This week, we have the big grand-daddy of cold noodles: soba.
I haven't been able to find a grocer that sells the buckwheat noodles fresh, but dried isn't so bad. I love how they come wrapped in cute little pre-portioned bundles, and they are shorter than spaghetti noodles so they actually fit in my cooking pot without needing to break or bend them.
Simple, beautiful cold noodles on a plate. Though it's really supposed to be on a bamboo mat. I don't have one of those though. :P
You can add green onion to your noodles, and then dip them in the soba dipping sauce and eat! Sometimes I'll add a bit of wasabi to the soba sauce for extra bite, but I didn't have any on stock this time. If you can't find the soba dipping sauce (soba tsuyu) at the store, you can search online for a recipe, there are plenty for the soy sauce/dashi mixture.
In addition to my green onion and dipping sauce, I added some cold cucumber and
takuan for pickle sides, and some homemade turkey meatballs made with some leftovers I had lying around. They were terribly dry, so that's probably the last time I try to make meatballs.
Any good Japanese restaurant (i.e. not just a sushi joint) should have zaru soba on the menu, and I've never had a bad dish of it! We even
served it at our wedding last year. Plus, don't the noodles look healthy for you? My mom thinks they look like worms. :P
Sweet! You can get a bamboo mat for $1.30 at Daiso. :D (Is it the same kind you use to roll sushi?) We get a udon that's in pre-bundles too -- perfect portions! And I recently picked up some soba in the same brand. :]
ReplyDeleteMaybe you just need a bigger pot... who breaks pasta before cooking it?? :oP It'll just bend after a few minutes?
Its perfectly acceptable to break the pasta before cooking it - this guarantees that it cooks evenly and honestly - who eats spaghetti noodles that long anyway?
ReplyDeleteI'm going to look for this on the menu next time I go to our nice Japanese restaurant! Thanks for the idea :)
i do love soba. especially on these hot days. i really like it with freshly grated radish--i guess kind of like the wasabi touch. yum!
ReplyDeleteYummm! And it's totally good for you -- it's high in protein and no (maybe a little) fat! (This is what I should have had for lunch today!!)
ReplyDeleteLove soba - the dish you prepared looks especially yummy. And I love spice so would definitely add a ton of wasabi to mine :)
ReplyDeleteYum, I love cold soba! So refreshing :)
ReplyDeleteYum - I love cold soba! So refreshing :)
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