Who would have thought that getting fresh udon noodles would be so easy? You don’t need to have an udon factory in the immediate vicinity – which would of course be nice – but you can now get them in almost every supermarket. Welded airtight with a long shelf life. So perfect for stockpiling and quick cooking.
Yesterday at the farmers’ market, the asparagus farmer confirmed to me that the desire for asparagus was slowly becoming saturated. Always around the end of May, everyone already had enough asparagus. There are no longer any queues in front of the stand. Only shortly before the end of the season will everyone come again, when the motto is “rien ne va plus” until next year.
In fact, for me it is the ultimate Asparagus highlight At the beginning of the season, not the asparagus, served as sticks with butter or hollandaise, but the asparagus soup. With white wine, assembled with lots of butter and lots of pieces of asparagus. This moment of tasting the first really good asparagus soup of the year is incomparable.
Anyway, there was still half a bunch of green asparagus in the fridge, begging me to finally devote myself to it. And that’s where the udon noodles come into play. Chicken, sesame and chili are the guarantee for a happy dish.
In two weeks I’ll make another asparagus soup. And no, I don’t freeze asparagus. I don’t preserve it in any other form either. I want to long for it by January at the latest.
Udon with tahini chili sauce and green asparagus and chicken breast
For two
200g chicken breast, cut into strips
3 tbsp neutral vegetable oil
2 tbsp light soy sauce
a walnut-sized piece of ginger, peeled and finely grated
3 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp light miso
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
400 g fresh udon noodles
250 g green asparagus, ends trimmed and lower third peeled
2 spring onions, the white part and the green part cut into rolls separately
2 tbsp chili crunch oil
1 tbsp black sesame
Sea salt
In a small bowl, mix the soy sauce with the grated ginger, tahini, miso, egg yolk and sesame oil. Add a tablespoon of water if the sauce is too thick.
Lightly salt the chicken.
Heat the oil in the pan and fry the chicken strips in it. Remove and set aside. Do not wipe the pan.
Cut the asparagus spears into bite-sized pieces and add them to the pan along with the white part of the spring onions. Sauté over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes. Add the sesame-ginger sauce and continue cooking for another 3 minutes with the lid closed.
In the meantime, cook the udon noodles according to the package instructions and then strain.
Add the noodles and chicken strips to the pan, heat gently for another 2 minutes and then drizzle with chili crunch oil and sprinkle the black sesame seeds with the spring onion rolls on top.
