japanese curry udon

This dish is perfect if you have left over Japanese curry from previous day's dinner. But you can also make this anytime. Just add beef/chicken stock, and it becomes a noddle dish! It's a big hit during summer when all you want to eat is a bowl of noodle. 

Ingredients:

Beef or chicken - 1/2 lbs
Potatoes - 2 med (cubed)
Carrots - 2 med (cubed)
Onion - 1/2 med (cubed)

Japanese curry roux - 2 blocks (each packet comes with two separate cases. In each case there are four, so you just want to use two of them. 1/4 of the whole box)

Beef/Chicken stock - 5 cups **see under 'cook'

Udon noodle (or your choice of noodle) - enough for 4 people 

[**If you are using leftover curry, see TIPS]

Prep:

1. Cube potatoes, carrots and onions into 1 cm cubes.
2. Cut beef into thin slices or chicken into bite size pieces. 

For curry udon, it's easier to eat if the veggies are smaller

Cook:

1. In a 5-quart pot, heat 2 TBS of oil, add in onion and fry until fragrant (2 min). Don't let it burn by stirring occasionally. 
2. Add in beef or chicken. Fry for 2 minutes. Add in veggies. Coat veggies with oil. Let it integrate with meat & onion. 
3. Put enough beef/chicken stock to cover the veggies/meat. Bring it to boil and lower the heat to simmer for about 5 minutes.
4. There will be brown color stuff/scum on top of the broth. Take a ladle and scoop it out. Fill the pot with more broth. 
5. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add in curry roux (2 cubes). Let it simmer & stir for 10 minutes. 
6. If the curry seems too thick, add more broth or water. You want the soup-like texture, not thick texture like for curry rice. 
7. Meanwhile, prepare udon noodles by boiling them (follow the instruction on the packet) **see TIPS
8. Taste the soup. Adjust the taste by adding salt & pepper.

Beef/Chicken broth enough to cover the veggies/meat

Take out the brown stuff/scum with ladle

Use half of this case (2 blocks)

Serve:

1. Place noodle in a bowl. Scoop out desired amount of veggies & meat. Pour the soup on top. 
2. Some people like the soup separate from noodle. It's called 'tsukemen', meaning you dip your noodle in the soup. 

TIPS

• For left over curry - warm the curry up in a pot. Add in enough beef/chicken stock (add slowly) and stir to get the soup-like texture. 
• No stock? No problem. You can also use dashi water or plain water.
• Noodle - I like to use dry udon noodles that are a bit platter and thinner than regular frozen udon noodles. It has great texture (not so starchy).