Stir Fry Noodles with Ishikura Onions, Mushrooms & Roast Cauliflower in Dengaku Sauce

This recipe celebrates the tasty sweetness of stir-fried Ishikura onions infused in aromatic flavours of oriental mushrooms with egg noodles. Serve with roasted cauliflower with dengaku sauce, which can also be eaten on its own! 

Method (serves 2)

Cauliflower & Dengaku Sauce
• Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
• Cut the cauliflower into bite sized florets and place them onto a baking tray, lined with baking paper.
• Drizzle on a generous amount of vegetable oil.
• Place the tray in the oven for 20 minutes or until tender. The florets should have a light golden-brown colour.
• To make the Dengaku miso sauce, mix together the miso, mirin, sake and dark brown sugar.
• Take the cauliflower out of the oven. Drizzle the Dengaku sauce over each floret. Bake in the oven for a further 2-3 minutes. Remove from the oven and put to one side, ready to serve.

Stir Fry with sauce
• Prepare the shiitake mushroom stock, by soaking the shiitake mushrooms in 150ml of cold water, 2-3 hours in advance.
• Peel and finely slice the ginger and garlic.
• Chop the Ishikura onions diagonally, into 3-4 cm pieces.
• To prepare the mushrooms.
• Remove the shiitake from the water (Reserve the water this is your stock) and squeeze them out to remove most of the water.
• Slice the Shitake and King Oyster mushrooms thinly, removing the stalks.
• Remove the stalks of the Shimeji and Maitake mushrooms and break them into smaller pieces by hand.
• Trim the base of the Enoki mushrooms and cut them in half.
• Slice the red pepper into thin strips, taking out the seeds.
• Trim the green beans and chop into thirds. Blanch the beans quickly in boiling water for 1 minute, then drain.
• To prepare the sauce, mix together the shiitake stock, soy sauce and mirin. Set to one side, ready for use when stir-frying.
• Heat up a wok or frying pan, with vegetable oil, on a medium heat.
• Fry the ginger and garlic for 1 minute.
• Add all of the mushrooms and stir-fry for a further 2-3 minutes, until they are cooked through.
• Add the sake and red pepper and cook for another minute.
• Add the green beans, stir once and remove the pan from the heat.
• Bring a pan of at least 1 litre of water to the boil. Cook the egg noodles for 2-3 minutes.
• Drain the noodles and drizzle them with sesame oil.
• Place the pan with the stir-fried vegetables back on a high heat. Add the noodles and quickly pour over the sauce. Stir well, for 1 minute.
• Transfer the stir-fried vegetable noodles to a serving plate.
• Scatter over the sesame seeds, chives and seven spice.
• Serve with the roast cauliflower dengaku, either on a side dish or scattered on top.