Miso Butter Udon with Crispy Mushrooms

Ingredients

• 2 nests, dried udon noodles
• Steamed jasmine rice, to serve
• 250 g mixed mushrooms, torn, e.g. shiitake, oyster, chestnut
• Pickled cucumber, to serve
• 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 3 spring onions, sliced
• 1 tsp chilli oil
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp white miso paste
• 30 g butter
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp mirin
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
• Fresh coriander, to serve

Method

1. Bring a large pan of water to a rolling boil and salt it generously — udon needs room to move, and a well-salted bath is the only chance you've got to season the noodle itself. Cook the udon to packet timing, drain, then rinse briefly under cold water to stop them clagging together. Set aside.
2. Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a large frying pan over high heat until it shimmers. Tear the mushrooms into bite-sized pieces — torn edges crisp better than knife-cut ones — and lay them in a single layer. Don't crowd the pan; if it looks tight, do them in two batches. Crowded mushrooms steam in their own water and go grey instead of golden.
3. Leave the mushrooms alone for 4–5 minutes. No stirring, no poking. You're waiting for the undersides to turn deep mahogany and crisp at the edges. Season with salt and pepper, toss once to colour the other side for a minute, then tip onto a plate.
4. Drop the heat to medium and add the remaining 1 tbsp oil to the same pan. Slide in the sliced garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, just until fragrant and pale gold. Watch it — burnt garlic turns the whole bowl bitter, and there's no rescuing it.
5. Loosen the miso with the soy sauce and mirin in a small bowl so it disperses cleanly rather than sitting in lumps. Add the drained noodles to the pan with a splash of the noodle water, then pour in the miso mixture. Toss over the heat for a minute or two until every strand is glossy.
6. Lift the noodles to one side, drop the butter into the bare patch of pan and let it melt and bubble into the miso, swirling for 20 seconds until the sauce turns silky and emulsified — that swirl is what takes it from miso paste on noodles to a proper clinging glaze. Toss the noodles back through, loosening with another splash of water if it tightens. Taste — most of the salt is already there from the miso and soy, but a final pinch of pepper ties it together.
7. Divide between two deep bowls, pile the crispy mushrooms on top, scatter over the sliced spring onions and toasted sesame seeds, and finish each bowl with a slick of chilli oil pooling at the edge.