Ingredients

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 1 tablespoongrandulated white sugar
• 1 1/2 to 3 cups of dashi stock
• 400g soba noodles, or about 100 grams per person
• Condiments, or yakumi:
• * Finely chopped green onions (this for me is essential)
• * Grated wasabi
• * Seven-flavor pepper (nanami tohgarashi = see this list for a description)
• * Toasted sesame seeds
• * Finely shredded green shiso leaves (another favorite for me, if it’s available)
• * Finely cut nori seaweed (cut with a pair of kitchen scissors, or just shred with your hands)
• * Grated fresh ginger
• * Finely julienned myouga (a kind of onion-like bulb: hard to find outside of Japan)
• * Finely grated yuzu peel

Directions

1. First make the kaeshi: Put the mirin in a pan and bring up to the boil; lower the heat and let simmer a bit to evaporate much of the alcohol content.

2. Add sugar and stir until melted. Add the soy sauce, and let it warm up slowly, stirring. It should never boil – once it starts barely bubbling, take it off the heat.

3. If any cloudy scum has accumulated on the top, skim off carefully.

4. Add the dashi stock to make the soba tsuyu (dipping sauce) and bring up to a simmer. The less dashi you add the more intense the sauce will be, so add the dashi a little at a time, and start tasting after you’ve added about 1 1/2 cups: keep adding if it’s too strong. Simmer for 2-3 minutes, then let cool.

5. Then prepare the noodles: Bring a large pot of water up to a boil. Once it’s boiling, hold the noodles over the water and sprinkle them in strand by strand.

6. Once all the noodles are in, stir gently so that they are all immersed in the water.

7. Bring the water back up to a gentle boil, then lower the heat so that the water is just simmering. (This differs from the ‘rolling boil’ that’s recommended for pasta.) If the water threatens to boil over, add about 1/2 cup of cold water (but if you lower the heat to the gentle simmer, and have a big enough pot, this shouldn’t be necessary). Cook for about 7 to 8 minutes, or following the package directions (for thinner noodles 5 to 6 minutes may be enough. Test by eating a strand – it should be cooked through, not al dente, but not mushy either).

8. Drain the noodles into a colander. Immediately return them to the pot and fill the pot with cold water. When you’re draining the hot water you may notice that it smells quite ‘floury’. This is what you want to get totally rid of.

9. If the noodles threaten to flood out over the pot, put the colander on the pot to hold the noodles down. Leave the water running for a while over the noodles.

10. Once the water and the noodle are cool, start to ‘wash’ the noodles. Take handfuls and gently swish and rub them in the water. Your goal is to wash off any trace of starchiness or gumminess on the noodles. When you’re done the water should run clear.

11. Make ready a flat sieve – a bamboo one is ideal and looks pretty. Take a few strands of the noodles at a time and loop the strands onto the sieve to make a nice little bundle. This is one portion.

12. Allow for about 10-12 portions or so per person, if you’re using individual sieves. Arrange each bundle separately, to allow for easy pickup with chopsticks.

13. To serve the noodles: place a plate under the sieve or sieves to catch any drips. Put out small bowls filled with the condiments of your choice, which each diner can pick from. (Remember to put out small spoons and things if needed for the sesame seeds etc.)

14. The dipping containers can be anything that can hold about a cup or so of liquid. A rice bowl or a small soup bowl, or even a tumbler, can be used. Here I’ve used some small pudding molds that were a flea market find. (In Japan you can get special soba bowls or sobachoko.)

15. Fill each dipping bowl halfway with the cooled dipping sauce or soba tsuyu.

16. To eat, each person puts in the condiments of their choice, take a portion of the soba, and dips it in the sauce briefly – then, immediately eats the soba. Don’t let the noodle soak in the sauce or overload it with condiments, otherwise the delicate flavor of the soba will be overwhelmed.

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