Japan — Udon

Udon are thick Japanese noodles. There are several ways to prepare Udon. This recipe shows three of them:

• Kitsune Udon: Fox Udon
• Tanuki Udon: Japanese racoon Udon
• Tsukimi Udon: "Viewing moon" Udon (the yolk of an egg represents the moon)

Ingredients:

• Udon
• Noodle soup: e.g. Ninben Tsuyu no moto
• Kitsune Udon:
• Naruto: Fish sausage with a pink pattern when cut
• Atsuage: baked tofu. You can use the triangular atsuage bags that are used for Inari Sushi; but put them first in boiling water for a moment to reduce their strong taste a little bit.
• Leek or green onion
• Tanuki Udon:
• Naruto
• Tenkatsu: crispy pieces that are left when deep frying tenpura. If not available, you can cut some leek, mix it with tenpura batter and deep fry it.
• Leek or green onion
• Tsukimi Udon:
• One egg per person
• Naruto
• Leek or green onion

Preparation:

1. Boil Udon and boil some water in another pan (about 400ml per person, depends on the size of the bowl in which you will serve the noudles).
2. Cut naruto (about 7mm thin) and leek/green onion.
3. Put Udon into sieve and rinse it with hot water.
4. Add noudle sauce into prepared hot water. Consult the bottle label about the proportion.With "Ninben Tsuyu no moto" sauce the proportion sauce-water is 1:8.
5. Put the hot Sauce into a bowl and add Udon into it. (Use one bowl per person)
6. Kitsune Udon: Decorate Udon with atsuage, cut leek and naruto.
   Tanuki Udon: Put the deep fried pieces (Rests of Tenpura deep frying), naruto and cut leek onto the noudles.
   Tsukimi Udon: Put the york, cut leek and naruto onto the noudles.

Serving and eating:

Noodle eating directions: Keep the distance between your mouth and the bowl quite small, and lead the noodles with the chopsticks step by step into your mouth producing sipping noises.