Serves 4:
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
For the pork balls:
450g pork mince
4 spring onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
50g pickled ginger drained & chopped
2 tbsp tamari (Japanese soy sauce)
About 4 tsp fresh grated wasabi
Salt
Vegetable oil for shallow frying
For the noodles:
2 tbsp sesame oil
200g tenderstem broccoli cut into 3cm pieces
200g chestnut mushrooms quartered
4 spring onions sliced into 1cm pieces
1 red or yellow pepper sliced into strips
2 cloves garlic finely sliced
600ml chicken or vegetable stock
2 tsp miso paste or to taste
2 tsp tamari or to taste
4 blocks fresh udon noodles (about 200g each block)
To serve:
Extra freshly grated wasabi
Method:
Make the pork balls by mixing together the pork with the spring onions, garlic, pickled ginger and tamari. At this point you can leave the pork mixture to rest in the fridge for up to 24 hours. When you are ready to cook, freshly grate the wasabi and mix thoroughly into the pork, along with a little salt.
Heat a little vegetable oil in a frying pan and when it is hot, fry a pinch of the pork mix until cooked then taste it to check the seasoning. Add a little more wasabi or salt if necessary. The wasabi won’t taste fiery hot but should add a nice little kick and the mix should taste intensely savoury. When you are happy with the seasoning, roll the mixture into walnut sized balls, setting aside on a plate as you do so.
Fry until crispy on the outside and cooked through - about 10 minutes. Do not overcrowd the pan and fry in 2 batches if necessary.
Whilst the meatballs are frying, heat the sesame oil in a large saucepan. Add all the vegetables and the garlic and stir fry over a high heat for a couple of minutes
Pour in the stock, add the miso paste and tamari and bring up to the boil. Simmer until the vegetables are just tender but still a little crunchy, just 3-5 minutes or so depending on the size you cut them.
Add the noodles, stirring well until they are mixed through the vegetables. Cover with a lid and simmer for a couple more minutes until the noodles are hot. Taste to check the seasoning, adding a little more tamari or some salt.
Serve the noodles in deep warmed bowls with the meat balls on top with a little extra freshly grated wasabi on the side.