Beginner Level Cooking: Udon

Please note cooking is not my strong suit, so for a truly authentic Japanese recipe please look elsewhere!

Being half Japanese, I grew up with Udon being my favorite noodle dish. I prefer it even over ramen, as I just love the thick noodles. Cold Udon is easy enough to make by cooking the noodles, cooling, and putting the dipping sauce in a bowl, but I recently decided to be adventurous and try making a hot Udon dinner all by myself. This may not seem so advanced to the majority of the population, but as a takeout queen, this seemed like a big feat of the day.

I had some ingredients on hand, and ordered the rest from Marukai on Instacart (Marukai or Mitsuwa should have all of them):

• Shirakiku Sanukiya Udon Japanese Style Noodles

• Pocino Foods Sliced Pork Chashu

• Organic Green Onion (Scallions)

• House Foods Tofu, Soft, Premium

• Kikkoman Rice Seasoning, Sweet Cooking, Manjo Aji-Mirin

• Kikkoman Soy Sauce

• Ajinomoto Hon Dashi Soup Stock

• Japanese Chili Pepper (Amazon)

• Sugar

• 1 Egg

• Optional add-ins: veggies (I added spinach), wakame seaweed, tempura

I use my DASH hard boiled egg cooker for eggs.

I cooked 3 for the week, but only one was used in the dish. It can be cut in half once cooked and cooled.

Once your water is boiled, the frozen udon noodles only take 2-3 minutes to cook.

P.S. This foldable strainer is great for limited storage space.

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil, add 1 tsp of dashi, 1 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tbsp mirin, 1/2 tsp of sugar (low sugar version). Add in frozen chashi (2 pieces), egg, green onions, tofu, and any other add-ins. Cook for 3 minutes. Pour broth over udon noodles and top with chili pepper. Enjoy!