Yakisoba

Steamed wheat noodles loosened with water, not oil, and sauced only at the very end.

Pork, Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish, oyster sauce, pork.

Ingredients

sauce

• 4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sugar

the pan

• 600 g steamed yakisoba noodles
• 200 g pork belly, in thin strips
• 300 g white cabbage, in squares
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 carrot, in thin strips
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 4 tablespoons water
• aonori, beni shoga and katsuobushi, to serve

Method

1. LOOSEN THE NOODLES WITH WATER, NOT OIL. They arrive as a compressed block and must be separated before they go in -- a tablespoon of water in the packet, worked through with the fingers, or 30 seconds in the microwave. Oil used for the same job coats them so the sauce cannot stick later.
2. DESPITE THE NAME THERE IS NO BUCKWHEAT. These are steamed wheat noodles, nothing like the soba on this site, and soba substituted here falls apart in the pan.
3. Mix the sauce before lighting the pan.
4. SAUCE ONLY AT THE VERY END. Added early it reduces onto the noodles and burns to tar long before the vegetables are done.
5. Very hot pan. Oil, then the pork, 2 minutes until the fat renders.
6. Carrot and onion in, 1 minute; cabbage in, 1 minute. It should still have crunch.
7. Push everything to the side. Noodles into the bare half with the 4 tablespoons of water, and LEFT 45 seconds to catch before being tossed.
8. Combine, sauce in, and toss for 45 seconds only, until every strand is coated and the pan is dry again.
9. Out of the pan immediately. Left sitting it goes soft and the sauce turns claggy.
10. Aonori, beni shoga and katsuobushi over the top at the table.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Japan · All recipes