Zaru Soba: Delightful Cold Summer Noodles

It's the third week of summer vacation and like many moms, I'm enjoying a more relaxed schedule. However, I find lunch a hassle. My children seem to think summer living should include room service with a menu plan. The minions have lived overseas and they know there is more to the palette than PB&J. I have enough trouble coming up with dinner ideas. To me, lunch is a powerbar and an apple. Maybe a cheese-stick and Triscuits if I'm lucky. I like PB&J. The short ones scoff and give me complicated explanations on healthy eating that has been hammered into their brains by the school system.   

Zaru Soba

We have created nutritional monsters. Mine made worse by their strange non-kid appetites.


So I make them Zaru Soba, cold soba buckwheat noodles, and everyone's happy. It's simple and fast (yay for me) and satisfies the little foodies. Win-win.


In Japan, this is a common summer lunch dish, although you could eat it for dinner, too. Hot soba noodles in a soup is also a common dish and can be accompanied with tempura, mountain vegetables, deep-fried tofu, and other ingredients. We'll save that for cooler weather. 


Cold noodles sounded a bit strange to me the first time I tried them (although we do eat noodle salads in the US), but I was immediately hooked. The soy sauce based dipping sauce is tangy and refreshing, the buckwheat taste of the noodles  earthy and smooth. Really delicious.

Noodle Soup Base

What makes the noodles so simple to make is the sauce. Noodle soup base sauce added to hot or cold water makes many Japanese soups and sauces. This stuff rocks. You can find this soup base at most Asian stores and some large supermarkets. Just mix the base with water. Of course, you can always make the sauce yourself with soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and dashi stock -- but why? If you're into cooking the hard way, here's the recipe from JustHungry.com. JustHungry recipes are yummy, but even she says the simplest way to make these noodles is to buy prepared base.

Soup Base proportions

Here's my snapshot from the back of the bottle showing the ease of making all the different sauces/soup bases. As you can see, for Zaru Soba it 4 parts cold water to 1 part soup base.

Soba bundle and Soba package

Zaru Soba for One 


Prepare Zaru Soba sauce the easy way above (1 cup cold water to 1 Tb of soup base) or the hard way (see JustHungry.com).


1 bundle of Soba (buckwheat) Noodles


Boiling Water (no salt, no oil, just water)


Condiments to sprinkle on the noodles 
(suggestions to follow)


Soba generally come in packs with the dried noodles tied in bundles. One bundle makes enough for one person, depending on the gusto of the eater.


Bring a pot of water to boiling, add noodles, and boil for 6-7 minutes. Test for doneness. They should be firm but not hard. Rinse hot noodles in cold water (don't plunge in cold water, rinse them and run your hands through them) and allow to drain. 


Actually, Zaru Soba is named for the zaru, a bamboo flat basket. It acts to drain the water from the noodles. We bought zaru dishes (at the Japanese version of the dollar store, no less), which are rimmed plates with a bamboo insert.

No 100 Yen Store close by? If you have a sushi roller, put it on top of a plate. That was my old standby. Otherwise... so your noodles sit in a small puddle. Life will go on.

Dipping the noodles

Put about a cup of cold soup/sauce in a small bowl. Dip the noodles as you eat them in the sauce. Add condiments as you like. My girls like nori (roasted seaweed) cut in little slivers (I do this with a scissors) and sprinkled on their noodles. Sliced green onion is delicious. Toasted sesame seeds, wasabi, and grated fresh ginger are also popular. Add these to the soba sauce.


Do you have a favorite summer dish from your host country? Please share!

Salad Days: Literally & Figuratively (with Asian Dressing)

I'm experiencing an exciting new juncture in my life with my debut novel. A true "Salad Days", as I'm so green and so thrilled by every aspect of the publication journey. In my thrall to editing and writing, cooking (and a bunch of other stuff) has gone by the wayside. 

"Asian Summer Salad"

Luckily, it's summer weather here in the south. I don't know why, but cooking feels simpler in the summer. Grilling. Salads. Food held by buns. Maybe it feels easier because I have a partner who takes over outdoor cooking (inside he suffers from Male Refrigerator Blindness), and I can delegate more. I get homemade pulled pork in good weather. 


I like good weather.

Soy sauce, mirin, rice vinegar
& sesame oil

Unless we want the ultimate caveman diet, I do have to scrounge some sides. So, today I have a salad chock full of nature's goodness with an easy Asian dressing. Good anytime, this especially takes advantage of great summer veggies. It helps to have a mandolin or another kind of slicer, but you can cut the veggies thinly with a knife. 


There are several Japanese vinegar and soy based dressings that go well with cold meat and veggies. This one is based on a Sanbaizu (3 flavor dressing) but I add a fourth ingredient for extra yumminess: sesame oil.








Asian Summer Salad

My Japanese slicer

Cucumber
Carrot
Zucchini
Red Pepper
Red or Sweet Onion 
And/Or any other veggie that can be eaten raw and thinly sliced (e.g. yellow squash)


Peel and Seed appropriately. Slice all thinly. Super thin if you can. Like 1/16" or 1/4 centimeter. Mix with Sanbaizu +1 dressing. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.


Sanbaizu Dressing + 1
I love ratio dressings. Mainly because I hate dividing. This is great on all kinds of salads. We love it on cold meat, too.


Rice Vinegar

Big sister using
grinder over salad

Soy Sauce
Mirin (Japanese sweet cooking wine)
 5:5:3 (5 parts vinegar & soy sauce; 1 part mirin)


Combine, bring to a boil, and cool. A quick boil smoothes the vinegar. In a pinch you can make it without boiling.


+ 1 sesame oil (add after boiling to the 5:5:3). 


I have found Aji sesame oil (with added chili pepper) gives it a nice kick, but can be too spicy for my kids. Be sure you keep the 5:5:3:1 ratio. Sesame oil is really strong!

Our sesame seed grinder

Check out this little sesame seed grinder. We got it in Japan, so I don't know if it's available elsewhere. We had a favorite ramen restaurant that had these at the table, and I had to get one.


Instead of sprinkling the sesame seeds over the salad, I use the grinder. It gives the salad an even nuttier flavor. 


Hope you enjoy! And here's to summer, where ever you may be. 


Do you have any great summer recipes inspired by your host country that you'd like to share? Tell me in the comment section. I'd love to share your recipe on the blog!


And thank you to the Japan Blog Directory (by Nihon Ichiban) for adding The ExPat Returneth to your directory! Arigato Gozaimashita!