I haven't been too busy in the kitchen lately, but I decided to prepare a little something different for the family yesterday. We've been eating mostly rice-based dinners for a while, and I thought it would be nice to switch things up a little, so I decided to go with trying to make Udon!
I'm still very much a beginner home chef in terms of my skills, so even though the end result was lacking in some areas, I thought it was pretty good still and would try to make it again next time!
I referred to a few recipes while making this; this post isn't a recipe post but just a post detailing my experiences! Recipes used:
Prep Work
Ingredients Used for 5 servings:
- Frozen Beef Ribeye (400g)
- 1 bunch of Broccoli
- 5 Eggs
- Frozen Udon Noodles (500g)
- Mentsuyu - Noodle Sauce (100ml) + Water (800ml)
- Spring Onions (3 stalks)
Making the Onsen Eggs
Honestly, I still have no idea how to do this properly. It seems that getting the runny texture of Onsen eggs while still having the eggs be fully cooked is reliant on a pretty high degree of precision, and this time I failed to do it properly.
I first boiled a pot of water, let it cool for a minute, before immersing all my eggs in it for 12 minutes without the lid. The result: only one of them turned out to have fully cooked egg whites, the rest turned out to be half-raw and I had to re-fry them 😅
If anyone knows a failsafe way of making onsen eggs, do let me know in the comments below!
Preparing the Blanched Broccoli
Although I previously usually cook broccoli by sauteing it on a pan or tossing them in the air fryer, I came to enjoy the sesame oil blanched broccoli on JustOneCookbook. It's easy, fast to prepare, and gives the broccoli a nice sesame oil flavor that has just enough savory flavor.
I simply sliced the broccoli up into small florets, add them to a pot of boiling water and add two tablespoons of toasted sesame oil to the water. Then, after two minutes, they'll all be done! No need for salt or pepper, I prefer my broccoli with the subtle taste of this blanching method.
Preparing the Beef
I'm a little cheapskate, so I bought frozen beef instead of the ones by the butcher 😂 I cooked the beef by stir-frying it together with some spring onions and a little sugar. I forgot to add soy sauce, but the overall taste ended up fine - the udon broth was enough flavor for the most part!
Making the broth
I couldn't find dashi in the supermarket, so I ended up buying mentsuyu, a premade noodle sauce concentrate. Preparing it was easy - add it in a 1:8 ratio to hot water to get a nice udon broth.
Putting it all together
The end result is udon that is a little unorthodox - with broccoli instead of some sort of fishcake. My family enjoyed it even though some of it could definitely be done better. Oh well, it's not easy trying to do everything when you're not used to it! Hope to make it again sometime soon. 😋