Yaki udon

I cooked yaki udon for lunch today! I have always loved fried noodles and am really glad that I get to chance upon this recipe. I made a little changes, and here's my own version.

For a mommy and her 4yo toddler, you need:

200g udon (Some udon may need to be boiled, but I use Fortune's and it doesn't require any boiling beforehand)
1/2 fresh chicken breast - cut into strips (You can use minced pork or boneless chicken drumstick too)
1/2 medium red pepper - sliced
2 shiitake mushrooms or 4 button mushrooms - sliced
2 tbsp canned corn - liquid drained (I don't usually add corn but as I opened a can last week, I decided to use it today)
3-4 prawns - shelled & de-veined
2 tbsp cooking oil
1 cup hot water
Some garlic and shallots - chopped and sliced
Dried shaved bonito
Some Curry leaves (Optional)
Dried herbs to taste-I used MasterFood's ground cayenne pepper, extra hot and parsley flakes.

Marinate for chicken breast:
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 level tsp potato starch

Sauce:
1 1/2 tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce
1 tbsp Hua Tiao cooking wine
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp light soy sauce (I used Kikkoman's low sodium light sauce)
1/2 tsp sesame oil

Steps:
1) Marinate chicken breast and set aside, covered.
2) In a small bowl, mix ingredients for sauce, set aside.
3) Heat 1 tbsp cooking oil in a medium saucepan. Stir-fry chicken breast. In order not to overcook it, lay chicken strips on one side, when side has browned, flip them and continue cooking the other side for probably another minute, covered. Once cooked, remove from saucepan and set aside.
4) In the same saucepan, heat remaining 1 tbsp cooking oil, stir-fry garlic & shallots till fragrant. Add in curry leaves and continue stir-frying.
5) Add red pepper, shiitake mushrooms, corn and mix up evenly in saucepan. Add 3-4 tbsp hot water, cover up and let ingredients simmer for half a minute.
6) Add udon and enough hot water for udon to simmer. Let simmer for a minute to soften the udon.
7) Add in sauce mixture. Stir and coat udon with sauce using a pair of chopsticks. If saucepan is drying, gradually add in more hot water. Cover saucepan and once you see sauce boiling, turn off the fire.
8) Your yaki udon is now ready to be served! On individual serving, you can then top it off with the desired amount of chicken, dried herbs and shaved bonito.



P/S: You can always substitute some ingredients for your favourite ones.