Cold Udon

Okay. This dish is so easy, anyone can make it without screwing it up!!! Now I know I said I won't post up any recipes but this dish is so easy and delicious that I just have to share it with you guys, in case there are any non-cooks out there like me looking for a quick and easy fix. So basically what you'll need is udon and make sure they're fresh! By fresh I mean the ones you find in frozen isles, not the instant vacuum-packed ones that you find in the dry isles those are gross. Pay a bit extra and you'll taste the difference! Then you'll need instant dashi, they're like the Japanese bouillon cubes but made from bonito (dried, fermented, and smoked skipjack tuna) blah blah blah, anyway, they're for fish stock. Now don't be shy to buy more than you'll need for this dish because trust me you'll add it to pretty much anything for cooking, adds a great flavour. I actually use it a lot even in my cooked vegetables. And you'll also need grated ginger, grated daikon (those big white radish), and chopped green onions.

So cook the udon just like you would with pasta, you don't want to overcook them. I forget how long, maybe like 5-10min in boiling water? I usually take a bite to test the chewiness. Once they're cooked, drain it and run it under cold water, according to my mom it makes them not soggy? We do that with pastas too. Now if you've already got the ginger and the daikon grated and the green onions chopped just leave everything aside for a moment. Dissolve a baby spoonful (?!) of the instant dashi in a bowl (your serving bowl will do if you're only making it for yourself) in hot water, you don't want too much dashi because it's actually pretty condensed, and don't mind the undissolved bits at the bottom you won't notice them at the end.

Now I forget you also needed some ice cubes, it's for chilling the udon. I guess it's not that big a deal but it's just faster and chillier with ice cubes. Just mix the udon in ice cubes till it's chilled. Throw the udon into the bowl with the dashi base, throw on the ginger and the daikon and the green onions and VOILA!!!! Okay that was a lot of bullshit for such simple recipe, here's the shortened version:

fresh udon - frozen ones, not vacuum-packed
grated ginger
grated daikon
chopped onions
baby spoonful (?!) of dashi (Japanese fish stock)
ice cubes (maybe like 6?)

Cook the udon like pastas, make sure it's chewy. Run it under cold water to keep it from sogging up. Dissolve dashi with hot water in the bowl you're going to eat with. Chill the udon with ice cubes (in another bowl if you'd like). Put udon in the dashi bowl, throw on ginger, daikon and green onions. Done.

When you eat it you wanna mix everything up as you go to get all the flavours. And here's mine.