Thick and chewy udon noodles served in a delicate and savory dashi broth. The beauty of this kake udon lies in its simplicity. This dish is essentially the base for most hot udon dishes, and once you master it, you'll be producing restaurant-quality udon in no time!
INGREDIENTS:
Dashi Broth - 10 g dried kelp - kombu - 15 g bonito flakes - katsuobushi - 10 g dried sardines - niboshi - 1000 ml water - 5 tbsp soy sauce - 2 tbsp mirin - ½ tsp salt
Contents - 5 portions udon noodles - 5 tbsp green onion - finely chopped - toppings of your choice - see in post
FAQ WHAT IS KAKE UDON? Kake udon is a simple dish made of thick udon noodles served in a light dashi broth.
WHAT SHOULD I SERVE WITH KAKE UDON? You can eat it on its own. It's commonly served as a side with donburi (rice bowl) dishes or with tempura.
WHAT IS IN KAKE UDON? The most simple version is just udon noodles, broth and spring onion. But you can add other toppings such as tenkasu (tempura bits), kamaboko (fish cake), etc. See in post for more ideas.
Hey everyone, it's Yuto from sudachirecipes.com and today I'm going to show you how to make
a delicious udon soup we call kake udon.
I'm going to start by showing you how to make awasedashi from scratch.
It's super easy, but it takes about 45 minutes.
I recommend homemade the most, but if you want to learn some shortcuts, keep watching
because I'm going to show you later.
So first I start by taking 10 grams of dry sardines and removing the heads.
10 grams is about 6 or 7 of them.
In Japanese we call these niboshi and they add amazing flavour to the broth.
It's an optional ingredient, but I highly recommend it.
The next step is to take a pot and pour in 1 litre of cold water.
That's approximately 4 US cups.
Then we add 10 grams of dried kombu and the dried sardines.
Simply leave that to soak at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Okay, 30 minutes have passed, now we're going to move this pan over to the stove.
Add 15 grams of katsuobushi and then turn on the heat.
I recommend a medium-low setting because you want to give the ingredients time to gently
warm up and release their flavours.
It's also important not to let it boil at this point.
I personally love the taste of homemade dashi.
You can adjust the ingredients to suit your own taste and it really takes the udon broth
to another level.
However, if you want to save time, I'm going to show you a shortcut.
In Japan we have these tea bag style dashi bags.
You simply add them to hot water and boil them for 3 to 5 minutes.
Okay, when your dashi starts to show small bubbles around the edges, that means it's
close to boiling, you want to turn off the heat at this point.
Now take a heatproof bowl, place a sieve inside and line it with kitchen paper.
Take your dashi from the stove and pour it into the sieve.
We use kitchen paper because the katsuobushi is very fine, it catches all the tiny bits.
Using this method is going to give you a beautiful clear dashi broth.
Okay, now we're going to make udon soup.
Pour your dashi back into the pan and add 5 tablespoons of soy sauce and 2 teaspoons
of mirin.
This time we're going to heat it on high setting to quickly bring it to a boil.
I just want to boil it for about 2 minutes or so.
This will burn the alcohol out of the mirin.
This kake udon soup is the base for lots of hot udon dishes.
Once you can make this, you can easily make other recipes like tanuki udon or kitsune udon.
Once it's been boiling for 2 minutes, turn off the heat and add 1 teaspoon of salt and
mix it around.
This is just a small amount to enhance the flavour of the soy sauce and dashi.
Now before we dish up, I want to teach you about one more special ingredient that you
can use as a shortcut for kake udon.
This is tsuyu sauce and it's basically a concentrated noodle dipping sauce made with
dashi, soy sauce and mirin.
The ratios are different depending on the brand so check the label for the word kake.
For example, the yamasa tsuyu I have here says 1 part tsuyu and 5 to 6 parts water.
So for one portion, I would mix about 2 tablespoons or 30ml of tsuyu with 150ml of water.
Anyway, let's dish up.
I start by placing my cooked udon noodles in a bowl.
Then I add a couple of ladles of my homemade soup broth.
Next, I'm gonna place some toppings.
Today I've got kamaboko which is a type of Japanese fish cake.
I also have some finely chopped spring onion and some tempura bits called tenkasu.
These absorb the flavour of the soup.
I love adding lots of tenkasu.
Finally, I add a sprinkle of shichimi chili.
This is a Japanese spice that adds a nice amount of heat and flavour.
Whether you make it from scratch or use a shortcut,
I hope you enjoy making this delicious kake udon.
Thank you so much for watching.
If you enjoyed this video, you should check out my other noodle recipes.
Make sure to subscribe if you love Japanese cooking.
Hope to see you again next time.
Have a great day.
