Soba, Edamame, and Dashi Dipping Sauce

The idea of cold noodles may seem a little weird (if you’re not Japanese), but I’ve tried it, and like most things I stuff in my face, I like it.

In Japan cold pasta is often topped with a leek-type veggie and dipped in sauce.  Pretty plain, but good, especially if you have a hangover.  Danny is obsessed with noodles so I thought I’d throw this together.  I am obsessed with edamame so there ya go.

It actually ended up more like this, because I was too lazy to dip continually:

Ingredients

**makes 8 small Asian servings, or 4 average-sized American servings, or 2 Amanda servings

dipping sauce

2 T yuzu

4 oz soy (I used way less because salt is not my friend, hence the light color)

3 oz mirin (ie sweet sake.  ie yum)

16 oz dashi (I will put the dashi recipe at the bottom of this blog post)

one package of soba noodles (they usually come in one pound)

wasabi

Method

1. 1. Combine all ingredients and mix together thoroughly.  Easy.
2. 2. Cook soba noodles in salted water according to package directions.  Rinse with cold water.  Toss in edamame beans.
3. 3.Dip noodles in the traditional style or throw them all together like the lazy people do.  I just threw my wasabi dollop into the dashi dipping sauce.

**Traditional soba noodles are cooked differently from western pastas.  The noodles are thrown into boiling water, returned to a boil, then cold water is thrown in, and it is then cooked until al dente.  BUT, I have found that the Asian mart sells soba noodles that instruct you not to do this.  So like I said, cook them according to package directions.  Thank you.

Dashi 

2 cups water

4x4 piece of kombu (dried kelp)

1/2 cup bonito flakes

Method

1. 1.Put kombu in water, soak 10 minutes, and then bring to a simmer.
2. 2.Remove kombu (can reserve for another use) and add bonito flakes.
3. 3.Soak bonito flakes for 10 minutes and then strain.  Resulting stock is dashi.