Lilly Higgins: Use your noodle and try this Japanese crowd-pleaser

If I had to pick a favourite noodle, udon would be it. The thick, wheat flour Japanese noodle coils into bowls of broth with sliced chicken, prawns or slices of delicious fatty pork belly, and can also hold its own in a wok, shuffled around with vegetables.

Sauce clings to it, and the texture is fantastic, especially if you cook it so that there’s still a slight bite right at the centre of each strand. It’s a substantial noodle, no lightweight glass noodle.

Yaki udon is a real crowd-pleaser, thick white noodles draped in a luscious soy sauce. Usually, mirin, oyster sauce or sake can be added. I’ve added sesame oil here for a toasty, nutty flavour, but a little goes a long way with sesame oil. Toasted sesame oil has a lower smoke point than light sesame oil, so must only ever be added at the end of cooking. It is almost like a final seasoning, to finish a dish. Yaki means to fry or grill in Japanese. So for this dish, the noodles are added to a wide frying pan or wok just at the end of cooking.

I love to leave the pork mince to really take on some colour before I disturb the pan, when I make this. With the crispiness comes flavour, so don’t be afraid of leaving it a little longer than you usually would, then simply break it up with a wooden spoon as you add the remaining ingredients.

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Every few weeks, when the kitchen is calm, I take out my food processor and blitz up a huge amount of garlic and ginger. It’s so handy to have in the freezer. I blitz them together, as they usually end up in the same pot, and freeze them flat on a tray then crumble into a resealable bag or tub once frozen. It’s the ultimate convenience to be able to dip into that bag and grab a spoon or two when I’m getting dinner ready in a hurry. Having shortcuts such as this makes cooking from scratch each night much easier.

This is such fast food and a real crowd-pleaser. My children adore it and I add different vegetables to it each time. Kale, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, even the outer leaves of a cauliflower finely chopped all taste delicious fried with the pork and bathed in the aromatic sauce. I usually give this to my kids as is, but add a dollop of White Mausu’s Peanut Rayu condiment and some kimchi to my own for a burst of heat.

PORK YAKI UDON

Serves four

Ingredients
600g udon noodles, cooked
400g pork mince
1tbsp finely minced ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 handfuls of greens (shredded cabbage, spinach, broccoli, pak choi etc)
3tbsp soy sauce
1tbsp toasted sesame oil
Spring onions or toasted sesame seeds to garnish

Method
1 Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan over a high heat. Add the pork mince and spread it out over the base of the pan. Leave it to brown without moving it till it takes on some colour and is crisp at the edges.

2 Next add the garlic and ginger, move everything around the pan till the garlic smells aromatic. Add whatever vegetables you're using. Fry for another few minutes. Pour in the soy sauce and sesame oil. Add the udon noodles and toss it all together. Leave to cook for another few minutes till the noodles are heated through and it's all mixed well together.

3 Divide among four bowls and top with finely sliced spring onion or toasted sesame seeds.