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["You will need two 2 quart+saucepans on two front burners.
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Fill the right saucepan with 6-8 cups of water, cover, and bring to a boil.
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Meanwhile, heat a little oil in the left pan, add shiitakes and saute 5 minutes til cooked through. Remove shiitakes to an empty saucepan or bowl.", "Add scallions to the hot oil in pan and stir fry over high heat 1 minute.", "Add meat, stirring quickly, then add soy- salt and stirfry a few more seconds til still a little pink inside. Pour into shiitake bowl.", "Add dashi and shiitake broth to left pot, add soy- salt mixture to taste,cover and bring to boil; then turn to low simmer and cover.", "In the right pan, drop in carrots to boiling water, remove after 30-60 seconds, when carrots are easily pierced .Add them to the shiitake bowl.", "Add zucchini til cooked through, ~ 2 minutes, and remove to shiitake bowl.", "Finally, drop in the pre-cooked udon noodles and stir to separate. Remove in ~ 1- 3 minutes, after heated through. Be careful not to overcook the udon. Add to shiitakes bowl. (A bamboo-handle Chinese wire mesh scooper is ideal for all this blanching.)", "Divide the dashi and bring to a boil in the 2 saucepans. Divide the udon into the saucepans, cover and quickly bring each pot to a boil, then add all the vegetables and beef and quickly bring to boil. Immediately pour into 2 heated serving bowls. Top with cubed tofu and sesame seeds. Serve.
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If you are serving 4+ people, repeat all of the above for every 2 bowls. We serve udon soup in big (10 cup) pasta bowls with a flat bottomed white Chinese spoon.", "*DASHI :
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1 5 inch piece of kombu( a hard thick olive green dried seaweed) if you have it;
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5 c. water;
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2 1/2 c.bonito flakes;
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Dashi is so much easier to make than fish or chicken stock, but you do need to find its 2 ingredients at a Japanese store. I like a stronger dashi than most Japanese, so I cook it longer:
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Add kombu to pot of water, remove it just as the water comes to a boil. Add bonito flakes and push down into the water. Turn off the heat. When bonito has sunk to bottom of pot, bring back to boil; turn down to simmer 10-30 minutes. Strain, pushing on solids. I yielded 3 c. dashi from 5 c. water. (I simmer the bonito flakes a second and longer time for myself. Then I compost the flakes or give them to the kitties. You can also buy tea bag-like dashi mix at Japanese stores.)", "** SHIITAKE BROTH:
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Boil and then low simmer the stems from 1 lb. fresh shiitakes in 6-8 cups water. Simmer, covered, 1-2 hours, adding water to keep original level. Strain broth, pushing down on solids. Cook this down to intensify flavor. Whenever I saute fresh shiitake, I make shiitake broth, and keep some in the freezer for soups and sauces. Like any stock, you can cook it down significantly so it takes up less freezer space.", "***You can use dried shiitake/black mushroom caps, poached in water 1/2 hour til tender, then sliced, but make sure they are not too old (no scent.) I have come to prefer the silky and meaty texture of fresh sauteed shiitake.", "If you have leftovers, store the solids separated from the liquid so they don't get mushy."]
