Fox Noodles and Upcoming Posts

Hello friends!  I've been on hiatus.  I'd love to be able to tell you it's because I took a last-minute tropical getaway, and I've been on the beach sipping fruity cocktails, however the truth is far more dismal.  The Daddy has been away for nearly 3 weeks on work trips, leaving myself, Tabitha and Zachary to soldier on at home.  It's been a little chaotic - Tabitha decided this was the perfect time to drop her daytime sleep, and Zach has teeth numbers 4, 5 and 6 breaking through all at once.


Anyway, we are back in the swing of things now, The Daddy arrived home and brought back lots of wonderful presents (from NY and Hong Kong), and I am diving head-first into preparations for Tabitha's third birthday party, which is in just four days!  EEEEEK!

Here is a post I wrote a couple of weeks ago and forgot to post... 


Kitsune Udon.  Fox Noodles.  The former name is the correct Japanese title, the latter is the English translation which endears this dish to children.  Kitsune Udon is a traditional one-bowl noodle dish containing thick, chewy udon noodles in a delicious broth of dashi flavoured with soy and mirin, with the addition of fried bean curd pockets (Inari) and, generally, sliced spring onions.

Kitsune is the Japanese word for fox.  Traditionally, in Japanese folk tales, foxes love to eat aburaage, those deep-fried, sweetened pockets of bean curd used to make Inarizushi. Inari is the Shinto goddess of foxes.  Hence the aburaage also being called Inari.  Have I completely confused you?!  Anyway, this is a quick, delicious noodle dish, featuring tofu, and the fun name of Fox Noodles.

The traditional version features udon noodles, broth, and the aburaage / Inari pockets are simmered and marinated in a mixture of soy, mirin and sugar.  This is pretty yum but also very salty, so I have tweaked the standard recipe a bit.

Also, instead of always adding spring onions, I often add a green vegetable as well or instead, to make it into a more complete meal.  Most commonly, I add some blanched snow peas or sliced bok choi.  Sometimes, I also like to put some Japanese pickles on top, or some seaweed chilli salad.

Fox Noodles - Kitsune Udon

To make the noodle broth, add to a large pot 2 litres of dashi stock (2 sachets of hon-dashi, or instant dashi powder, with 2 litres of boiling water), with 3 tablespoons dark (regular) soy sauce, 3 tablespoons light soy sauce, 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 tablespoons mirin, and 1.5 teaspoons of salt.  Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer.  You can prepare this in advance, and store in a covered container in the fridge for up to 3 days

To prepare the aburaage, combine in a small saucepan a tablespoon of sugar, a tablespoon of mirin and 2 tablespoons of soy sauce.  Heat until sugar is disolved, then add the aburaage (either in whole pieces, or strips) and gently simmer for a couple of minutes, or until most of the liquid is absorbed.  Drain.

Prepare the noodles by either cooking and draining dried udon, or - for ease - simply soaking vacuum packed pre-cooked udon noodles in some boiling water for a couple of minutes, or until hot and separated.

Prepare your fox noodles by assembling in each bowl, udon noodles, broth, aburaage, and topping with spring onions, blanched snow peas or whatever topping you would like.  Some Japanese pickles or seaweed salad on the top is nice, too.

I do love Japanese food and cooking, although I seem to have less time these days for more complex dishes (such as a silky crab custard I used to make).  But I hope to get back into it again soon.

I was first inspired to make kitsune udon after reading Matthew Amster-Burton's enticing description of them in his brilliant Japanese travel memoir / food book Pretty Good Number One: An American Family Eats Tokyo.  One day soon I will write a proper review of the book here, to do it justice (one word review?  AMAZING!) but in the meantime, please do yourself a favour and read it pronto.  It's only around $5 on Amazon (e-book only, so on your Kindle or Nook or iPad or you can even get it in PDF format and print it out if you so desire) and I'm pretty sure it's the best $5 I've ever spent.  Read the Amazon reviews, they are all glowing.  Matthew Amster-Burton is definitely one of my favourite food writers (I've mentioned his previous book, Hungry Monkey, a few times before on this blog) and his latest book is just hilarious.

What else has been going on this week?  Cubbies.  Or, more specifically, tents, according to Tabitha.  She loves to drape a gauzy silk over some chairs, then just lay on her back and chat - to me, or to herself.  She set one up for me the other day, and I have to admit, it's pretty relaxing.

I was chatting to a friend last week about veggies.  Her two children (2 and 5) don't seem to like many vegetables, and she doesn't want to get into battles about it over dinner.  Anyway, the conversation started because her two kids were sitting at the bench with Tabitha, munching their way through a massive pile of cut-up veggies while I cooked lunch.  She mentioned that she was surprised, because they don't tend to eat vegetables, and I commented that Tabitha prefers raw veggies or cold cooked veg (such as leftover cooked broccoli, asparagus and carrots, straight from the fridge).  Even in the cooked category, she prefers things with a bit of crunch, such as snowpeas or stir-fried bok choi stems.

For this reason, I tend to plonk a plate of cut-up or cold veg on the table, a couple of times a day, with or without dip.  I don't ask her, I just put it there, and nine times out of ten, she will eat the lot.  I do this mostly at around 11am and 5pm, the times when she is just starting to get hungry.  If I make her wait until dinner, she gets the grumps, but if I can catch her just before the hunger kicks in, she will sit there, munching and chatting quite contentedly while I cook.  Also, this way, I have absolutely zero stress about it if she just wants to eat the meat-and-carbs portions of her meal, since she has already eaten plenty of veg.  I realise this is hardly ground-breaking advice (offer cut up veggies before meals), but I am surprised by how often even veggie-phobic type children will go for it, as long as no fuss is made and the plate is presented wordlessly, then ignored.

Added bonus?  I tend to eat loads of it myself, whereas I probably wouldn't bother chopping it up for myself alone.

Zachary hits the 6 month mark in about a week, so we will probably start him on food.  Baby led weaning (BLW), just as we did with Tabitha.  This basically involves just giving your baby regular food - whatever you are eating (though avoid excess salt - I just salt food at the end of cooking, after pulling out the baby's portion).  Put the food on their table or tray, then leave them to it and enjoy your own meal.  You can learn more about this way of feeding babies by reading the fantastic book Baby Led Weaning (answers all the common questions about choking concerns, good first foods, tips etc), or I have posted about it before when we started with Tabitha (check the Baby Led Weaning tagged posts, probably starting with the oldest ones first).  I will re-post about BLW once we start with Zach, and cover most of it again - this time, with some more information and learnings gained from the past few years, with my own experience and that of many of my friends.

I'll also be posting about Cloth Nappies, baby products and clothes (what I've learnt this time around, including differences with boy babies), babywearing and woven wraps, winter gardening and of course more baking.  Maybe a home decor post (by request, apparently!)  Is there anything else you want me to blog about?  Any baby products you have questions about?