Niku Udon (Japanese Beef Noodle Soup)

Namiko Chen's "Just One Cookbook" (which I access online) has several similar recipes, one of which I make frequently, "Simmered Beef with Ginger". She includes a YouTube tutorial for how to slice meat thin. Put a nicely marbled rib eye or chuck in the freezer for approximately 90 minutes to 2 hours. Remove and slice across the grain as thin as you want. It's that easy and makes these simmered meat dishes much more accessible.

WOW! Made this tonight pretty much to a T and it was wonderful. I only use low-sodium soy sauce so it could have benefited from a bit of extra salt, but that’s an easy adjustment for next time. For those near a Wegmans, they have very nice thin sliced shabu shabu style ribeye - it’s pricey (!) but worked beautifully in this. Used packages of Fortune pre-cooked udon noodles from the regular grocery store shelf (discarded the accompanying flavor packets).

Shichimi and nanami togarashi are two versions of, basically, the same thing. They are formulated slightly differently because a few ingredients like hemp seeds Were prohibited in some jurisdictions. Rather than buying the small bottles I buy the large bags of S&B brand from AMAZON which is much cheaper per ounce. If one is to only use it infrequently the small bottles are ok and like any spice may be fresher when used.

Why would you replace the kombu for a vegetarian dashi? Kombu is kelp and is a sea vegetable. I use dried shiitake steeped in water to make a strong broth concentrate and combine with the kombu. After adding the mirin and soy sauce in the recipe I don't think there will be a big flavor difference between it and awase dashi (I also use a little sake). My vegetarian friends in Japan make vegetarian dashi this way a lot!

Fresh udon are scarce here, but fresh Italian pasta is not - subbed in bucatini and used what my butcher calls "Philly meat". Delicious and simple. Thank you, Kenji.

I read this recipe yesterday and started craving it immediately. Luckily we live near an H Mart, so I was able to get all the ingredients and make it tonight. I made it per the recipe and it came out great. My whole family (including 2 teenage sons) loved it.

It's part of the liquid you boil the beef & onions in. See step 2.

Twice. Once to the meat and onions and again to the dashi / broth

I made this for dinner tonight. It's absolutely easy and super delicious. This is going in our regular rotation. I used some leftover tri-tip (nice and fatty) that I sliced super thin on my meat slicer (thanks, wedding gift that seemed a little silly at the time!) Next time we'll use another piece of it that we have in the freezer. I feel like you could also thinly slice up some bok choy or something like that and put it in right at the end if you want a hit of vegetables other than onions.

Simply delicious! Had to add more soy sauce and mirin to the dashi. And I tossed some baby bok choy in with the beef for crunch. Will definitely make this again!

So, so delicious. Used ginger as others had suggested, but other than that, exactly as the recipe said. The first time this year my husband is taking leftovers to the office for lunch… that says it all.

I was worried about simmering the meat for so long, but it turned out tender and delicious. I served with fresh, grated ginger and a little Boon sauce (chili oil). Thank you Kenji, this was awesome!

So, for a mostly vegetarian who does not like sea weed (among other leafy vegs) use a flavor sub, courtesy of a web search: dried mushrooms, dashi powder, bonito flakes (hate fish, use a sub, dried shiitake mushrooms, I have plenty ) and use any of the new alt meat crumbles instead of beef. I'll use Chinese cooking wine instead of mirin and instead of sake? I don't have it or any colorless hard liquor... hmm, white wine? I have a lot of them...the rest of the ingredients are simple :)

The beef gets tough when simmered for 10-15 minutes and it doesn't take on much flavor. So ultimately not that good.

I read this and had to make it! Ordered Dashi "teabags" and Udon noodles. Bought "Philadelphia" shaved beef and scallions. Forgot about the sake and mirin! But we had dry vermouth for the sake and I used apple cider vinegar for the mirin. This was so delicious! And the heat lovers in my family added chili paste to theirs. Comforting, yummy recipe!