Day 5: Homemade Udon

The kids have returned home after having spent the weekend with their dad and are now on Thanksgiving break. Normally it is their job to make dinner - the one meal of the day we sit together to eat - on days they are off from school. Today however, I was catching up on some of my favorite food blogs and stumbled across the recipe for Homemade Udon on Andrea Nguyen's Viet World Kitchen blog. When I offered to take over dinner duty, my daughter quickly obliged.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE noodles, a gustatory predilection I am sure I inherited from my father. I grew up eating Korean food three meals a day, 6.66 days a week. (Saturday night dinners were eaten out at the Swedish Smorgasbord, the 1970s version of All-You-Can-Eat in the mid-west, where I grew up.) I remember him serving up giant bowls of steaming noodles floating in all kinds of korean soups and broths for lunch and dinner and frequently for breakfast too. In my memory (which my oldest sister will tell you is rarely accurate), we were just as likely to eat noodles as we were rice. Today I eat a noodle dish for lunch at least two or three times a week.

But of all the noodles in the world, fresh, thick Japanese udon is my favorite, emphasis on the word "FRESH." Once you dry, freeze or deep fry noodles (which is how most noodles for home preparation are packaged now), they lose their chewy, mouth-pleasing texture. I've noticed that even Asian "Noodle Houses," which are popping up all over Southern California these days, rarely serve truly fresh, handmade noodles.

Normally I would be intimidated by the thought of making noodles but Andrea Nguyen is one of my favorite food bloggers and her recipe and video made it look easy. I decided I had to try this at least once and am I ever glad I did! The recipe is hard to get wrong and produces the chewy, satisfying udon noodles I am used to getting only in authentic Japanese restaurants.

The one catch is that it was extremely time-consuming. I halved the recipe (used 8 ounces of flour instead of the full pound) and it still took me 30 minutes just to roll-out, cut and pull the noodles. By the time you add in the resting time (2 hours), boiling then blanching in cold water, and then actually making the broth and garnishes, you are looking at three hours minimum to prepare a meal that you will slurp down in five minutes. According to Nguyen, the quantity I made should have been four generous servings. It was barely two by our standards.

By the time the noodles were ready to eat, it was late and I did not have time to make a proper dashi (Japanese broth) from scratch. Fortunately I keep a bottle of Memmi, a soy sauce noodle soup base, on hand for just such occasions. Mix with hot or cold water according to the proportions listed on the bottle. Add finely sliced green onions and fish cakes (or thinly sliced smoked ribeye, which is what I happened to have) and voila! You have a wonderful noodle dish to rival any Japanese restaurant.


The Results
Both kids slurped down the noodles and broth almost as soon as they sat down at the table, including my daughter who said she was "too full to eat dinner tonight."

Busy Mom Modifications and Tips

• The next weekend I have a block of time, I plan on making a big batch of noodles. This really is not feasible for busy weeknights.
• Nguyen recommends boiling the noodles until they float to the top and are chewy, about three minutes. I found that this was not nearly long enough, especially if you plan on serving the noodles cold. The noodles may seem like the perfect texture just out of the hot water bath but when you dunk them in cold water, they harden a bit. This is not a problem if you are serving them in a hot soup where they will have time to soften up again, but it is too chewy for cold preparations. For cold soups, boil the noodles until they are quite soft (but not falling apart), about five to six minutes, and then blanch in cold water.
• I boiled the noodles in the Memmi broth a little longer than I had planned (I got distracted) but it turned out just fine. The noodles absorbed the broth and resulted in fantastic flavor.
• I am seriously considering buying a pasta maker in the hopes it will speed up the process thereby making this meal more accessible.
• When I am in the kitchen, my father will frequently peer over my shoulder and ask what I am cooking. Today he recognized the dough immediately. When I confirmed that I was making "kalgoogsoo" (the Korean name for udon), he suggested that next time I should add a little fresh soybean flour to the dough. "It will make it taste MUCH better!" He's the expert so I think I will take his advice!

Ratings

• FKP*: "These noodles are just the way I like them! They are REALLY GOOD!"
• Difficulty: Medium. The recipe calls for a food processor and kneading very stiff dough for five minutes. Otherwise it would be easy.
• Time to prepare: 3 hours from start to eating.
• Prognosis:  This is definitely a keeper, something I will make on on weekends and special occasions.

My Shopping List

Nothing - I made do with what I had on hand.

The Tally

• The day's tally: $0
• Total this week so far: $7.77

*FKP: Finicky Kid Pronouncement, which would be utterances from my teenage son.