Its quick to make and one I know they'll enjoy.
I haven't put in measurements for any of the ingredients because this recipe is simple to adapt to cater for as many people as you want. I'll explain more in the method.
Soup Ingredients
Dried kombu seaweed
Handful of Dried shiitake mushroom
Soysauce
Mirin
Extra ingredients
Frozen udon
Inariage, cut in halves
Optional: Wakame seaweed, Veggies/toppings of choice (I just use whatever is available at home) eg. Baby spinach, corn kernel, dried seaweed strips, frozen lotus roots/renkon, soybeans. Whatever tickles your fancy.
Method
1. Clean and soak a generous handful of shiitake mushrooms in a bowl of water. Reserve the water and don't pour it out. Meanwhile, wipe clean a sheet of dried kombu seaweed. Don't wash or soak it as it'll remove all the precious natural umami flavour. Cut slits in the kombu
2. In a large pot, add the soaked and softened shiitake mushrooms and kombu. For each person you cook for, add a large bowl of water in the pot. Eg. If you're cooking for 2 people, add 2 big (eating) bowls of water. I also add the mushroom water as that is full of natural umami goodness too. Let it sit while you prepare the other ingredients.
3. Cut the inariage in halves and set aside. I use 1 inariage per person. If you wish, you can add extra veggies/toppings to the soup. You don't need to as kitsune udon normally doesn't have this, but I like to, so I do. Should you wish to as well, now is the time to prepare your veggies/toppings of choice.
4. Time to get cooking! Add soysauce and Mirin to the soup pot. 1 tbs of each per person. Eg, if you're cooking for 2, then add 2 tbs of soysauce and 2 tbs Mirin. Bring the soup to a boil. Remove the kombu pieces and add your wakame seaweed along with any other extras you've decided to add.
5. Add frozen udon to the soup. 1 per person. Serve udon, soup and veggies in a bowl and top with inariage (although I like to add the inariage to the soup just before I scoop it out).
6. Enjoy
