We recently had a meeting to re-start our Japanese tea garden project at Ryokusuido. Part of the meeting was making and eating udon.
Below is a recipe for ankake udon from one of my former students, Ikuko. Thank you for teaching us.
Ankake Udon (recipe for 2 people)
Make dashi soup stock. You can do this one of three ways:
- From scratch: for each 2 1/2 cups of water use a piece of dried konbu (kelp seaweed) 2" x 1". Wipe konbu with a clean damp cloth and place in pot of cold water. Bring to boil. Just before water boils, remove and discard konbu. Add 1/2 cup of katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) and remove from heat. Strain any foam that forms on the surface. Let bonito flakes settle to the bottom. Let steep for a few minutes then strain through several layers of cheesecloth.
- Use dashi powder (hon-dashi or dashi-no-moto) following package directions. Try to find one without MSG.
- Use a combination of konbu and dashi powder.
For every 2 1/2 cups of dashi stock add:
2T sake
2T mirin
2T shoyu (soy sauce)
1/2 t salt
Adjust the combination above to your own taste.
Then mix a paste of
2 1/2 T of katakuriko (potato starch) or cornstarch
4T of water
Stir slowly and gently into the heated stock. The soup will begin to thicken, allow to simmer gently for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
Cook udon noodles in boiling salted water until done (approx. 8-10 minutes). Drain.
To serve, put Udon noodles in a bowl, add soup and garnish with 1/2 to 1 t. of fresh grated ginger, 2T of finely sliced green onions, and shichimi (blended hot peppers) to taste. Sliced shiitake mushrooms cooked in dashi, and/or fried tofu squares may be added. Other vegetables (also cooked in dashi) can be added for additional garnish.
Enjoy!
Hi Margie,
ReplyDeleteThis is Mike. Ikuko started feeling sick earlier today, and when I came home from work I offered to make dinner. She requested Ankake Udon. So, I decided to do a quick search for a recipe, and I just randomly clicked on this one. When the page loaded up, the "Sweet Persimmon" name sounded familiar and then Ikuko (who is sitting next to me on the sofa nursing our baby Olivia) said, "That's Margie's blog." And then I read through quickly and there's her name. And, you just posted this two days ago. Weird! So, I am gonna go ahead and use Ikuko's recipe from your website. We hope you are well, and please say hello to the Tea Ceremony crew for us. Happy Holidays. Time to cook!
Hello Mike,
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful to hear from you. I hope Ikuko is feeling better and that the Ankake Udon tasted good to her. Please thank her for the recipe. How funny that I posted it and you looked for it within days. Must be some cosmic connection. We think of both of you often (especially when eating udon and drinking sake). Our best to you and Ikuko and little Olivia. Take care.
Margie