HIYASHI CHUKA UDON

HIYASHI CHUKA UDON

#SIAintheKitchen

Okay, it’s summer at the time of writing this and I just had to make one of my favourite things to eat in this hot hot: hiyashi chuka udon!

Hiyashi chuka is a Japanese dish consisting of julienned vegetables, chilled noodles, imitation crab, egg crepe, shrimp, ham, sprouts and more. It is a completely adjustable and forgiving dish and can be made with just about everything! It is super colourful and delicious and it all comes together with a light vinaigrette.

I’m keeping mine super simple and along the lines of the more traditional recipes. Typically, it’s made with ramen noodles but I’m using super chewy sanuki udon. I usually have these noodles on-hand so I used whatever was available but you can also use soba noodles or an egg-based noodle.

You can pretty much use any vegetables here. I kept mine real simple with tomato wedges, lettuce, green onions and cucumber. I forgot to add the corn kernels but you can even add julienned and blanched carrots, shrimp, ham, bean sprouts, kaiware sprouts, shredded nori, edamame beans - again, the options are endless.

As for the dressing? I kept my really easy with a soy and sesame oil base. I’ve seen others that include miso paste, chili oil, doubanjang, etc. It’s up to you but I’m lazy and just keeping to the simplest of vinaigrettes: vinegar, soy, mirin, and chili flakes.

Plate it nice, pour the vinaigrette over it and you’re all done! Guaranteed that you’ll be wanting more of this ASAP.

HIYASHI CHUKA UDON - serves 4 - 6

Salad:

• 2 blocks sanuki udon noodles, frozen

• 1 head lettuce, chopped

• 1 English cucumber, cut into 3” pieces and julienned

• 3 beefsteak tomatoes

• 1/2 pkg (250g) imitation crab sticks, julienned

• 2 scallions, sliced

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil

• 3 eggs, beaten

• 1 tsp mirin

Vinaigrette:

• 1 tbsp rice vinegar

• 1 tbsp mirin

• 2 tbsp toasted sesame oil

• 1/4 cup soy sauce

• 1/4 tsp dried red chili flakes

1. In a small bowl, beat the eggs with the mirin.

2. In a medium saucepan, heat the pan over medium-high and once hot, add the vegetable oil. Wait for the vegetable oil to glisten and then slowly pour in the beaten egg mixture. Swirl around in the pan and lower the heat to medium, cook for 2 min. Flip and turn off the heat. The residual heat will cook the rest of the egg. Allow to cool down.

3. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Cook the sanuki udon noodles (from frozen) for 4 min. Loosen the noodles while cooking. Drain and rinse the noodles. Set aside.

4. Prepare your vegetables: chop the lettuce, julienne the cucumber, imitation crab, and egg crepe. Slice the scallions. Halve the tomatoes and cut each half into thirds.

5. Divide the lettuce into 4 - 6 bowls. Place noodles on top. Place the cucumber, crab, egg and tomatoes. Sprinkle with green onions and pour the vinaigrette on top.