Okay, today has been NO FUN. Left house at 6:15. Arrived at work and tried to re-assemble dismantled bits of coffee machine. Failed. FAILED. Had to call in re-enforcements who brought chocolate to me on their day off. Ate chocolate (obviously). It was a cheeky little dark Italian number and improved my day somewhat. Left work covered in coffee, went straight to a uni tutorial.
So basically I got home at five o'clock with a MASSIVE headache, feeling like I needed something more nutritious than chocolate, something full of tasty goodness, and something I could cook that didn't involve being in the kitchen for longer than half an hour.
Enter the Asian Fusion Udon extravaganza.
I call it "Asian-fusion" because it is a fusion of a variety of Asian cuisines. I mean, it turns out Asiatic in taste, but is sort of hybrid Japanese/Chinese/South-East-Asian. Or, to look at it another way, it tastes like "Australian-Chinese-from-the-seventies".
Winning.
Ingredients:
200ish grams of tofu. Flavoured however you like. I enjoy pre-marinated honey soy, but today have "organic garlic".
200 grams organic udon noodles (I like to buy dry and cook them).
A handful of raw cashews
Grapeseed oil
Sesame oil
One onion, chopped
A couple of cloves of garlic, chopped
A hunk of ginger (an inch long nub?) chopped fine
A fresh chili (if you're feeling it)
A couple of mushrooms, chopped
A carrot, in long thin slices
Half each of a red and green capsicum, in long thin slices
A bit of zucchini in long thin slices
A small tin of bamboo
A couple of florets of chopped cauliflower
Five to ten snow peas
Soy sauce
Agave
Optional hoi sin or plum or similar, if you like, for additional taste
This recipe is very loose. Any veggies you like can go in, as many or as few as you like. Any Asian style sauces. However you feel.
1) Boil water for your udons, and while it's boiling chop up your onion, garlic, ginger and cashews (or leave the cashews whole, your call!)
If you have the opportunity, start chopping your other veggies but keep them separate to your onion/garlic/stuff.
2) Once the the water is boiling cook the noodles as per the packet instructions. I cook mine for eight minutes.
3) Heat up the grapeseed oil. Now I don't have a wok, and my pans are all "don't have the heat too high, you'll ruin the eco-non-stick thingy" so I cook everything at medium heat. If you have a wok, heat that sucker high, otherwise, take a bit longer with a medium heat. It's more relaxing that way anyway cos you aren't in a constant state of paranoia about burning garlic.
4) Chuck in the onion, garlic, cashews and ginger. Give it a stir while it fries. (That's why it's STIR FRY kids.) While this is happening, chop your tofu into strips and I found some spring onions and chucked them in too.
5) Add the tofu and spring onions. Keep frying. Stir your noodles that are still cooking away in the boiling water.
After the tofu and whatnots, once everything smells amazing and is browning, chuck in your chopped veggies. Keep stirring, keep frying. Round now I add some sesame oil to help the fry, but if you're using a wok don't put the sesame in till later cos of the low burn point. Add any of the canned bits, bamboo or chestnuts or baby corn or whatever.
6) Sometime soon your noodles will be ready, drain them into a colander and give them a rinse so they don't all stick together while they wait to be added to the mix.
7) Cook until the veggies are really heated through, but still crisp. Let's be honest, all that stuff can be eaten raw and a stirfry is better if your veg are crunchy. Whack in the noodles. Mix. Lower the heat.
8) Add your chosen condiments. I probably went a quarter of a cup of soy sauce, two tablespoons each of hoi sin and agave. But it's to taste, so taste it and adjust as you like. Delicious option - sprinkle with sesame seeds.
9)Stir. When it's all together and looks and tastes right, serve it.
This served three.
I still have a headache but at least my stomach feels better, and I was on my feet in the kitchen for less than half an hour... Now I want some icecream (Tofutti brand, of course.)
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