Japanese Udon (on a budget)

JAPANESE HOME-COOKING - simple & healthier & artistic - a feast for the taste buds & eyes. As I always say, REAL eating should be an experience of all the senses (even if its just lunch in front of the TV!). --- Mindful eating (let's leave this for a latter post)

I am very much inspired by the book-Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat-Delicious slimming and anti-ageing secrets (Naomi Moriyama). It has easy to follow economical recipes, strategies, arguments for Japanese home cooking as opposed to Western-style eating.

Japanese cooking ingredients can be pricey. Just take a glance at the various soy-sauces for sushi, gyoza, soba, udon & shabu-shabu. It's usually above RM10. And what if you use it once only - the rest will be in your pantry until the expiry date! If you look at the ingredients that make up the sauce, they are almost the same, in varying amounts - salt, sugar, soya sauce, mirin & bonito. Noodles are also costly - buckwheat soba, cha soba (even more).. Luckily, demand for Japanese noodles in Malaysia is sustainable, so there is now a factory in JB that produces udon, tofu & fresh soba..etc.

I was at the Jaya Grocer @Jaya33 yesterday and picked up a small packet of fresh udon for RM1.90. So for today's lunch, I cooked up my version of :

UDON in SOUP
1 small pkt fresh udon
3 stalks baby choy sum/sawi (mustard leaves)
1 egg
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
a sprinkle of chilli flakes (from Domino's pizza)

For soup:
3 tablespoon light soy sauce (less salty, the better)
1 tablespoon mirin or Chinese cooking wine (ShaoXing)
1 cup hot water
1 teaspoon light brown sugar
1/2 pkt (3gm pkt) Bonito fish flakes (from Isetan, KLCC)

In a small pot, boil some water. Add udon & cook for a few minutes. Turn off the heat. Use a tong to transfer the noodles on to a soup plate. Turn on the heat again & blanch choy sum. Pour away the water(drain) and arrange vegetables beside the udon.

Use the same pot to simmer the soup ingredients. Adjust to taste. Pour onto the udon. Wash the pot & wipe it dry. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil (not too hot). Add some chopped garlic & fry till slightly brown. Break an egg over it. Keep low heat. Gently break the yolk. Turn over. Cook until egg is just done. Don't over cook. Spoon onto the udon. Sprinkle chilli flakes & remaining packet of bonito flakes.

Easy washing up: 1 pot, 1 tablespoon, 1 teaspoon, 1 pair of tongs, 1 soup plate.

P.S. You would have noticed that the parts of a Japanese dish are cooked separately, then assembled decoratively in a bowl or plate. This, I believe is the philosophy of Japanese cooking (which may be applied to all forms of cooking). Every ingredient has its importance, has its role to play. By spending time to blanch, fry, boil each ingredient separately, one can reflect on LIFE with its various 'tastes' (happy, sweet, bitter, salty...). We all have to go through it but in the end it comes together to make a delicious 'meal' - a life well lived, well spent! Do not forget the spices, the condiments of life - just a dash of fun, a dash of adventure, a handful of experience, a bunch of optimism & enthutiasm; and a tinge of sadness, to remind us how precious life is!! Be MINDFUL of what you do in life, choose wisely each day, each action you take, each word you speak ... Do not be tempted to throw all the ingredients into the soup and hope for the best!