How to Cook Udon Noodle Soup With Beef Karaage
Serves: 4
Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 40 mins
Ingredients needed to make Udon Noodle Soup With Beef Karaage:
For the udon noodles:
- 1 nori seaweed sheet, chopped
- 10 ½ oz all purpose flour, for more for dusting
- 1 tsp salt
- 5 fl oz water
For beef karaage:
- 7 oz beef tenderloin
- 5 baby courgettes
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1 ¼’’ ginger, peeled and grated
- 2 tbsp white sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- 1 tbsp all purpose flour
- 2 tbsp sake
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
For the udon soup:
- 1 oz katsuobushi
- 4’’ konbu
- 5 fl oz mirin
- 7 fl oz soy sauce
- 3 ½ oz sake
- 14 fl oz water
Cooking instructions for Udon Noodle Soup With Beef Karaage:
- For the noodles, process a mixture of flour, water and salt in a food processor for a couple of minutes or until it forms a smooth dough.
- Roll the dough into a large ball and stuff it inside a resealable plastic bag to set aside for half an hour.
- Meanwhile, make the beef karaage by flattening the beef with a meat mallet until it is only about 1/8’’ thick.
- Slice it into long strips, resembling the size of the courgettes and dump them into another Ziploc bag, along with garlic, ginger, soy sauce and a splash of sake.
- Seal and shake for a couple of minutes to coat the meat well with the marinade and set aside for half an hour to marinate.
- Now, transfer the dough to a lightly-floured working surface and flatten it out with a rolling pin, into a 1/8’’ thick rectangle.
- Fold it like a letter, into thirds and slice out long strips; unfold and drop them into boiling salted water.
- Cook for about 20 minutes or until they are just cooked and drain them out into a colander.
- Wash it under cold running water and divide them into soup bowls.
- Sprinkle the chopped nori on top of each serving and set aside.
- Once the beef is marinated, drain it out and roll them around the courgettes; secure with a toothpick.
- Pour the marinade into a mixture of cornflour and plain flour, along with a tsp of water.
- Stir them well together into a smooth batter and transfer them to a plate of sesame seeds.
- Roll them across the plate to coat well with the seeds and arrange the coated beef on a plate.
- Warm up a deep fryer to 375 degrees F and deep-fry them for half a minute.
- Drain them out into a paper towel using a slotted spoon and set aside until cool enough to handle.
- Throw away the toothpicks and slice each of them into four strips.
- To make the soup, dump its ingredients into a pot and heat until it starts boiling.
- Reduce it to a simmer and continue to cook for another 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat and let it rest for several minutes.
- Strain the soup through a fine sieve and ladle the strained broth over the udon noodles.
- Top it up with beef karaage slices and serve right away.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
