Cold Soba (そば ) with Mentsuyu
Sauce from scratch
Soba requires years and years of apprenticeship and training, which I obviously don't have. I'm not going to lie, this was difficult. I started off making double the serving and realized really quickly that I don't have the upper body strength or counter space to hand roll out this dense dough. I had to use a step stool in order to get the right leverage. I think next time I will try using a pasta machine.
Nevertheless, the process was gratifying and soba noodles from scratch tastes so much nuttier than the packaged stuff.
MENTSUYU (MULTIPURPOSE DIPPING)
SAUCE
Difficulty:
Easy
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Yields: 1 cup
Ingredients:
½ cup soy sauce
½ cup Mirin
¼ cup sake
handful of Dried
Bonito Flakes
Directions:
1. Put all ingredient in a sauce pan.
2. Bring sauce to a boil and remove from heat.
3.
Strain out bonito flakes.
Cover and refrigerate sauce.
SOBA NOODLES
Difficulty:
Hard
Time: Depends on how much upper body strength you have
...
Servings: 2
Ingredients:
160 g (~1 cup) buckwheat flour
40 g (~⅓ cup) plain flour
100 ml water filtered water
Tapioca starch for rolling the soba
Mentsuyu sauce
Water or dashi broth
Grated daikon radish
Chopped scallions
Wasabi
Directions:
1. Combine buckwheat flour and plain flour into a large mixing bowl.
2.
Create a well in the flour and slowly pour in the filtered water.
3.
Work the flour and water together with your hands. Knead in the bowl until it comes together. The dough will be rough and slightly crumbly
. If the dough feels too dry or if you can still see dry flour after kneading, add water a tablespoon at a time until all the flour is integrated. If the dough feels too wet and is sticky, add all-purpose flour a tablespoon at a time until it becomes workable.
4.
Turn the dough out onto the counter and knead until it holds together and is smooth. The dough will be very dense at this
point.
5.
Shape the dough into a cone. Sprinkle the counter with tapioca starch.
Press down on the dough cone with the palm of your hand, flattening it into a disk about ½“ thick.
6. Sprinkle the top of the dough and your rolling pin with tapioca starch and beginning rolling out the dough. Work from the center outward, rotate the dough as needed to get the desired rectangle shape. It should be longer than it is wide.
Roll the dough as thin as possible.
7.
Once you have the rolled the dough as thin as possible. Sprinkle half of the dough with tapioca starch.
Fold the dough in half like a book. Sprinkle more starch and fold the top down.
Repeat one more time. You should end up with a rectangle of folded dough.
8.
Place a flat utensil (pastry scraper, ruler, or in my case, a cutting board) over the top of the folded dough. The flat utensil will be used as a guide when you start cutting the noodles. Cut the noodles the same thickness as your dough.
Move the guide back with every cut to help you cut noodles with even thickness. When done, toss the noodles with tapioca starch to prevent sticking.
9. Cook the soba in salted water for ~60 seconds.
Drain the noodles and dunk in a bowl of ice water. Drain, plate and garnish with shredded nori.
10.
Prepare your mentsuyu/dipping sauce. Dilute the prepared sauce with equal parts water or dashi. Optional: Add grated daikon radish, chopped scallions and wasabi to your dipping sauce.
11. Dip, slurp and enjoy!
Notes:
The mentsuyu sauce is concentrated. When ready to serve, dilute with equal parts water or dashi. This sauce is also good as a dipping sauce for tempura.
Freeze soba if you don’t plan on eating immediately. Soba can be frozen for up to 3 months.
Thaw in refrigerator before cooking.
If you have a pasta maker, use with spaghetti attachment to roll and cut the dough. I do have a pasta maker, but decided to try everything by hand first.
Background Music:
Artist: Jahzzar
Track:
Type Your Name Here Short
“Type Your Name Here Short” by Jahzzar (
http://www.betterwithmusic.com)
- published: 21 Sep 2014
- views: 8603