Udon with Miso Broth

I was on a quest to find sausage casings yesterday, and somehow read online that Uwajimaya sell it (they don't). So we went to Uwajimaya to look for it, but me, the compulsive shopper saw a box of miso and remembered how I've been wanting to try to use miso. The direction on the box suggests tofu and wakame (seaweed). Luckily I still have a box of tofu at home, it's one of my staple ingredients. From what I looked up online, lots of recipes suggest noodles to be served in miso broth too. 
 

I'm a huge fan of noodles, especially the chewy kind. I was already imagining how the chewy noodles and crisp stir fried vegetables (carrot and choy sum) will make a good texture combo, eaten with the miso broth. Luckily I remembered to get udon (almost forgot because we were too intrigued by plum wine).

I was somewhat skeptical that my husband, the picky eater, would eat it. So I told him in advance that I'm making udon with miso broth, and I'd appreciate it if he tries it only to see if he'll like it. If he doesn't, then he can fry himself an egg! :P

It's one of those flexible dishes, where you can add whatever you want. Perfect for today's weather. It's been windy and rainy lately.. my mom thought it was some dude whistling outside our balcony, but it was actually the wind! Creepy..

Ingredients:

• 2 carrots, cut into fat strips
• 1/2 bunch choy sum, chopped (I shred them by hand)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced 
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 8oz firm tofu, cubed
• 1 package dried udon
• 4 tbsp awase miso
• 5 cups water

Cook the udon according to the instruction on the wrapper, set aside. 

Heat oil in the pan and cook garlic until fragrant (don't burn it like I do sometimes... the kids distract me sometimes hehe). Add in the carrots and choy sum, cook until tender (we prefer our vegetables slightly underdone). Set aside.


Boil 5 cups of water in a pot. Once the water boils, add in the miso. Stir in the cubed tofu (once I had my 4-year-old stir in the tofu while cooking mapo tofu, it turned into scrambled tofu.. so don't stir vigorously if you want your tofu stay whole).


Serve the noodles in a bowl, then pour the hot miso broth over it and garnish with vegetables on top.