KO EN Japanese Noodles⏱ 35 minEdit history

Soba (Cold Buckwheat Noodles with Dipping Sauce)

Name: Soba (Cold Buckwheat Noodles with Dipping Sauce)
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 2 servings
Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients: 400 ml water; 1 piece dried kelp; 15 g katsuobushi; 100 ml soy sauce; 80 ml mirin; 1 tbsp sugar; 200 g dried soba noodles; 3 stalks spring onion; 1 tsp wasabi; 50 g daikon; 1 sheet nori

Buckwheat noodles boiled, washed in cold water, drained on a bamboo tray and dipped into chilled tsuyu. Rubbing the surface starch off the cooked noodles under cold water, and having the tsuyu made and cold in advance, are what let the buckwheat itself come through.

Ingredients

2servings

Tsuyu (make a day ahead and chill)
water400 ml
dried kelp · 10cm; lift it out before it boils1 piece
katsuobushi · added off the heat to steep15 g
soy sauce · dark Korean or Japanese koikuchi100 ml
mirin80 ml
sugar1 tbsp
Noodles
dried soba noodles · the higher the buckwheat content, the more fragile200 g
To serve
spring onion · very finely sliced; rinse to take the bite out3 stalks
wasabi · on the noodles, not stirred into the tsuyu1 tsp
daikon · optional, grated and squeezed50 g
nori · optional — shredded on top makes it zaru soba1 sheet

Steps

Start with the tsuyu. Bring the kelp up slowly in the water and lift it out just before it boils — boiled kelp turns the dashi slippery and bitter.
⏲ 10 min
Off the heat, add the katsuobushi, steep 2 minutes, then strain through cloth. Let it drip; squeezing makes it cloudy.
⏲ 3 min
Add soy sauce, mirin and sugar to the strained dashi, bring to one brief boil to cook off the alcohol, then cool completely and refrigerate. A day in the fridge rounds it out.
⏲ 5 min
Boil plenty of water — at least 2L for 200g of noodles. Too little and the temperature drops and the noodles go slack. Do not salt it; this is not pasta.
⏲ 8 min
Cook the noodles for the time on the packet, usually 3-5 minutes. Bite a strand; the moment there is no hard core, drain.
⏲ 5 min
Move them to cold water and rub them between your hands, changing the water two or three times, until the surface squeaks instead of feeling slippery. That surface starch (numeri) glues the strands together and masks the buckwheat.
⏲ 3 min
Finish with 30 seconds in iced water to firm them up, then drain hard — water clinging to the noodles dilutes the tsuyu.
⏲ 1 min
Coil them into single-mouthful heaps on a bamboo tray or plate, adding the shredded nori now if using.
⏲ 2 min
Pour the cold tsuyu into cups and add the spring onion. Put the wasabi on the noodles, not stirred into the tsuyu — dissolved, its aroma just disperses.
⏲ 1 min
Dip only the last third of each mouthful. The tsuyu is made concentrated; submerging the lot makes it salty.
⏲ 1 min