Yakisoba (Japanese Stir Fried Noodles)

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**[Yakisoba (Japanese Stir Fried Noodles)](https://japan.recipetineats.com/yakisoba-japanese-stir-fried-noodles/)** by RecipeTin Japan
*Prep Time: 5 mins, Cook Time: 15 mins, Total Time: 20 mins, Serves: 3-4*
**Ingredients**
* 300g / 10.5oz yellow noodles (Note 1)
* 1 tbsp sesame oil
* 2 tbsp oil (vegetable oil or peanut oil)
* 200g (7oz) pork thinly sliced to bite size (Note2)
* 60g (2oz) carrot thinly sliced diagonally
* 100g (3.5oz) cabbage cut into bite size (Note 3)
* 3 shiitake mushrooms sliced into 2mm (1/16″) thick
* 2 stalks of shallots / scallions diagonally sliced
* 1 cup bean sprouts
*Yakisoba Sauce (Note 4)*
* 40ml (1.4oz) Bulldog tonkatsu so-su Sauce
* 50ml (1.7oz) Bulldog usutar so-su Sauce
* 1 tsp soy sauce
* ½ tbsp tomato sauce / tomato ketchup
* 1 tsp sugar
* ½ tsp dashi seasoning powder diluted in ½ tsp hot water (Note 5)
*Garnish (optional but strongly recommended)*
* 2 tbsp aonori (dried seaweed flakes) (Note 6)
* 2 tbsp benishoga (red pickled ginger) (Note 7)
**Instructions**
1. Add all the Yakisoba Sauce ingredients into a measuring cup or a small bowl and mix well. Set aside until required.
2. Boil a sufficient amount of water in a sauce pan and boil the noodles for 1 minute. Drain and sprinkle sesame oil over the noodle and mix until all noodles are coated. This is to prevent the noodles from sticking to each other.
3. Heat oil in a wok or a large fry pan over medium high heat. Add the pork and sauté until the pork is almost cooked through (about 2-3 minutes).
4. Add the carrots and stir fry for 30 seconds, then add the cabbage and shiitake mushrooms. Stir fry for about 1 minute until the cabbage is nearly cooked, then add the shallots and bean sprouts.
5. After stir frying for 30 seconds (Note 8), add the noodles. Mix the noodles and vegetables well.
6. Add the yakisoba sauce and mix quickly to ensure that all the noodles are coated with the sauce and the colour of the noodles are consistent without any patchy light coloured noodles.
7. Transfer the noodles onto serving plates piling it into a mound. Sprinkle aonori over the noodles and add the benishoga on the top or the side of the noodles, or serve in separate bowl/plate for individual to add topping themselves.
8. Serve immediately.
**Recipe Notes**
1. Yakisoba noodles are the same as ramen or Chinese non-egg noodles. The thickness of yakisoba noodles is about 2mm but you could use thicker noodles. I would not recommend very thin noodles as it will overcook easily and become doughy. I would not use Hokkien Noodles either as it is quite oily and too heavy for yakisoba in my view.
2. Any cut of pork suitable for stir fry is fine. I happened to have pork scotch steak. I sometimes use thinly sliced pork belly. It makes yakisoba a bit richer but I like it.
3. I ramdomly cut the cabbage into bite size whose area is about 5cm x 3cm (2″ x 1.2″). The shape does not have to be rectangular at all.
4. You can adjust the amount of each ingredient to your liking. I used the Bulldog branded sauce but you can use other brands if you like.
5. The dashi seasoning is to add umami to the sauce. If you don’t have dashi seasoning powder (see Home Style Japanese Dashi Stock for samples), you can skip this. But if you have bonito flakes instead, you could add 2 tablespoons of bonito flakes when mixing the sauce with the noodles.
6. Aonori is quite different from yakinori (焼き海苔, roasted seaweed sheets used in sushi rolls). It is green and chopped into teeny tiny pieces. It is used as not only topping for yakisoba but also okonomiyaki which I will introduce later, and sometimes in tempura. Although the flavour is quite different, you could substitute aonori with yakinori. Julienne the yakinori into about 2.5cm (1″) length.
7. Benishoga is red pickled ginger. It comes either in sliced or julienned. If you have sliced red pickled ginger, you can just julienne them. Do not substitute pickled ginger used for sushi for the red pickled ginger as it will not go well with yakisoba.
8. If the wok or fry pan is not large enough to cook the yakisoba in one batch, I would recommend that you cook individual serving portions from this point onwards. You will get a much better result than trying to cook a huge amount of noodles in a small wok/fry pan. I actually cooked my yakisoba in batches. When cooking in batches: Before you add the noodles, take out the stir fried meat and vegetables leaving one serving portion in the wok/fry pan. Then add one serving of noodles and continue the following steps using one serving of yakisoba sauce. Repeat for the other servings. You could of course cook two servings at a time if the work/fry pan can handle.