Not Yucky And No Soba

We got non-soba noodles for the yakisoba we intended to make (see previous post). They weren't really the ones one is supposed to use (round egg noodles), but they were purchased at a Japanese store. That surely counts, doesn't it?

We kind of followed this recipe from someone who really misses real yakisoba he had in Japan, assuming it should be authentic. We were amazed to find out how much sugar this recipe calls for! And that's in addition to the oyster sauce where the main ingredients are water and sugar! No wonder the guy is addicted!
Anyway, it turned out really good! Despite the excess sugar, it's not as sweet as you'd expect.



We used a vegetable that was new to us, some Chinese cabbage that looks like this, and a new mushroom (again, new to us, not to science): brown beech mushroom. These mushrooms are SO cute! And lovely-tasting, too!

That's how we made it:

Cooked a package of Japanese noodles (they were of medium thickness and made of wheat, don't know how much was in the package), but not all the way - they're still supposed to be stir-fried.
In a large frying pan over medium heat heated and lightly fried:

• 1 T sesame oil
• 9.5 oz cubed firm tofu

When tofu was golden-brown on the outside, added:

• 1/2 green bell pepper, julienned
• 6-7 baby carrots, julienned
• sprinkle of salt
  

About 3 minutes of stirring later, added:

• One package (150 g) brown beech mushrooms, separated (YUMMY!)
• 3 Chinese cabbages, leaves cut diagonally

After about 3 minutes of stirring everything together I added about 3 T of the sauce I made ahead of time:

• 1 T (vegetarian) oyster sauce
• 4 T soy sauce
• 4 T sugar
• 1 T honey
• 1 T sesame oil
• 3 T mirin
• red pepper flakes, to taste
  

When the vegetable were nicely coated with the sauce, we added the cooked noodles and the rest of the sauce, and cooked for a couple more minutes.

MMM.... Yukisoba...