Kake Udon (Udon in Hot Dashi Broth)

Name: Kake Udon (Udon in Hot Dashi Broth)
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 25 min
Yield: 2人分
Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients: 2 portions boiled udon (or frozen udon); 700 ml water; 5 g kombu (1 piece about 10 cm square); 15 g katsuobushi (bonito flakes); 2 tbsp light soy sauce; 2 tbsp mirin; 1/3 tsp salt; 2 green onions; 4 slices kamaboko; 2 tbsp tenkasu (tempura crumbs); Shichimi togarashi, to taste

By Chef Cannon

Cuisine: Japanese

Region: 日本各地

Servings: 2人分

Noodles

Kake Udon (Udon in Hot Dashi Broth) is a home-style staple dish. Use light soy sauce for the clear Kansai-style broth. Ingredients and step-by-step instructions are below, with notes for home cooking.

Ingredients

2 portions boiled udon (or frozen udon)
700 ml water
5 g kombu (1 piece about 10 cm square)
15 g katsuobushi (bonito flakes)
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
1/3 tsp salt
2 green onions
4 slices kamaboko
2 tbsp tenkasu (tempura crumbs)
Shichimi togarashi, to taste

Steps

[Make the dashi] Put the water and kombu in a pot and leave for about 30 minutes (skip this if you're short of time). Heat over medium-low and remove the kombu when small bubbles start to rise from the bottom of the pot.
When it boils, add the katsuobushi all at once, lower the heat and simmer gently for 1–2 minutes. Turn off the heat and, once the flakes sink, strain through a sieve lined with kitchen paper. Squeezing brings out bitterness, so let it drip through on its own.
[Broth] Return the strained dashi to the pot, warm it and add the light soy sauce, mirin and salt. Bring to a boil and taste: it's ready when the saltiness feels clean.
Slice the green onions thinly on the diagonal or into rings, and cut the kamaboko 5 mm thick.
Bring a separate pot of plenty of water to a boil and heat the udon according to the package (add frozen udon straight from frozen). When the noodles loosen, drain them well in a colander.
Put the udon in warmed bowls and pour over plenty of hot broth. Top with kamaboko, tenkasu and green onions, and sprinkle with shichimi if you like.

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Notes

Use light soy sauce for the clear Kansai-style broth. For Kanto style, use 2 tbsp dark soy sauce and 1 tsp sugar for a darker, slightly sweeter broth.

If you don't have time to make dashi, use 1½ tsp granulated dashi in 700 ml water. In that case, cut back on the salt and adjust by tasting.

Crack in a raw egg for tsukimi udon, top with sweet-savoury simmered fried tofu for kitsune udon, or add wakame for wakame udon.

Frozen udon can also be heated in the microwave before going into the broth and will still come out springy.

Origin and history

Udon are thick noodles made by kneading wheat flour with salted water and cutting it into thick strips — one of the most familiar noodle dishes, eaten all over Japan.

The technique is thought to have roots in wheat-processing methods brought from China, and the long, slender noodle shape we know today is said to have spread around the Muromachi period. In the Edo period, Kamigata (Kansai) came to favour udon while Edo preferred soba, which links to today's broth divide: the clear Kansai style of kombu dashi and light soy sauce, and the darker Kanto style of katsuobushi and dark soy sauce.

There are famous regional noodles of different thickness and chewiness, such as Sanuki udon from Kagawa, Inaniwa udon from Akita and Mizusawa udon from Gunma. Kake udon is the most basic way to eat them, enjoying the noodles' flavour straight up with dashi.