Dear Schumann,

Remember when you first told me about curry udon after your trip to Japan? We were in the kitchen while mom was cooking and you were raving how it was such a simple and delicious combination, yet we hadn’t come across it before here in Toronto. Then fast-forward to when I finally got to try it in Japan and wanted to recreate it at home. Turns out, it’s not too difficult to make (of course, I’m not making things from scratch and using shortcuts)!

Curry Udon
(Makes enough for 2)

1 yellow onion, sliced
1 pack/300 grams of frozen, sliced beef (find it in your Asian grocery store’s hot pot aisle)
1 packet/60 grams of bonito soup stock (I buy the Ajinomoto Hondashi brand)
3 cups water
2 cubes of curry roux (I prefer S&B Golden Curry over the Glico brand)
2 servings of frozen udon
1 small carrot, thinly sliced (optional) or carved into a flower (for garnish)
1 scallion, sliced (optional)
1 egg, soft boiled (optional)

1. Heat a large pot of water for the udon.
2. Heat a large skillet pan and put the sliced beef in (you can defrost it first, I’ve never found it to be problematic to cook it from frozen). Cook until it’s no longer pink or red.
3. Add in the sliced onions and cook until softened.
4. Mix the soup stock with water and pour over the beef and onions. Bring it to a boil.
5. By now, your pot of water should be at a rolling boil, add the frozen udon in it to cook.
6. Add two cubes of the curry roux into the beef, onion, and dashi and really mix it in so that it dissolves. It’s optional, but you can add your carrots here.
7. Cook down the curry until it thickens to a gravy consistency.
8. The udon should be cooked now, drain the water away and portion the noodles into two bowls. Ladle the curry and beef over the udon. Alternatively, you can add it to the skillet pan to toss in the curry. Then portion it into two bowls.
9. Garnish with scallions, I also like to add furikake. If you boiled an egg, slice it in half and give each bowl one.

Having frozen hot pot meat in the freezer is so handy when you need a little bit of meat for a dish.

Love cooking with tongs, a good pair is hard to find!

Making that shortcut dashi broth. It’s also great for hot pot, sukiyaki, miso soup or nabe udon.

Make sure to dissolve that curry roux, no one wants a bite of that!

I’d say I have udon at least once a week. Especially kimchi udon.

I will admit, I don’t usually garnish it with carrots and scallions or the egg. Maybe 10% of the time. Otherwise, I just use furikake and call it a day. It’s delicious and filing either way!

Sincerely,
Syl