by Emma Chow

The following is a recipe for what I like to call Japanese Bolognaise, as a means of explaining to our young man of 4 the deliciousness of this dish. It serves 4 people.

The meat sauce be multiplied, divided into portions and frozen.

Ingredients:

400g minced chicken

1 onion

Ginger, about the size of a 50c piece

100mls of dashi stock

2 tablespoons sake

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons mirin

1 tablespoon of sugar

3 tablespoons shiro miso

3 Lebanese cucumbers

750 grams frozen udon or 500g dried udon noodles or your preferred noodle

2 spring onions

Method:

Finely dice onion and finely chop ginger. Sauté in neutral flavoured oil, like rice bran oil.

Add minced chicken and brown.

Add the sake, soy, mirin, sugar, dashi stock and miso paste to the meat and cook together on a low heat until the sauce is slightly thickened.

Chop cucumber and spring onion into strips.

In a separate pot, fill with water and bring to the boil. If using frozen udon, cook for 1 minute until tender and then drain. Otherwise follow the instructions on your pack of dry udon.

Either add your drained noodles to the sauce and stir to combine or distribute noodles on individuals plates and top with sauce.

Garnish noodles with chopped cucumber and spring onion.