Classic Japanese Curry Udon

In Japan, curry is a real national food, from the classic curried rice to the ever popular curry Udon, and not to forget the incredible curry bread known all over the world. Statistics show that the vast majority of Japanese families eat a curry dish at least once a week.

Course Snack

Cuisine Japanese

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Servings

Ingredients

200 g streaky pork
100 g onion. I use brown onions as they maintain a soft and waxy texture when boiled. Red onions do not have the same texture or taste to make the best curry.
2 pieces 40 grams Japanese curry block
600 ml Dashi Japanese fish stock
10 ml grape seed oil or other tasteless vegetable oil
12 ml mirin. Mirin is a sweet Japanese cooking wine with up to 40-50% sugar content.
12 ml Japanese soy sauce or light soy sauce
2 portions of ready-to-eat udon about 200 g
20 g green onion chopped, for garnish

Instructions

Slice the pork thinly. You will need a good sharp knife for this.If you can’t slice the meat to your satisfaction, you could buy it already sliced, or ask your butcher to do it for you.
Cut the onion into 5mm wide slices vertically. The Japanese changed to this method of slicing onions, rather than the Western method of either dicing or cutting across the grain, as it saves time. That’s Japanese efficiency for you!
Chop up the curry block so it will dissolve more easily.
Preheat a 24cm flat non-stick pan for 2 minutes and add the grape seed oil and pork slices. Stir quickly with chopsticks until all the meat changes to a lighter colour.
Toss in the sliced onion and stir for 1 minute.
Add the fish stock, which is the basis to build the other ingredients on for a full flavored curry.
Add the mirin and Japanese soy sauce, which both season and colour the dish.Boil the soup, and then turn the hotplate to low and continue simmering for 10 minutes, until the onion becomes soft. This step is very important so the sweetness of the onion is fully released into the dish.
Add the chopped curry pieces to the pot and gently stir to help the curry dissolve and thicken the soup.
Put two portions of ready-made udon into the pot and heat for 3 minutes, gently separating the noodles with chopsticks. Sprinkle the chopped green onions on top and serve immediately.