The best bowl in Kyoto: Shoyu ramen

Serves 2 · 25 min · Easy

Kyoto's temple dish is about the tofu, so buy the best fresh silken or soft tofu you can find.

You need

• 1 piece kombu, about 4 x 6 in (10 x 15 cm)
• 4 cups (950 ml) water
• 1 lb (450 g) soft or silken tofu, in large cubes
• For the dipping sauce: 1/4 cup (60 ml) soy sauce, 2 tbsp mirin, 1/4 cup (60 ml) dashi, 1 tbsp yuzu or lemon juice
• Toppings: sliced green onion, grated ginger, bonito flakes, shichimi

How to make it

1. Soak the kombu in the water in a clay pot or wide saucepan for 30 minutes.
2. Warm the sauce ingredients together and pour into small cups.
3. Heat the pot gently; just before it simmers, add the tofu.
4. Keep it below a simmer until the tofu just starts to sway, 3-4 minutes (boiling makes it rough).
5. Lift out pieces with a slotted spoon, dip in the sauce and eat with the toppings.

Chef's tips

• Serve at the table on a burner, as Kyoto does.

Contains: soy, wheat (soy sauce), fish (bonito)..

Chef Amazing's own recipe, written for a home kitchen. Saved, it opens in Chef Amazing with a timeline, mise en place and what you already have.

Serves 2 · 40 min (plus overnight soak) · Medium

Kyoto is far from the sea, so dried herring from Hokkaido was the fish. Japanese grocers sell migaki nishin; softened ready-cooked herring (kanroni) saves a day.

You need

• 2 dried herring fillets (migaki nishin), soaked overnight in rice-washing water, or 2 ready-braised herring (kanroni)
• For braising: 1/2 cup (120 ml) dashi, 2 tbsp soy, 2 tbsp mirin, 2 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp sake
• 3 cups (720 ml) dashi
• 3 tbsp light soy (usukuchi), 2 tbsp mirin
• 2 portions dried soba
• Sliced green onion, shichimi

How to make it

1. If using dried herring, rinse it, cut in half, then simmer in the braising liquid with a lid touching the fish for 30 minutes, until glossy and tender.
2. Heat the dashi with the light soy and mirin.
3. Cook the soba, rinse quickly in hot water and put into bowls.
4. Pour over the hot broth and lay the herring on top.
5. Finish with green onion and shichimi.

Chef's tips

• The rice-washing water softens the dried fish and takes out its oily smell.

Contains: wheat (soba usually contains wheat), soy, fish..

Chef Amazing's own recipe, written for a home kitchen. Saved, it opens in Chef Amazing with a timeline, mise en place and what you already have.

Serves 2 · 30 min · Easy

A Japanese curry roux loosened with dashi. Wear a dark shirt.

You need

• 1 tbsp oil
• 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
• 4 oz (115 g) thinly sliced beef or pork
• 3 cups (720 ml) dashi
• 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp mirin
• 2 cubes (about 2 oz / 50 g) Japanese curry roux
• 1 tbsp potato starch or cornstarch mixed with 2 tbsp water
• 2 portions udon (frozen is best)
• Lots of sliced green onion

How to make it

1. Cook the onion in the oil 4 minutes, add the meat and cook 2 minutes.
2. Add the dashi, soy and mirin and simmer 5 minutes.
3. Melt in the curry roux, then stir in the starch slurry to make it silky.
4. Cook the udon, drain and put into bowls.
5. Pour over the curry and pile green onion on top.

Chef's tips

• A slice of cheese melted on top is the Okaru way.

Contains: wheat, soy, fish (dashi), milk (cheese, some roux)..

Chef Amazing's own recipe, written for a home kitchen. Saved, it opens in Chef Amazing with a timeline, mise en place and what you already have.

Serves 2 · 40 min · Easy

Frozen sanuki udon from a Japanese grocer is very good, and better than most dried. The dashi takes 15 minutes and makes all the difference.

You need

• For the dashi: 5 cups (1.2 l) cold water, a 4-inch (10 cm) piece of kombu, 1 cup (15 g) loosely packed bonito flakes
• 3 tbsp light soy sauce (usukuchi) or regular soy sauce
• 2 tbsp mirin
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 portions frozen sanuki udon (about 9 oz / 250 g each)
• 2 eggs
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
• Optional toppings: tempura flakes (tenkasu), a sheet of fried tofu, thinly sliced pork simmered in the broth, shichimi togarashi

How to make it

1. Put the kombu in the cold water in a pot and leave 20 minutes if you have time. Heat over medium until tiny bubbles form at the edge, about 10 minutes, then lift out the kombu just before it boils.
2. Bring to a boil, add the bonito flakes, take the pot off the heat and let them sink, 3 minutes. Strain through a sieve without pressing. You have dashi.
3. Return the dashi to the pot and season with the soy sauce, mirin and salt. Keep it hot over low heat. It should taste clean and gently savory.
4. For soft eggs, lower the cold eggs into simmering water and cook exactly 6 1/2 minutes, then into ice water for 2 minutes and peel. (For the classic onsen egg, hold eggs in water at 145F / 63C for 45 minutes.)
5. Boil the frozen udon in a large pot of unsalted water for 1 to 2 minutes, until hot through and springy. Drain well and divide between two big, warmed bowls.
6. Pour the hot broth over the noodles, top with the egg, scallions and any toppings, and serve right away with shichimi on the side.

Pans and tools

• 2 pots
• fine sieve

Chef's tips

• Slurp: it cools the noodles and is expected.
• Kombu boiled turns slimy and bitter, so take it out before the boil.

Our recipe, the same one we give for hot udon in dashi in London. Saved, it opens in Chef Amazing with a timeline, mise en place and what you already have.