A poshed-up version of a quotidian Japanese post-WWII street food. This is one of those perfect, no-fuss dishes that are ready in no time at all, an ideal weeknight dish after a tough day when you want something satisfying quickly. Even if you go for other proteins—chicken, tofu or pork instead of duck—a bit of pre-planning pushes it to another level.
Yaki Ducky
This is an ideal dish for those irritated by foodies banging on about “original” and “authentic” cuisine, insisting nothing is good enough if it doesn’t involve rare and bizarre ingredients not readily available.
Food culture is always evolving at any point in time. Yakisoba is one of Japan’s big post-WWII street food hits. While some in the West wax lyrical about it being “traditional”, it actually only appeared in the Japanese food canon in about 1949. Pre-empting the “readymade” food culture of the then future, yakisoba sauce, is made from other readily available sauces, not all of them Japanese or even Asian in origin: Worcestershire sauce, oyster sauce, ketchup, soy sauce and sugar (or honey) etc..
The “soba” in yakisoba is a misnomer because the dish was/is seldom made with soba (buckwheat) noodles but rather with chuka soba, so-called "Chinese noodles" made from wheat flour. But, it works with most noodles that are not overly thin.
It’s obvious how this cheap-’n-cheerful street food makes it perfect for whipping up at short notice for a delicious meal. With this particular version, I emphasise that, with just a little more effort, even with cheap ingredients, you can make a big taste difference.
This recipe feeds 2 to 3 adult diners. You all have calculators on your phones if you wish to scale it up.
Shopping list
For the marinade and sauce
There are two ways to approach it. Either buy…
A good quality commercially available yakisoba sauce (you’ll need about 150 to 200ml)
Or, to make your own…
6 tbspns Worcestershire sauce. ideally use the Japanese household Bulldog brand version, internationally widely available. If using the iconic British brands that tend to be less “fruity” and more bitter, reduce it to 4 to 4.5 tbspns to preference
6 tspns oyster sauce (there are veggie brands available for those who don’t eat fish or if you have seafood allergies)
6 tspns of tomato ketchup
3 tspns of soy sauce
3 tspns of brown sugar or heaped tspns of honey
A dash of mirin, sake (or even bourbon if you have nothing else to hand). Optional
for the duck yakisoba
Duck breasts, with the skin still on; about 150g per diner. How this relates to the number of diners to the number of duck breasts depends on the the size of your breasts ("Ooh, er, Missus!")
A large clutch of spring onions, cut 70% into vertical strips (i.e. quarter the spring onions vertically after cutting them to lengths of about 4 to 6cm); slice the remaining 30% into horizontal slices
120 to 150g shiitake mushrooms, sliced vertically. If you live somewhere where shitake are not readily available, white or brown closed-cup mushrooms work perfectly well
1 large or 2 small green bell peppers, sliced thinly, vertically
Sesame oil and peanut oil, as needed
2 cloves of garlic, finely diced, not grated or crushed
A large piece of root ginger; “one thumb”, very finely cubed or roughly grated
Approx. 450g noodles of preference—if you can’t get chuka soba (i.e. bog standard wheat "Chinese noodles") practically any medium-thick Asian noodle works well (I’m actually making it here with a classic) fresh “Chinese” egg noodles
Aonori to taste. Japanese seaweed powder is widely available, but I’m using the Seaspoon blend with umami here, because I think it works beautifully with this dish
Before
If you’re doing the homemade yakisoba sauce, mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, adding a little extra soy sauce if necessary to ensure it mixes effortlessly. You can do this days before and store in the fridge in a covered container
Ideally 24 hours before (it’s fine if you do it up to an hour before), slice the duck breasts into thin strips, leaving the skin on. Place into a sealable dish; add 50% of the crushed garlic and grated ginger, rubbing them into the duck with clean fingers. Store in a covered dish in the fridge until about 20mins before cooking
Separate out approx. half of your yakisoba sauce, pouring it into the dish containing the duck. Massage it in using clean fingers to ensure the duck strips are coated. It doesn’t need to be “submerged”; add a little soy sauce and/or honey to ensure there is sufficient liquid to coat all surfaces. Cover/seal and place in the fridge.
If you aren’t using fresh noodles, ensure that they are cooked (generally boiled) to instructions, drained and cooled. You can do this within an hour of cooking or the night before, in which case, store the cooked and cooled noodles in a sealable dish in the fridge
Cooking Method
the duck yakisoba
In a wok, heat a generous dash of sesame oil and/or sesame oil (about 3 to 4 tbspns at least). When hot, but not smoking, add the cubed garlic, then the ginger, stirring with a wooden spatula all the time so that neither sticks nor burns
Once these are sizzling and have been cooking for 5 to 6 mins, add the sliced green pepper, continuing to stir. When the green pepper shows signs of being fried “al dente” (but not softened), empty the contents of the container used to marinade the duck, complete with the raw garlic and ginger and all of the liquid into the wok. If you’re doing it right, it should sizzle
Stir the contents, adding a dash of mirin, burning off the liquid. When there is still a little liquid in the wok, add a little more of the remaining 50% of the yakisoba sauce, adding the shitake mushrooms immediately afterwards
The next stage depends on how much of a wokmeister you are. When the mushrooms begin to wilt and the duck is getting to a “good” place—partly pink, but seared—you can either move all of the ingredients up to the higher, cooler edges of the wok (if you know how to play this game) OR, simply lift them out using a sieve-spoon and place on a plate. Leave the oil and detritus of the ginger and the other ingredients in the wok; focus on removing the bigger items
Throw in the noodles and stir, shaking and “tossing” or stirring the noodles. Add additional sesame oil if needed and, before the noodles stick, pour in the rest of the yakisoba sauce
Waiting no more than a minute or so, push the duck, green pepper and shitake mushrooms back into the noodles (or return them to the wok) and ensure that all ingredients are mixed and piping hot, cooking together for a few minutes
Turn off the heat, dress with the aonori and the horizontally sliced raw spring onion and allow to settle. Then plate and enjoy
Alternatives
For meat lovers, the original iterations of this dish focussed on small pieces of pork. Treat them as if they were duck if you wish to go there
It’s equally easy to make it pescatarian (go for red bell peppers instead of green if opting for king prawns) though my favourites are calamari or octopus
For the vegan/veggie version, revert back to the original street food version that used white cabbage and carrots to stretch it further, both very finely sliced, adding cubes of tofu in place of the duck etc. Leave out, or find an alternative for Worcestershire sauce, because it contains anchovies. (I tend to use a little more soy sauce and a little vegetable chutney to achieve the same flavour effect). Add them at the point that the green pepper is added in this recipe. And, of course, use a veggie alternative to oyster sauce for the yakisoba sauce itself such as Lee Kum Kee Mushroom Vegetarian Stir-Fry Sauce.
Pairings
Of course, this is another case for Karel where wine is concerned. I have never actually had this dish with wine. It's one of those Japanese dishes that works so well with sake or beer that I haven't even considered it in terms of wine. But the thing I love it with most is iced green tea with a dash of fruit juice, especially yuzu.
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