We do a lot of stir-fry in our van. It’s easy, uses up random veggies, dirties fewer dishes, and always tastes great. We usually serve this over rice, but we saw a recipe recently that uses udon noodles, extra dark soy sauce and oyster sauce for a dark, caramelized Asian spin on our usual recipe.

This sounded like something we wanted to try, but we could never find extra dark soy sauce and we don’t really have room in our pantry for more sauces anyway. So we experimented with substitutions from ingredients we already had. Regular soy sauce plus Gravy Master equals dark soy sauce. And dashi, which we always have on hand for our miso soup, instead of oyster sauce. The pre-cooked udon noodles are available at most grocery stores and are shelf-stable, so that’s good.

The results were pretty awesome, and we devoured the whole thing while the mosquitos swarmed outside our van somewhere in the middle of DeSoto National Forest. We will definitely make this recipe again and again.

Makes 2-3 servings

Ingredients:

• ½ block of firm tofu, pressed and cubed
• ¼ cup flour
• ½ yellow onion, half-mooned
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 inch knob of ginger, sliced thin
• 1 spicy jalapeno, sliced (or sub your favorite spicy pepper, or 1 tsp red pepper flakes)
• 1 cup snow peas, with ends trimmed
• 1 cup mini sweet peppers, sliced
• 1-4 oz package pre-cooked udon noodles
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 2 Tbs sesame oil
• 2 Tbs soy sauce
• 1 tsp Gravy Master
• 1 Tbs rice wine vinegar
• 1 tsp dashi (or sub 1 Tbs oyster or fish sauce)
• Sliced scallions to garnish

Preparation:

Dust the tofu in the flour and heat the olive oil in a frying pan until just before it starts smoking. Fry the tofu, turning the cubes until all sides are golden brown. Remove to a platter or bowl, lined with a paper towel to absorb excess oil, and cover. Using the same pan, add the sesame oil and bring back to medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, ginger and jalapenos and sauté until onions begin to turn translucent, about 5 mins. Add the soy sauce, vinegar, dashi and Gravy Master, and sauté for another minute. Add the snow peas and peppers, stirring until all the veggies are coated in the sauce. Sauté until the snow peas are just tender, about 4-5 mins. If it seems to dry, add another Tbs soy sauce. Last, add the noodles and the tofu back to the pan and toss until evenly distributed and the udon is heated through. Serve with a generous topping of scallions. Extra sriracha or sweet chili sauce on the side are also good additions.

This should be a very spicy dish with a glaze of caramelized sauce over everything. And, by the time you’re done eating, there may be a glaze of sweat on your brow.