Mushroom Udon

We’ve booked our next trip to Asia a couple of months ago!! This time we are arriving in Seoul Korea and departing from Tokyo Japan. We visited Japan in 2015 (previous post shows some images taken during the trip) and have just been itching to visit again. The food, the people, the shopping, the scenery, the tranquility, everything just pulls you in.
I’ve nearly finished organising the route and will hopefully have the whole trip organised by the end of the month as we will be going during Easter which is a really busy time of year to Holiday in Japan so accomodation generally books out a few months ahead and I’d prefer not to be in that situation again, as last time we ended up having to stay in SO many different places and generally seperate.

This is a Japanese inspired lunch (or dinner if you like) I whip this up fairly regularly when I’m working from home as it’s warm, filling and quick. The ingredients used are general staples in my cupboard so you may need to purchase some of them if you don’t tend to cook Asian or Japanese food but you will reach for them time and time again once you start delving into that type of cooking.

Serves 2

Ingredients
700ml Dashi
60ml Soy Sauce
60ml Mirin
6 Mushrooms (approx, I usually use chestnut)
1 tsp Shichimi
3 Spring Onions
Udon Noodles

Method
Start by chopping the mushrooms and spring onions into thin slices. You want to have everything mise en place as it’s quite a quick one.

Pour your dashi mixture into a large pot with the soy sauce and mirin and place it on a medium to high heat. When it starts to simmer, throw in the mushrooms. After about 2 mins, add in your Shichimi (optional, if you like some heat) and the Udon noodles. The noodles should come apart naturally but you can always give them a nudge if they are clinging together. Follow the pack instructions but mine ususally take about 2 mins to cook. Divide into 2 bowls, top with the spring onions, some toasted sesame seeds and some extra Shichimi if you like it a bit spicier.

Slurp your way to a filling, warming lunch.