Gyokai Udon, Mixed seafood with Japanese style noodles

If U-don know me by now

My Sunday food request to Keith was fat noodles, squid, scallops and king prawns, and he came up with a beautifully colourful and scrumptious Japanese dish.  It is inspired by the Ekachai, a local restaurant in the City.  There's quite a kick to this meal, so if you prefer your food a little less spicy then de-seed the chillies or exclude the flakes.  We have blogged about tough octopus before and its “cousin” the squid is no different.  In the past, I have tenderised squid by marinading it in olive oil and lemon for a couple of hours before barbecuing, but Keith's method below works better if you are time constrained.

Ingredients

• 125g fresh squid, cleaned and heads removed
• 60g prawns, peeled and de-veined
• 60g small scallops
• 4 tsp sesame oil
• 3 tbsp groundnut oil
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 fresh red chilli, chopped
• 1 tsp dried chilli flakes
• 1 star anise, smashed
• 1 small carrot shredded into long strips (I used a potato peeler to do this)
• 40g broccoli tips
• 1 red onion, sliced in rings
• 50g pak choi (we used white cabbage), chopped
• 2 tbsp coriander, chopped
• Soy sauce to taste.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 110C. Put the squid into an oven proof dish. Smash the star anise with a pestle and mortar and add to the squid with the garlic. Drizzle over 2 tbsp of the groundnut oil and 1 tsp of sesame oil, a good dash of soy sauce and place in the oven for 40 minutes to slow cook until tender.
2. Reserve the squid and save the cooking juices.
3. Heat a wok or frying pan. Add saved juices and then the prawns and scallops. Fry for 3 minutes until the prawns are pink and the scallops begin to brown. Remove from the heat and set to one side.
4. Heat the wok with 1 tbsp of groundnut oil. Add the vegetables and stir fry for 5 minutes until tender but retaining some crispness. Add a little soy sauce to season.
5. Whilst the vegetables are cooking, prepare the udon noodles according to the packet instructions. Stir in the the rest of the sesame oil and some soy sauce at the end.
6. Add the seafood to the vegetables and heat through.
7. Serve the noodles in a bowl with the vegetable and seafood on top.
8. Sprinkle the coriander on top and serve with a lemon wedge

Japanese cooking can be extremely lean and our recipe is no exception.  Both sesame and groundnut oil are good oils, plus seafood is a particularly excellent source of protein.

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