if bubbles come out quickly, it's the sign for a good temperature

6. Scoop the kakiage batter with a large spoon or ladle and place it in the pan gently. Deepfly kakiage for 1-2 minutes for both sides till it becomes crispy

7. Place the kakiage over a paper towel to remove extra oil.

8. For making shrimp tempura, pour some leftover batter over the tempura piece to create a nice crispy dots.

Prawn tempura became double sized with crispy dots. 

This is a skill to look prawn tempura luxurious.  

Combination of Squid and the seasonal flavour of broad beans is very nice.

The direction of tempura and kakiage also can be found:

http://japanesegourmet.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/tempura-dinner-17-july-nice-seasonal.html

There are some kinds of udon available in the UK. The raw or dried. I love the dried one from Sanuki Region (western part of Japan) where they produce and consume udon the most in Japan.

Boil udon noodles as directed and put them into a running water through a net to cool them down.

Directions of udon sauce:

Put 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 tablespoonfuls of mirin, 1 cup of Dashi, the Japanese fish stock. Add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.


Serve udon with tempura, sauce in a small bowl, tiny wasabi and thinly sliced spring onion.

Total time to prepare: 50 mins
Total cost: 4.7 pounds (2 pounds for 4 pieces of prawns, 0.2 pounds for squid, 0.5 pounds for veggies, 2 pounds for udon noodles)