Udon baked, never boiled
The noodles go into the dish raw with the sauce and drink it. Boiling them first only teaches them to drink water.
At a Glance
Story
A boiled noodle has already filled itself with water and there is nowhere for anything else to go, which is why sauce sits on the outside of it and slides off on the way to the mouth. Bake it in the liquid instead and the starch takes up soy, miso and mirin as it softens, so the seasoning ends up inside the noodle rather than clinging to it. The trade is that you cannot rescue it halfway. Get the liquid right at the start, cover it tightly and leave it be.
Ingredients
- 8 oz udon noodles
- 10 oz ground beef
- 10 oz baby bok choytorn into pieces
- ⅓ cup kimchiroughly chopped
- 2 tbsp white miso
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp mirin
- 2 tsp gochujang
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 tsp rice vinegar
- 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
- saltpepper
Method
A tray, twenty-five minutes and no pot of water to drain. The greens collapse into the sauce and the noodles come out dark all the way through rather than pale under a coat of sauce.
- Oven to 450F. Pull the noodles apart by hand first, every strand, or they will bake as one brick.
- In a baking dish, stir the miso, soy, mirin and ⅓ cup water until the miso has gone. Add the noodles and the torn greens and turn everything over until coated.
- Beef torn into rough pieces over the top in one layer, salt and pepper. Do not stir it in.
- Foil on tightly, 18 minutes. Foil off, another 5 to 7, until the beef is cooked and the top has started to catch.
- Kimchi stirred through off the heat, then let it stand 3 minutes so the last of the liquid goes where it belongs.
- Whisk the sesame oil, vinegar and gochujang and spoon it over. Sesame seeds. Kimchi at the end on purpose. It stays sharp against everything the oven has turned soft.
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