Hiyashi Carbonara

First time I made it! :)

You love carbonara? You love asian food? This may be the perfect recipe for you! I saw this recipe, hiyashi carbonara (冷やしカルボナーラ which means cold carbonara) in a Japanese magazine in a clinic for Japanese people in London. When I first read it I thought it was so clever! I adapted it a bit (combined it with how my mum makes her carbonara, my own carbonara recipe and the one in the magazine). If you love carbonara but have issues with the high calories of the original recipe, try making this one! Instead of using spaghetti, you use somen which are very thin Japanese noodles made of wheat flour that are usually served cold. For the sauce, use milk instead of cream! This dish is the perfect way to eat carbonara without feeling guilty or like a fat shit! Yey! AND if it's summer and it's too hot to eat carbonara (said no one ever?) this cold version will be perfect for you! Double YEY!

Second time I made this dish :3

Changed the presentation a bit :P

Ingredients (for 2-3 munchers):

• 400g Somen
• 1 Onion
• 100g Bacon/pancetta
• 2-3 spoons of mashed garlic
• 2 cups of Milk (you can also use liquid cream but makes the dish pretty heavy ><)
• Wasabi (optional)
• 3 Egg yolks
• Sake
• Cheese (emmental/gouda or any other cheese)
• Spring onion
• Salt and Pepper

Preparation:

1. Boil water for the somen while you prepare the sauce
2. Cut the onion into strips and cook them with a little bit of oil. When they start to soften, add the sake. Cover with a lid for 8min. Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't burn. Lift the lid and let the liquid evaporate. When they are cooked, set aside and let them cool a bit. 
3. In another pan, fry the bacon (I don't put any oil in it since bacon already has PUULENTY) until crispy. Set aside so it cools down.   
4. In a bowl, add 3 egg yolks, wasabi and mashed garlic. Mix well with a fork until combined. 
5. Add the milk and cheese and mix some more. Add salt and pepper to taste. 
6. Cut the spring onion as small as possible and put into a bowl. 
7. When the somen are done, rinse them with cold water. Drain them well, place them on a plate, put the onion on top, the bacon and add the sauce. Sprinkle the spring onion as decoration! 

Although I love carbonara, I do think it is pretty heavy. By changing some ingredients to somen and milk, it makes the dish a lot lighter and still very tasty! To reduce even more fat I used smoked ham (it has less fat than bacon). I do think bacon is good for this recipe (even though I'm not such a fan) as it gives extra flavour to the sauce. Make sure you add enough salt to the sauce (it's just milk so it doesn't have that much taste). I also used 2 different types of cheeses for the second time I made it (grated emmental and some powdered nameless hard cheese?) but parmesan would also definitely be yummy :D

If you are not a fan of wasabi you can skip that step but I personally love wasabi so I like to put enough so I am able to taste it hehe. You can also add the onion and bacon to the sauce but make sure they cooled down a bit because otherwise it will cook the egg yolk in the sauce and it will become clumpy.

Enjoy!