Udon Noodle Soup

    Udon-Noodle-Soup_232229167-copy

    Ingredients

    • 8 cups Dashi
    • 1 tablespoon mirin (a Japanese cooking wine, available at specialty shops)
    • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
    • 1 (7-ounce) package fresh udon noodles
    • 1 cup fresh spinach leaves, stemmed
    • 2 small round fish cakes, thinly sliced into strips
    • 1/4 (14-ounce) carton medium tofu in water, drained, cut into 1-inch squares about 1/4-inch thick
    • 1 green onion, chopped

    Directions

    1. Bring the dashi to a boil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the mirin and soy sauce. Add the noodles and simmer until soft, about 2 minutes.
    2. Using a large spoon with tongs, remove the noodles from the soup and divide the noodles between 2 bowls. Add the spinach to the soup and simmer just until wilted, about 1 minute.
    3. Using tongs or chopsticks, remove the spinach from the soup and mound it atop the noodles in the bowls, dividing equally.
    4. Arrange the fish cake slices and the tofu atop the noodles. Divide the soup between the bowls and top with the green onion. To eat, use chopsticks to slurp the noodles.

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    Jet Tila is a nationally renowned chef of all styles of Asian cuisine and host of Z Living's TV show Chasing The Yum. His passion for Asian food began at an early age. As a boy, he spent time learning the ancient traditions of classical Asian cuisine in family restaurants and at the Bangkok Market. At age 10, Jet realized his deep connection to food sprung from a deeper connection to his history; learning family traditions from his Cantonese grandmother further piqued his interest. In his early teens, Jet was making appetizers at his family’s restaurants. At 22, he was teaching cooking classes in his backyard a phenomenon that caught the attention of The Los Angeles Times. Chef Jet’s Le Cordon Bleu education, coupled with his extensive knowledge of Asian gastronomy, have given him a wide range of ideas to draw upon and a broad framework to craft incomparable and innovative cuisine. In culinary school, Jet began to develop his style by seeking novel and inventive ways to approach Eastern ingredients with classical French technique. He has also completed an intensive program of study at the California Sushi Academy. Chef Jet has written two cover pieces and several articles for the food section of The Los Angeles Times and has been featured in Los Angeles magazine. He has appeared on Food TV’s “The Best Of,” “Food Finds” and “The Secret Life Of”; The Learning Channel’s “No Reservations” with Chef Anthony Bourdain and “Take Home Chef”; HGTV’s “Smart Solutions” and “Weekend Entertaining”; PBS’s “Visiting With Huell Howser”; and is a frequent contributor to National Public Radio’s “Good Food” with Evan Kleiman. Chef Jet was awarded the Los Angeles Times best recipe of the year for his Tom Yum soup and his Tom Kha Gai soup was named one of the 10 best recipes of 2000. More recently, Jet was responsible for opening the Pacific Cafe at Google headquarters in Silicon Valley. He holds the Guinness World Record for the “World’s Largest Stirfry” at 1,805 pounds. Chef Jet is highly sought after to consult, teach cooking classes and cater meals; he is the Asian food consultant to the Bon Appetit management company.