Takara's Nikuyaki Udon: Stir-fried Udon noodle with beef

BEST JAPANESE FLAVOUR Takara is located inside the Intercontinental Hotel Muscat and is one of the country’s best Japanese restaurants offering some of the most delicious and authentic Japanese flavours to the Sultanate. The restaurant currently has different promotions from Hana Nights that allows ladies to spoil their appetite every Tuesdays to Unlimited Ala Carte Weekend Lunch. For today’s recipe, Chef Rajesh is showcasing how to prepare a good Nikuyaki Udon. The Japanese word Niku means meat in English and yaki means something cooked in hot plate/pan. Udon is a type of thick noodles made from wheat. INGREDIENTS: Teriyaki Sauce (Yield: 1900ml) 500ml Kikkoman soy sauce 65ml Japanese sweet cooking sauce Mirin 375gm White sugar 1900ml Water 65gm Carrot 25gm Ginger 65gm white onion 65gm Leeks 25gm Garlic 250gm Bone of chicken/beef or offcuts part of beef meat 50gm Katakuriko (Potato starch) or Cornflour 100 gm Beef Meat, strip loin — thinly sliced 30 ml Olive Salt and pepper, to taste 150gm Udon Noodle (Thick noodle made from wheat can find in market dried or frozen) 5ml Sesame oil 10ml Tonkatsu sauce (From grocery) 20ml Teriyaki sauce prepared Mix vegetable (All julienne cut) (80gm) 15gm Carrot 15gm Mix bell pepper 15gm white onion 10gm Spring onion 10gm Bakchoy 15gm Button mushroom Garnish: 5gm Spring onion (finely chopped or julienne) 5gm Sesame Seed PREPARATION METHOD Teriyaki Sauce Grill the beef or chicken bone either in an oven or thick hot pan until golden brown. Grill or sauté all the vegetables (carrot, ginger, white onion and garlic) together until you get its natural aroma. Take a large stockpot with a thick base, mix soy sauce, mirin, sugar and water. Heat the pot on fire with a high flame, stir continuously until boiling.  Put those sautéed vegetables and grilled bones in it and reduce the fire. Simmer continuously at the temperature of 800C to 850C for 2hrs, do not cover while simmering. Reduce the sauce by 30% by simmering heat. (do not high the flame, it will burn your sauce and taste will be bitter) Once sauce ready, strain carefully. Keep the liquid and discard impurities. Take one bowl, mix katakuriko with water just to dilute. Reheat the strained sauce until it boiled, pour diluted katakuriko slowly and stir it continuously. Switch off the fire. Teriyaki sauce is ready. Cool down and store in the freezer. Nikuyaki Udon Slice beef thinly. Cut all the vegetable in julienne. Boil Udon noodles until soft (if frozen boil for 3 minutes, if frozen boil for 5 minutes) and strain from the water. Heat nonstick pan, add olive oil, add mix vegetable and sauté for 1 minute then add sliced beef and cook for 1 minute in high flame. Add boiled udon noodle and stir well. Add teriyaki sauce, tonkatsu sauce, sesame oil, salt and pepper. Stir well until all the ingredients mixed well. Pour the noodles on the plate and garnish with spring onion and sesame seeds. ABOUT THE CHEF Chef Rajesh Thapa Executive Chef Head Chef TAKARA Japanese Restaurant Born in Nepal, Chef Rajesh Thapa, at a very young age has been inspired by the local chefs of Kathmandu. It is from these chefs that he first learned his culinary experience. After years of mastering many of the Nepalese styles of cooking, he moved to Dubai in 2008 and begin venturing into multi-cuisine speciality and working with some of the best 5-star hotels in the country. Working in different restaurants, he eventually gravitated towards Japanese culinary. He would spend the next 10 years working with Jumeirah Group where he pre-opened several of their world-renowned restaurants. As the head chef of Takara, he has dedicated his time into making sure that he prepares not only the freshest ingredients but the best that Japanese dishes have to offer.  One of his missions is to train other chefs to become better especially at the Japanese style and art of cooking and inspiring the next generations of Head Chefs.