YakiUdon

Cooked YakiUdon for lunch today. Got this inspiration from a Japanese restaurant in KotaDamansara. I was there for lunch with DN2 last week and they were having a promotion on this dish. I tried it and it was nice.

The supervisor told me that they use teriyaki sauce as a base to fry this. It was very simple, I cooked the teriyaki on one stove, blanched the udon noodles in a pot of boiling water in another and did the frying in a kuali over the third stove. Lunch time must work very fast because have to send one to school and fetch another.

The recipe:
1.
Teriyaki sauce:
Sake 3 tbsp
Sugar 1 tbsp
Shoyu 1 1/2 - 2 tbsp
Mirin 1 1/2 tbsp
Water 1/8 cup

2. 2 packets of fresh udon noodles (200g/pkt)
3. 5 leaves of cabbage
4. 1/2 big yellow onion
5. 1/2 carrot
6. 1/2 piece of chicken breast fillet
7. 5-6 pcs fishcake
8. 1 tbsp oil


Method:
1. Boil the sake and add the rest of the ingredients in. Continue to boil until the liquid begins to caramelize. Once it caramelizes, turn off the fire.
2. Cut the cabbage, carrot and onions into fine juliennes.
3. Cut the chicken fillet and fishcake thinly.
4. Heat up 1 tbsp oil in a kuali and fry the onions. Keep fire small and fry till soft and not brown and crisp.
5. Meanwhile boil a pot of water and blanch the udon noodles for one minute.
6. When onions are done, toss in the chicken and fishcake - fire on medium, add some teriyaki sauce and fry till chicken turn color.
7. Toss udon into kuali and pour the remainder teriyaki sauce. Turn fire down and add all the vegetables. Do not over cook the vegetables because it should be a little crunchy.
8. Serve with Shichimi togarashi (Japanese Chilli pepper), if you like your udon a little spicy.

[yakiudon]

My new "toys"

I bought these at a 'concept store' in 1U. On the right is a toothpick dispenser.

You push the button down and a toothpick pops up - not always though, you need to do it one or two more times if nothing comes out.









I thought these were really cute. Look on the right - a bento box, tamagoyaki in a skillet, a flask of hot drink and a sashimi to tuck in to.

On the left - the bento box is open and has a fork on top like a real bento. In the first layer is rice with an umeboshi plum and some other food stuff in the lower box.

This one is really cute. It's like a real sashimi spread. They have gari (pickled ginger), nigirizushi, gunkanmaki, hosomaki, a pot of wasabi, pretty plates, chopsticks, a saucer of shoyu and some tea in Japanese tea cups.

Initially mum thought that I was buying these for DN3 but when she found out that it was for ME, she lectured me about being childish playing with kids stuff.

Well mum, sometimes we need to humor ourselves. These are the little trills of life when we can go back to playing with 'toys' and I had great fun assembling these 'toys' together.

Bento 12

Daughter number 1 (DN1) complained that she didn't have enough futomaki yesterday. "Mum, can you please try to stuff more into the box tomorrow". Huh? Futomaki again? I asked. Yeah! ...and this time more please... Sweetheart, you want to make my life easy? You can have futomaki everyday!! I said. Hmmm....where does she put all that food?

The round box is for her (there are two layers - 12 pcs) and the one in front is for Daughter number 2 (DN2). I gave them a variety of Japanese rice crackers to snack on. Daughter number 2 is having her pre-PMR tests and feeling quite nauseating. I offered to make something else in case her stomach wasn't up for sushi. She quickly declined my offer and said she'd be fine with the sushi. Maybe it's just the nerves.

My two girls are as different as the sun and the moon. Where tests or exams are concerned, DN1 goes by the Chinese saying: "When the sky drops (or falls), just use it as a blanket to cover yourself". DN2 will work herself into a frantic and stress mode that her body gets affected. She'll be nauseous, her sinus would work up, she'd feel 'sick' all over. I would then have to cajole her and try to change her 'mood' to stabilize her. By the time we reach school, she'd be in a much cheerier mood, like this morning. These days, school is so stressful!