Cold Curry Udon

Steps

1. Gather all the ingredients.

2. In a small pot, add 2 cups dashi (Japanese soup stock) and bring it to boil over medium heat.

3. Cook 4 oz thinly sliced pork one at a time in the dashi. Try not to overcook as it gets tough. Once the pork is no longer pink, quickly remove it from the dashi.

4. Place the cooked pork in iced water. Once cooled, transfer to a plate.

5. Skim off the fat and foam from the surface of the dashi.

6. Add 1 cube Japanese curry roux to a ladleful of hot dashi and let it dissolved completely in the ladle before releasing it to the broth. If you drop the curry roux cube in the dashi, it’s much harder to dissolve.

7. Add 1 Tbsp sake and 3 Tbsp mirin.

8. Add 2 Tbsp soy sauce and mix together. Bring the soup to a simmer.

9. Skim off the foam and cook for 1 minute. Cool the pot with the curry soup in an ice bath. Once it’s cool, you can move to the refrigerator.

10. Cut 1 Japanese eggplant into 4 wedges lengthwise. Heat 1 Tbsp neutral oil in a pan. I use a cast iron grill pan to achieve grill marks.

11. Cook all sides of the eggplant until tender.

12. Slice ½ onion thinly. I use a mandoline slicer to get thin onion slices. Soak in iced water to remove the bitterness.

13. Peel the skin of 1 Japanese or Persian cucumber, alternating peeled and unpeeled skin. Slice the cucumber and cut into julienne strips.

14. Cut 1 tomato into wedges. Cut 1 bunch mizuna (Japanese mustard green) into small pieces.

15. Pour the chilled curry soup into individual serving bowls. You can remove the fat on the surface of the curry soup with a fine-mesh skimmer or strain the curry soup through a fine-mesh sieve.

16. Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the udon noodles. My favorite udon is frozen Sanuki Udon. Cook 2 servings udon noodles (frozen) in boiling water for 1 minute (no need to defrost). If you use dry noodles, follow the package instructions. Drain and run under cold water to chill the udon.

17. Divide the udon and place in the curry soup. Add the toppings: the pork, halves of 1 hard-boiled egg, grilled eggplant, sliced onion, julienned cucumber, tomato wedges, and mizuna. Sprinkle with 1 tsp toasted white sesame seeds and enjoy.

18. You can keep the soup and toppings in airtight containers separately, but I recommend preparing the udon noodles right before you serve. Store in the refrigerator for 3 days and in the freezer for a month.