Zucchini & Mushroom Udon Soup

In September I went back to Oregon for my sister Mandy's wedding reception. It was lovely, of course. I also made the time to jaunt up to Uwajimaya, a wonderful Asian food grocery store. It is there that I bought some difficult-to-find-in-normal-grocery-stores ingredients, and that is what made this delicious meal possible.

This recipe is modified from The Essential Asian Cookbook. The original called for pork and leeks, and I had neither. (I also lacked spring onions and shimichi togarashi, but who's counting?) Instead, I substituted zucchini and mushrooms, and the results were divine.


Zucchini & Mushroom Udon Soup

Ingredients
6 1/3 oz dried udon noodles
2 cups water
1 1/2 tsp dashi granules
1/2 small zucchini
2 large mushrooms
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 Tbsp non-alcoholic mirin

Instructions
Slice zucchini into thin strips. Slice mushrooms in large, but thin, pieces. Set aside.

Follow instructions on udon packaging to cook. Do not rinse. Drain and cover to keep warm.

Bring water and dashi to a boil in a medium sauce pan. Add zucchini and simmer for five minutes. Add mushrooms, soy sauce, and mirin and simmer for two minutes.

Divide noodles into three medium bowls. Spoon soup over noodles and serve.

I have been craving Japanese food lately, and this made my evening. Udon is readily available at most competent grocery stores. The dashi (dried fish granules) and mirin (sweetened rice wine) are harder to come by, and they are absolutely essential to this dish. The non-alcoholic mirin was especially difficult. I went through an entire display of bottles at Uwajimaya until I found one that said non-alcoholic in English.

But now I have an entire liter of the stuff, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to post many more Japanese cooking adventures in the future.