No-fuss Soba Noodles (so my mother says..)

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One of my favorite dishes my mother makes is home-made soba noodles. Soba is a type of noodle made from buckwheat flour. It’s a typical Japanese dish, quick and easy to eat and prepare, served at restaurants all over Japan. When I say ‘easy to prepare’ I mean if you buy already-made noodles. Like pasta, you can buy them fresh or dried.

Soba can be served hot or cold, and will come in a bowl of broth if hot, and on a woven bamboo plate called zaru with a side of dipping sauce if cold (thus called zaru soba). I like my soba served cold, especially in the summer.
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Soba lovers can get fussy over how soba is made. This recipe is for the unfussy.
Ingredients for soba noodles (serves 4-5)*

350g (12.35 oz) soba (buckwheat) flour
150g (5.3 oz) regular (wheat) flour
250g (8.81 oz) water

Mix soba flour, regular flour, and water with hands until mixture becomes dough-like consistency, then shape into ball. Let dough sit in tupperware (or any container with lid) in room temperature for 30-40 minutes.
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*There are different consistencies in soba noodles. This depends on the ratio of soba flour to regular wheat flour. The more soba flour you use, the brittle the texture of the dough but flavorful. The more regular flour you use the easier it is to handle the dough but less flavorful. This soba is 70% soba flour, 30% regular flour.

30-40 minutes later…

Roll well-rested dough into thin sheet with wooden rolling pin.

Tip: It’s not necessary, but encouraged to get violent by pounding dough rolled on to pin onto table/wooden slab- see bottom photo. This is the most difficult bit, to thin out the dough without it tearing.
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Tip: The last thing you want is for the dough to get gooey and sticky, so sprinkle soba flour on the dough when rolling into sheet, pounding, and cutting

Then...fold sheet of dough and cut into thin strips.

Tip: It doesn’t have to be super-thin, like capellini, but you also don’t want it too thick like udon, which is a type of Japanese noodle made from wheat flour.
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This scary looking knife is a piece of cratsmanship, made especially for cutting soba noodles. It's not tye type of knife you can get just anywhere, so a regular kitchen knife will do just fine.

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Finally...boil water (make sure it's bubbling hot), put in noodles, wait for a minute or two until the water starts to rise (see 2nd photo), put in half a cup of water to calm, wait until the water starts to rise again, put in another half cup of water, let calm, take soba noodles out immediately and quickly.
Tip: Don't drain, but scoop the soba, as you will want to keep the water for soba-yu, which is the hot water full of nutrients in which the soba noodles were boiled, served at the end of the meal. Pour however much soba-yu as you like into the same cup used for the dipping sauce (it's better when you have some leftover dipping sauce in there). Drink as you would tea or soup.
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Rinse soba under cold running water, until noodles are cold, then place on zaru or plate.

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The noodles are done and ready to be served!

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Side of condiments which go into the dipping sauce. I put in wasabi, negi (green onions or scallions), and sometimes nori (dried seaweed), roasted sesame seeds, or shichimi.

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How to make soba tsuyu (soba dipping sauce) although store-bought sauce will do just fine.
Ingredients for soba tsuyu:
A
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 oz mirin (Japanese cooking sake)
a little bit of sugar
Add the above ingredients in small sauce pan over low heat, let simmer until sugar melts.

B
3 cups water
2 large strips kombu (edible kelp commonly used to make broth)
3 dried shitake mushrooms

Soak kombu and dried shitake mushrooms in water overnight. (It’s not absolutely necessary to soak overnight, but the longer you soak, the better the flavor of the dashi broth.)
Combine A and B (take out the kombu and shitake right before combining with A) in a pan, bring to simmer on very low heat for 5 minutes. Let cool.
Tip: If you like your dipping sauce salty, control the amount of B).
Soba noodles very healthy, and good on their own, but I personally like having a side-dish of tempura.
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Enjoy!
(I hope I've not left anything out)

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