French onion and beef udon soup
- Prepare
- less than 30 mins
- Cook
- 30 mins to 1 hour
- Serve
- Serves 2
- Dietary
- Nut-free
A fusion between a French classic and a Japanese comfort food, this dish is something that I crave as soon as the temperature starts to drop. A perfect combo of noodles, jammy onions, rich beef broth and huge amounts of umami from the Parmesan.
Each serving provides 635 kcal, 24.5g protein, 98.2g carbohydrate (of which 17g sugars), 28.1g fat (of which 12.8g saturates), 9.2g fibre and 5.61g salt.
By Justin Tsang
Ingredients
- 2 free-range eggs
- 2–3 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 onions, thinly sliced
- 2 tsp light brown sugar
- 1 fresh rosemary sprig
- 600ml/20fl oz beef stock
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp mirin
- 2 tbsp sake
- pinch MSG
- 200g/7oz beef, thinly sliced
- 2 spring onions, very thinly sliced
- 2 x 200g packs frozen or straight-to-wok udon noodles
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 10g Parmesan, freshly grated, to serve
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted, to serve
- 1 tsp sesame oil, to serve
- 1 tsp shichimi powder or cayenne pepper, to serve
Method
Bring a saucepan of water to the boil. Turn the heat off, pour in 50ml/2fl oz cold water and lower the eggs into the hot water. Cover with a lid and leave for 20 minutes. Remove the eggs from the water and set aside.
Heat the butter in a large saucepan over a medium–high heat. Add the onions, sugar and rosemary along with a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir regularly for the first 2 minutes then cover with a lid. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until the onions have slightly browned and softened.
Mix the stock, soy sauce, mirin, sake and MSG in a jug and pour into the onion mixture. Gently stir and bring to the boil. Add the beef slices, cover with a lid and lower the heat to medium-low. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the beef is cooked through. Turn the heat down to the lowest setting until ready to serve.
Put the spring onions in a bowl of iced water and set aside – they should start to curl.
Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil and cook the udon noodles according to packet instructions. Drain and divide equally between two bowls. Ladle the beef and onion broth on top of the noodles. Sprinkle the Parmesan on top.
Drain the spring onions and arrange in a pile in the middle of each bowl. Make small wells in the spring onions using your fingers and crack the eggs into the wells.
Sprinkle the sesame seeds over everything and drizzle over the sesame oil. Sprinkle the shichimi powder over the eggs and serve.
