Always nice to see such a colourful dish. So  Wenchinthegears brings us this lovely recipie.

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And this is what it's like when Spouses compete in noodle excellence..!

Zealous's entry, shown here in cast iron bowls with wooden lids, is truly an inspired piece...

This is a pretty simple udon recipe, and you can adjust it however you like depending on available of the ingredients and such. This recipe is for one bowl, you can easily just double the recipe for more! OH and it's vegetarian too. I mean, as long as you're okay with eggs and feesh.

Ingredients:
3x3 cube of Tofu (wrapped in a towel and pressed )
1 Egg (Preferably from your local backyard chicken, if you can get it)
Spring Onion
Bunashimeji mushrooms
2 fat shrimp
4 Shitake mushrooms (cleaned of dirt)
¼ Teaspoon Raw Sugar
1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce
Round fish cake (The white coin with the pink flower on it, some have spirals too)

For Soup:
2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
2 Tablespoons Sake
¼ Teaspoon Raw Sugar (Turbinado, like what they put in those “Sugar in the Raw” packets)
2 cups water
1 Package Udon Noodles

1 Packet Instant Dashi Stock
OR
about 1.5 Tablespoons bonito flakes and a 3 inch flat piece of konbu seaweed.

Let’s Make Tasty Udon Soup~
1, First take the shitake mushrooms and put them in a container you can hide in the fridge, fill it with water so the mushrooms are covered, cover the container and stash it in the fridge for at least 2 hours. These were soaked over night.

2, Take the mushrooms and squeeze out the extra liquid (reserving this with the liquid from the soak) then remove the stems. Put the mushrooms into a small pot and pour the liquid over them. Cover the pot. Then bring that up to a boil, skimming off the ugly foam. Take a square of paper towel (the unbleached kind), make a little hole in the middle, and place that on top of the boiling mushrooms. This will keep the mushrooms totally submerged. Cook for 20 minutes at a simmer. Then add the ¼ teaspoon Raw sugar. Cook for a 4 or 5 minutes longer than add the 1 Tablespoon soy sauce. Keep cooking until most of the liquid is absorbed, then remove from the heat and let it cool. I poured the mushrooms and the remaining liquid into another bowl, then used this pot to cook my eggs.

2, Take a very tiny pot, pop the egg in and fill with water just barely covering the egg. Cover with a lid and put on to bowl. I like soft boiled eggs for soup so I remove them a minute or two after the water boils. Cook to your taste of course. I suggest cutting some coins from your tube shaped fish cake now and setting them aside to get room temperature.

3, While the egg is boiling, put on another pot of water to boil, salt like you would for cooking pasta. When it boils add the udon to it. Wait 30 seconds to minute then break the noodles up gently. Pour the noodles into sieve then put the noodles into icy water. This will stop them from cooking further and add to the texture. Once cooled down you can transfer them back to the sieve to dry.

3A, I’d suggest putting your bowls into the oven at this point, if you can, and turning the oven down to it’s lowest setting. This is to keep your bowls warm, if you don’t want to bother with the stove just pour boiling water in them and cover them up to keep them warm for instance, the water you just boiled for your noodles!

4, Pour your water, soy sauce, sake, dashi packet and sugar for the soup all together into a pot and turn it on to boil. (If you don’t have instant dashi, like us, then throw in the bonito and the konbu here too and don’t worry the alcohol is cooked off during the boiling) When it boils, turn it down to simmer so it stays warm.

5, At this point, while waiting for the broth, take the tofu you were pressing and cut into flat squares as thin as you feel comfortable. Take the squares and fry them with a little sesame oil in a pan until crisp. OR be lazy like us and oil up your tofu then use a panini press. It’s like MAGIC. For that matter, cut your spring onion in half so your white is separated from most the green part. If you have a panini press, then press that too until it gets nice grill lines. Then tie it in a loose knot. If you don’t have a panini press, do this instead. Slice the fried tofu into triangles and put it on paper or a rack so it stays dry and doesn’t get soggy.

5, Your egg should be done now, so put it in some icy water so you can handle it. Take the little pot, fill it with water again, and put it on to boil. You’re going to use this to cook your shrimp as soon as it boils, so if you prefer them another way now is a good time to do that! I just like to thaw them, remove the vein and cut down the back to the tail. Then I cook them in the shells for about a minute maybe two, remove them and run under cold water. Then I shell them!

6, Now you bring it all together! Bring the stock to a boil again. Take your bowls and add the udon. Pour your stock in (use a fine sieve if you added konbu/bonito so you can keep the broth clear) equally. Then add the mushrooms, the fish cake, the shrimps and the spring onion you prepared in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Also add the tofu slices, fanning them vertically. Slice the green parts of the onions diagonally so that it makes sharp slivers and add those in a little pile. Then, take the bunashimeji mushrooms and gingerly cut some small clusters from the base and add them to the soup so the caps show over the broth.

TADA! You can also add lemon (or yuzu) peel if you like that, or any of your other preferred toppings. Some sesame oil or hot chili oil is also nice~

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