Soba in San Diego

 

 Don't hate, but I live in sunny San Diego.  And the weather has been... well, something like this...

Pretty awesome, not gonna lie.  I do apologize to the Tribe that live in places forsaken by sun and surf, because for us, it is Soba Season all year long, at least for our family.  In all honesty, we were out of white rice and I was tired of brown rice.  So, I perused the pantry for inspiration, and VIOLA!  Soba noodles!  The kids love it and we haven't had it in a while.  Great!  Now for the sauce... I found it, but, alas, only a tiny bit left, definitely not enough for 5.  I read the ingredients and it wasn't complicated at all, just soy sauce, vinegar, bonito flakes (katsuo-bushi), and sweetners & preservatives.  I tasted it, and thought to myself, "I can do this!" and did it.  It wasn't exactly like the commercial sauce of course, but it turned out nice.  Here's how... 

[Excusis: I don't do a lot of measuring.  I'm usually just eye-balling it.  The amounts list below are estimates.  So please taste and adjust often as you go.]

Ingredients:

• Dry Soba Noodles - usually come in serving size bundles, one bundle is generally enough for one of my kids.  You can get them at any Asian store, and most mega-mart have them too.
• 3 cups water
• 4"x4" sheet of Kombu (Dried Kelp used for making dashi)
• Katsuo-bushi - smoked and dried bonito flakes (I don't know how to describe the amount; with three fingers I grabbed a healthy bundle of the stuff.  You will need to go to an Asian store to get this one)
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup mirin
• 1 1/2 tbspn lemon juice 
• 1/2 tspn sesame seed oil
• Salt & Pepper

Directions:

• Boil water for soba noodles in large stock pot
• Bring 3 cups of water to a boil in a small stock pot.
• Reduce to simmer and add all ingredients to the 3 cups of boiling water (except for the soba noodles of course)
• Allow to simmer for 30-40 mins.
• Taste and adjust with soy sauce, salt & pepper
• Filter through a fine strainer and let cool in the frig.
• When water for the noodles come to a boil, add soba and allow to boil for about 5 min.  You will do lots of rinsing, so remove soba when it's al dente.  
• Prepare an ice bath
• Rinse noodles in cold running water (for the purist, buckwheat flower and WATER are the focus of soba.  Use the best water you can source), and transfer to ice bath; allow soba to get COLD but don't leave it in there too long.
• Remove soba from ice bath and strain in a colander, shaking gently to remove excess water.
• Ideally, you wanna serve soba on a dish that will prevent them from sitting in excess water. Serve the sauce in a separate bowl; you could serve with julienned cucumbers & nori, finely diced green onions, grated daikon radish, wasabi (my favorite), and a coupla dashes of roasted sesame seeds.

I also made some bulgogi for ban-chan, but that's another post.

Hope you enjoy it, even if you're not in San Diego ;)  Let me know.