It is a staple in Japanese cooking. This is a bowl of miso udon that I made. The weather has been cold and rainy here and nothing makes me happier than a big bowl of warm soup.

There are all kinds of yummy things in there besides the udon noodles: tofu, mushrooms (properly shitake, but mine are baby portobellas), spinach, fried tofu skins (aburage), and a poached egg in the corner.

The base is dashi stock - a staple of Japanese cooking. There is a good recipe for dashi here: Dashi Stock at Just Hungry. You can really throw just about anything in your simmering dashi with a little miso paste, sake and sugar. Let everything cook until tender and crack open the egg and add it to the pot. It will poach nicely. Once the egg is done, add in your cooked udon noodles.

Traditionally it is served with potatoes or rice, but all I had on hand was some spinach. Would you like to try it? Googling "Normandy Chicken" will present you with plenty of recipes to try. I used the one from Sonia Uvezian's The Book of Yogurt.