Ever go to a community festival and smell the yummy aromas of the booth that makes that vegetable-meat-noodle stir fry? Ever buy a plate and devour every bite wondering about the exotic secrets behind such a seemingly simple dish. Well, I’ve discovered the exotic secrets aren't so exotic and the dish is very easy – the trick is two ingredients that might not be found in your local supermarket.
My husband has discovered a little hole-in-the-wall place, Eastlake Teryaki. It's mainly takeout, and despite the name, serves great Vietnamese type dishes. Their Pho’, a yummy broth with noodles, julliened meat and other goodies served on the side to be added now rivals tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches when he doesn’t feel well. It has replaced the War Wonton Soup (wonton soup with shrimp and pork and all kinds of mushrooms and vegetables swimming in it) we used to get from the Uptown China in Seattle's Lower Queen Anne. Another dish we've enjoyed from Eastlake Teryaki is Yakisoba. Now we’re back to the yummy noodle vegetable stir fry you’ve enjoyed at those festivals.
I happened to be wandering through a Vietnamese supermarket the other day. (An unusual appointment took me to a new part of town.) It was fun especially since I’m interested in Indian cuisine. Indian’s make things with rice flour and tapioca flour and small bags of it were available right along with the regular flour. They had fresh ginger in bundles precut into 2” pieces (I bought a bunch and froze). In the dry noodle section I found inexpensive good sized packages of the bean threads that I use in the Korean dish that I now fix once in a while. In the wet noodle section (there is a joke there somewhere) I came across “Yakisoba Noodles”. Right there on the package was a recipe for the dish and it looked awfully simple so I bought a package. As it turned out, the “secret sauce” isn’t so secret or hard to find, in fact it was one that Hank uses for other things periodically and had brought home from Uwajimaya sometime back. It’s called Tonkatsu or Fruit and Vegetable Sauce. It’s kind of the consistency of dark Karo but denser.
Now, in possession of the noodles and the sauce, the time was right when I found myself with numerous errant vegetables that needed using. So, yesterday I began julienning, first carrots, then a little broccoli and cauliflower, then a bunch of green onions, then a sweet onion (sliced very thin) and finally about a quarter of a green cabbage. I definitely had the 3 cups of vegetables that the recipe asked for. I was so happy, using up the veges that would have gone bad and learning to make this yummy festival dish (plus learning to save the $8 the Vietnamese place charges for it.)
Here’s the recipe. (It makes a large amount so this is where my friend, Deb Taylor Hough's "cook ahead and freeze" concept is great. I had Zip Locks on hand and now have easy lunches or yummy noodle sides for dinner, plus I shared some with a neighbor.)
Yakisoba
Can be made vegetarian the way it is often served at festivals. You can add left over meat or juilianne some meat and fry it.
Ingrendients
Meat cut into small pieces and fried (I had baked a chicken so just put chicken pieces on the plates of noodles when served.)
32oz (2lb.) bag of fresh Yakisoba noodles (they can be kept refrigerated or frozen)
3 cups of julianned vegetables
½ cup Tonkatsu Sauce (also called Vegetable and Fruit Sauce on the bottle I have)
½ to 1 cup water.
Vegetable oil for frying
Instructions
Fry meat and set aside. Heat oil in the pan to high for stir frying the vegetables. Add vegetables and stir fry until tender. Place the noodles on top of the vegetables and add water to steam, heat and loosen noodles. When they are loosened begin stir frying them with the vegetables and add the meat and Tonkatsu Sauce. Stir fry until all ingredients are blended and hot.
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