Yakisoba -- Stir-fried Japanese Noodles

I am constantly in awe of other food bloggers who are so multi-talented with their photography and culinary skills. This time around, I'll be replicating a recipe developed by the amazing Marc of [No Recipes]. Marc is truly gifted at his art, as you can see by the high high high quality of his photos, and the equally high quality of his recipes. This recipe is for Spicy Yakisoba, which is a Japanese stir-fried noodle dish.


As Marc explains in his blog posting, yakisoba does not use buckwheat soba noodles, as the name may suggest, but rather, egg noodles. At my local Japanese market (Kotobukiya in Cambridge, MA, which sadly has succumbed to the recession and is closing for good next month), I was unable to figure out which dried noodles were the correct ones. But, I found these fresh non-dried yakisoba noodles that I figured would work.

I prepared my vegetables by roughly chopping the purple cabbage, slicing the onion, washing the bean sprouts, and slicing up the carrot (using my newly acquired mandoline! I love it!).


I seasoned my shrimp with salt and pepper...


...and seared them in a little bit of olive oil in a hot pan, until they just turned pink.


After taking the shrimp out of the pan, I added a bit more oil, and added the vegetables. I stir-fried these around a bit until they got nice and tender. Then I added the garlic and scallions.


I added the noodles, then a couple of tablespoons of water to ensure the noodles didn't stick together too much.


I added the donkatsu sauce (in all its thick, rich, sweet, saucy glory), and the gochujang (Korean chili paste).


And mixed it all around, making sure the sauces were thoroughly incorporated. I also added the shrimp back in, and stir-fried it all around. I wanted the noodles to get a little crispy! I added a drizzle of sesame oil, even though Marc's recipe does not call for it. I just love its nutty flavor!


As you can see, I kind of over-did it with the amount of yakisoba I made. I actually doubled Marc's recipe, and clearly I was overzealous. Even with a 12" pan, there was way too much food in that pan! Nonetheless, it turned out very tasty! I topped it with some furikake (seaweed/bonito flakes/sesame seed seasoning), and I pretty much devoured it within a few minutes. Yum!



Shrimp Spicy Yakisoba (double recipe)
courtesy of Marc from [No Recipes]

Ingredients:
oil (I used olive... probably should have used canola)
1/2 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined (or some other meat)
2 cups roughly chopped cabbage (I used purple)
2 cups bean sprouts
1 medium onion, sliced
1/2 cup shredded carrots
20 oz cooked thin Asian egg noodles (yakisoba noodles)
4 scallions, sliced thinly on the bias
3 cloves of garlic, minced
6 Tbsp donkatsu sauce
2 Tbsp gochujang (or more, if you like it spicier)
sesame oil
pepper
furikake (seaweed/bonito flakes/sesame seed seasoning)

Directions:
1. Season the shrimp with salt and pepper. Cook them in a hot pan with oil until just pink. Remove shrimp from pan.
2. Add a bit more oil to the pan. Add the cabbage, onion, bean sprouts, and carrot. Cook until the vegetables are tender.
3. Add the garlic and scallions. Then add the noodles, along with a few tablespoons of water to loosen the noodles.
4. Stir and cook this until the water is evaporated and everything is mixed well.
5. Add the donkatsu sauce and gochujang. Stir together thoroughly to ensure the sauce is equally distributed.
6. Add the shrimp back into the pan. Add a drizzle of sesame oil and some pepper. Stir, mix, incorporate all ingredients into the sauce.
7. Cook for a few minutes to get the noodles a little bit crispy.
8. Serve with a bit of furikake sprinkled on top. Enjoy!!