Yakisoba with the ramen kit, pan-fried noodles
The kit's noodles stir-fried in a pan with vegetables and meat. The concentrated broth is the sauce.
For years people said yakisoba was born in Osaka, after the war. A book published in Japan in 2023, «The mystery of sauce yakisoba», follows another lead: the places that already served it before the war were almost all in Asakusa, in Tokyo, the district the flour came through. And at first it wasn't a dish of its own, but a variant of okonomiyaki.
It also has a cousin, yakiramen: ramen noodles stir-fried with their broth, which Fukuoka traces back to the Koganechan stall. With the Noodz kit that's exactly what you do: the concentrated broth becomes the sauce.
The kit's noodles stir-fried in a pan with vegetables and meat. The concentrated broth is the sauce.
- Active time
- 20 minutes
- Hands-off time
- As long as the water takes to boil
- Makes
- 1 person
You'll need
- A pot
- A colander
- A wide frying pan with a lid
- A plate
- Chopping board and knife
Ingredients
- 1 Noodz ramen kit
- 100 g of white cabbage
- 50 g of bean sprouts
- 1 small carrot
- 50 g of thinly sliced pancetta, or tofu, plain or smoked, with Shoyusen
- 2 tablespoons of seed oil
- 2-3 tablespoons of water
- 1 spring onion, green part only
- Shichimi Togarashi, if you like it spicy
The kit you use
Method
- Before you start
- Cut the cabbage starting from the leaves, into pieces of about 3 cm. As you get closer to the core, make the pieces smaller: the core cooks more slowly.
- Cut the carrot into sticks, the pancetta into thin slices or the tofu into slices or cubes, and the green part of the spring onion into rings.
- The noodles
- Cook the noodles in boiling unsalted water for 4 minutes, one less than usual: they finish cooking in the pan.
- Drain them, rinse them under cold water to remove the surface starch and drain them well. Toss them with 1 tablespoon of oil so they don't stick together.
- In the pan
- Heat the empty pan well. Add the noodles and let them brown for a minute without touching them, then turn them and brown the other side. Set them aside on a plate.
- In the same pan, with the other tablespoon of oil, brown the pancetta or the tofu. Add the cabbage and carrot and stir-fry for a minute.
- Pour in 2-3 tablespoons of water and cover for a minute: the steam softens the cabbage. Remove the lid and let the remaining water evaporate.
- Pour half the sachet of concentrated broth onto the bottom of the pan, then put the noodles back in with the bean sprouts and toss everything together for about 30 seconds.
- Taste: if you want more flavour, add the broth left in the sachet and give it another quick toss. Then turn off the heat.
- Serve with the spring onion and, if you like, a sprinkle of Shichimi Togarashi.
Tips
- High heat and a wide pan. On low heat, or with an overcrowded pan, the vegetables release water and the noodles go soft instead of browning.
- For tastier tofu, marinate it in Noodz Kōtare sauce: one sachet diluted in 90-100 ml of water, as for ajitama. Pat it dry with kitchen paper and leave it in the fridge at least 2 hours before you start; up to 24 hours is even better.
- For a richer dish, stir-fry some mushrooms too, with a little Kōtare or with the tofu's leftover marinade (it's already diluted), in a small pan, and add them at the end. These mushrooms also make a good side topping for tsukemen.
- With Shoyusen and tofu instead of pancetta, the dish stays vegan.
