Umami Cooking

Still meaty with a dash of veggies, but better.

Pork udon with chili peanut sauce

For fans of sate / satay peanut sauce, here's a delightful way to bring its flavors to the dinner table even if the weather does not permit grilling skewered meat. Udon and thin slices of pork are tossed with peanut sauce flavored with chili, garlic, ginger, five-spice powder, soy sauce and sugar. Salty, sweet, spicy, nutty and creamy. You’ll be scraping any sauce left at the bottom of the bowl.
Pork udon with chili peanut sauce
Asian noodle+ Pork recipe
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 45 minutes
Total: 55 minutes
Servings: 3 people
Course: Main Course, Snack
Cuisine: Asian
Label: Tossed noodles, Udon
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Connie’s notes

Flavors of sate / satay in a one bowl meal.
This tossed noodle dish has three components:
  1. Pork
  2. Udon
  3. Sauce
To make a truly rich sauce, thin slices of pork are simmered in water seasoned with soy sauce, whole garlic cloves, thick slices of ginger, Chinese five-spice powder, bay leaves, sugar and Korean chili flakes. Korean chili flakes are sweet and mildly hot. The color adds brightness to the sauce without overpowering it with too much heat. The cooking liquid later becomes the base of the sauce.
Vacuum-packed udon is used here. We like to blanch it to refresh. The noodles are then drained, dumped in cold water and drained again.
 
For the sauce, peanut butter is stirred into the pork cooking liquid, and the mixture is thickened with a little starch.

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ teaspoons sesame seed oil divided
  • 300 grams pork (about 10 ½ oz.) thinly sliced
  • 1 two-inch knob ginger sliced
  • ¼ cup soy sauce
  • 6 cloves garlic peeled and pounded
  • ½ teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
  • 1 teaspoon chili flakes preferably Korean
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 200 grams udon
  • 2 heaping tablespoons smooth unsweetened peanut butter
  • 1 teaspoon cornstarch
  • ½ cup thinly sliced scallions
  • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

Instructions

Cook the pork

  • In a pot, heat half of the sesame seed oil.
  • Spread the pork slices in the pot, leave to brown the undersides a little then stir. Cook until no pinkness is visible.
  • Pour in three cups water then add the soy sauce, ginger, garlic, five-spice powder, bay leaves, chili flakes and sugar.
    Pork simmered with spices
  • Bring to the boil, cover the pot and simmer until the pork is tender.

Prep the udon

  • In a clean pan, boil four cups of water.
  • Drop in the udon and allow to boil for a minute.
    Blanching udon
  • Drain the noodles, dump into a bowl of iced water, allow to steep until cool to the touch than drain.

Make the peanut sauce

  • Strain the pork, reserve the liquid and discard the ginger and bay leaves.
  • Reheat the reserved liquid in a pan.
  • Stir in the peanut butter and simmer until fully dissolved.
    Making chili peanut sauce
  • Disperse the cornstarch in two tablespoons of water, pour into the simmering sauce and cook, stirring a few times, just until the sauce thickens and is no longer cloudy.
  • Stir in the remaining sesame seed oil.
  • Taste the sauce and adjust the seasonings (more soy sauce? sugar? both?), if needed.

Serve the dish

  • Off the heat, add the drained udon to the sauce and toss repeatedly.
    Tossing noodles and pork in chili peanut sauce
  • Add the pork, scallions and sesame seeds.
  • Serve hot.
    Pork udon with chili peanut sauce
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