Beef stir-fry udon noodles in black pepper sauce

Bring a pot of water to the boil on high while you prepare everything else.

Cut the beef into quarter inch thick slices.

Marinate the beef with salt, cornstarch, Chinese cooking wine, dark soy sauce and baking soda, mix well and set aside.

Drop the compacted udon noodles into the boiling water and stir gently for a couple of minutes until loose.

Remove them immediately and spread them on a rack so the residual heat drives off the excess moisture; soggy noodles are the thing to avoid.

Mix the soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce, dark soy sauce and a lot of freshly ground black pepper into the sauce.

Toss the udon in the sauce and mix thoroughly. Seasoning the noodles before they hit the wok keeps the liquid from dropping the wok temperature and sticking the noodles to the bottom.

Prepare the vegetables and cut the scallions into two inch pieces.

Heat the wok on high until smoking, add cooking oil and swirl to coat, then add the beef and stir for just 2 minutes, until it changes colour but is still red here and there. Remove it.

Turn the heat to low, drizzle in a couple more tablespoons of oil, add the minced garlic, shallot and ginger with the hard vegetables — here the celery and carrot — and stir a couple of minutes until the aromatics are slightly golden at the edge.

Turn to high, add the seasoned noodles and switch to tongs, which fluff the noodles better.

Stir the vegetables only a couple of minutes so they stay fresh and crunchy.

Return the beef, add the scallions and keep mixing until everything is well mingled. Taste and adjust before serving; the beef is left a little pink.