Recipe: Perfect Zaru Udon

Zaru Udon. Zaru Udon are Udon noodles served in a bamboo basket Zaru, with the dipping sauce tsuyu. Mix in condiments in your tsuyu for added flavor and dip the noodles in it as you eat. When udon is served cold, you taste the noodles and savor their chewy texture.

A classic combination of freshly prepared and cold served udon noodles, chilled and flavoursome mentsuyu soup base, and your favourite spicy or savoury Japanese garnishes, this dish is the perfect light yet filling way to stay cool during the warmer months. Zaru soba (ざるそば) and zaru udon (ざるうどん) are popular cold noodle dishes served in Japan. The name comes from the way that the dish is plated: a zaru is a bamboo draining basket, similar to a sieve or colander. You can cook Zaru Udon using 3 ingredients and 4 steps. Here is how you achieve it.

Ingredients of Zaru Udon

1. You need 4 of x 90g Udon Noodles.
2. Prepare of Mentsuyu (Dipping Sauce).
3. You need of Yakumi (Condiments).

Well-designed zaru can even be used as serving plates. So, zaru soba or zaru udon made for happy times - hugely refreshing when you collapse into an airconditioning restaurant when you've been glugging Pocari Sweat around the city all day. Chilled noodles, dipped in cold tsuyu with the addition of wasabi, bonito flakes and maybe a bit of ginger - amazing. Zaru Soba is a chilled noodle dish made from buckwheat flour and served with soy sauce-based dipping sauce called Tsuyu (つゆ).

Zaru Udon step by step

1. Cook Udon Noodles as instructed. DO NOT add salt into the water. The best Udon Noodles are the frozen type that you can find at Japanese or Asian grocery stores. The frozen Udon Noodles are already cooked, so just warm them in the boiling water..
2. Then drain, rinse well in COLD water, and drain well again..
3. Serve the noodles with the Mentsuyu (Dipping Sauce) and Yakumi. Find my recipes for 'Mentsuyu' dipping sauce at http://www.hirokoliston.com/dipping-sauce/.
4. Yakumi (Condiments): 'Yakumi' is herbs and spices to add extra flavour to a dipping sauce. You can add any of the following. Spring Onion, Roasted Sesame Seeds, Grated Ginger, Shredded Nori, Wasabi, Chili Powder.

The word zaru means "a strainer" in Japanese and the name of the dish was derived from the way the noodles are served over a bamboo strainer during the Edo Period. Zaru udon: Chilled udon noodles topped with shredded nori and served on a zaru (笊 or ざる), a sieve-like bamboo tray. Accompanied by a chilled dipping sauce, usually a strong mixture of dashi, mirin, and shoyu. Eaten with wasabi or grated ginger.; Bukkake udon: Cold udon served with thick dashi-broth.; Hadaka udon (naked udon 裸うどん): Cold udon served on its own. Zaru Soba and Zaru Udon (cold) Zaru soba or udon is a cold dish consisting of chilled noodles served on a bamboo mat.