Kimchee Fried Udon Noodles.
A new twist on my favourite comfort food dish.
Whenever I’m asked, I will always tell you that Kimchee Fried Rice is my favourite comfort food. Ever since I made it for the first time from Jordan Bourke and Rejina Pyo’s award winning, utterly excellent 2016 cookbook Our Korean Kitchen at the end of a very bad and stressful day it’s what I’ve craved when I want a quick meal which hits all the boxes of being full of flavour, ripe for embellishments and essentially being a big bowlful of carbs.
I do have a healthier Kimchee Fried Cauliflower Rice on the blog topped with a fantastic, crispy-edged toasted sesame oil fried egg, but usually I make something without a recipe a lot closer to the Kimchee Fried Rice in my cookbook with bits of egg Chinese fried rice-style distributed throughout.
Ever since a bowlful of ‘kimchi fried udon’ popped up on my Instagram feed I could not get the idea out of my head. Sometimes only fried rice will do, but I love the chewy, toothsome bounce of ready-to-wok udon noodles (rather than the thin dried ones) so much, and I don’t think I make enough with them.
Happily, my go-to fried rice sauce formula (when I bother following my own recipe) was an absolute killer with the udon, so I recommend you bookmarking this recipe / guide for when something bold, speedy, spicy and carby will do.
The ingredients are important though.
Typically in my fridge you’ll find one of two different types of kimchee: imported Korean kimchee from the Asian grocery which is bright, vibrant and whilst usually has a fair few additives in, has a consistently good taste across brands. But the kimchee I prefer is made by Kim Kong Kimchi, which you can find in small delis and groceries if you’re lucky, or on Ocado if you prefer to order in (though because it’s a small batch artisan product it’s often out of stock - hence why I also buy the imported stuff!) It’s raw, unpasteurised, vegan (lots of traditional kimchee recipes contain dried anchovy or shrimp) and has a fantastic balance of crunch and tang. It also caramelises up beautifully, and good caramelisation I think is the key to a good kimchee fried anything.
Another reason I love Kim Kong Kimchi is because as an artisan product it feels a lot closer to traditional kimchee making than the mass produced stuff. One of the most fascinating political books on Korea I’ve read was Without You, There Is No Us: My secret life teaching the sons of North Korea’s elite by Suki Kim. For a book about global politics, it’s Kim’s description of traditional kimchee making and the importance it has to the Korean diet (both North and South) that I remember from it the most.
As with so many of my favourite Korean recipes, along with some of the funky juice from the kimchee jar, the backbone of the sauce is gochujang, the thick, brick red Korean chilli paste that was the very first ingredient I ever featured on this newsletter. Then, we’ve got two more of the usual suspects, soy sauce and toasted sesame oil.
After that, we’re left with the toppings: here I’ve gone for what was supposed to be a soft-boiled egg that went a little too far with my usual six minutes (?), but you can forgo egg completely if you’re searching for vegan noodles, or you simply can’t be bothered. The above sesame-fried egg would also be good, and sometimes when I’m not feeling the effort a good drizzle of Kewpie mayo over the top of whatever I’m kimchee-frying also hits the same spot.
For something like this finely sliced spring onions and sesame seeds are a given, and today we also have thinly shredded pieces of nori seaweed because I’ve got a packet of sheets open I’m using for another project, and I had a few minutes to wait before I started frying waiting for another oven timer to go off.
Kimchee Fried Udon Noodles
Serves: 1, Preparation time: 5 minutes, Cooking time: 10 minutes (plus however long it takes to cook your chosen egg!)
Obviously, use this recipe as a jump off point the first time you attempt these noodles, and tweak and adjust as you wish as you go forwards with different ratios and toppings. We’re solo dining here, but obviously this can scale up as large as your largest wok or frying pan.