Tori Nanba Udon

This is the first entry on my new cooking blog. I won't profess to being a cooking expert or really much of an amateur; I don't know much about creating my own recipes, but I find I posted so often about food in my primary blog that it was probably annoying to anybody reading it. The title of the blog (at this time, Nuclear Stovetop) refers to the fact that my stovetop is seriously overpowered. I set a wok on fire because it heated up too far before I added the oil, which makes no sense because apparently restaurants do that all the time with no problems. Also it boils water quite rapidly.

Today we checked out a new (to us) Asian market in the area, Ho's Oriental Market. It's kinda hidden away behind an O'Reilly's so I actually didn't even know it was there. But hot damn, it's the biggest Asian market I've seen since I've lived in the KC area. Granted, the only other one I'd seen is (I think) KC Mabuhay Oriental Market, which was quite frankly tiny; we only bought I think Pocky and a bottle of banana extract there (which I have yet to find anything to do with). But Ho's is MUCH much larger. We bought a big bag of disposable chopsticks that turned out to be bamboo and not wood, which was a nice surprise, as well as a sake set for Alex, a box of dashi powder (pellet?) mix (bad idea, shoulda read up on the internet first and actually bought bonito flakes and kelp but oh well), and a big bottle of shaotsing wine, which would have been nice to have last week (or whenever it was that I made Ming Tsai's Asian coq au vin). And so would have been the copious amounts of baby bok choy. Very annoying; Hen House had the sign for it but no actual product and I had to sub in regular bok choy, which does not cook the same.

While we were out, we also stopped at Dillon's and picked up the ingredients for Sun-Dried Tomato Tortellini Soup as well as a tuna salad recipe out of Food and Wine. Couldn't find sun-dried tomatoes at Dillon's; they probably would have had them at Hen House but we still had to stop at a liquor store so Alex could buy some christening sake and frankly I was hot and tired.

Someday... someday I will have a big beautiful bright kitchen and make all sorts of tasty things in it and not constantly feel cramped and confined by my limited storage and countertop space. Curse apartments!

Tonight I made udon in a dashi-soy broth. I'd post pics but I can't at the moment for several reasons:
1) the nice camera is not mine and I don't really know how to use it; nor do I want to burden Alex with post-processing;
2) presentation is not my forte; and
3) we only have one (sort of two) style of dishes and they're not very exciting.

Anyway, here's what I did (based on recipe at foodnetwork.com):

Tori Nanba Udon (Udon w/ Chicken and Scallions)

8 cups dashi
2 tsp salt (do not add if you used dashi pellet mix like I did)
3 tbsp light soy sauce
3 tbsp tamari
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp mirin
1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts, cut into bite size pieces
1/4 head napa cabbage, cut into 1" squares
6 green onions, sliced in half lengthwise and chopped into 2" pieces
4 fresh shiitake mushrooms, scored lightly with knife
1 lb fresh udon noodles

Bring dashi to a boil. Just as it reaches a boil, add salt, soy sauce, tamari, and sugar; stir to combine. Turn heat down to a simmer and add chicken. Cook 10 minutes or so (be sure to break up the chicken pieces while cooking or it will all stick together), skimming the foam. Add cabbage, onions and shiitake and cook another 3 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a big pot of water to a boil (note to myself in the future: do NOT use the big aluminum stockpot for this, the damn thing takes decades to boil water). Add noodles, cook 3 minutes or until just softened. Drain in a colander and rinse VERY WELL with cold water, rubbing noodles to remove starch. Do NOT neglect to do this or within a few minutes your noodles will turn into a big glob of starch.

Put some noodles in a bowl, ladle broth/veg/meat on top. Serve hot.