How do I cook Japanese soba noodles?

Soba is virtually always eaten with chopsticks, and in Japan, it is traditionally considered polite to slurp the noodles noisily. This is especially common with hot noodles, as drawing up the noodles quickly into the mouth acts to cool them down.

Common Soba Dishes

Like many Japanese noodles, soba noodles are often served drained and chilled in the summer, and hot in the winter with a soy-based dashi broth. Extra toppings can be added onto both hot and cold soba. Toppings are chosen to reflect the seasons and to balance with other ingredients. Most toppings are added without much cooking, although some are deep-fried. Most of these dishes many also be prepared with udon.

Dried soba noodles, three bundles in a package

Dried soba noodles, three bundles in a package

Cold Chilled soba is often served on a sieve-like bamboo tray called a zaru, sometimes garnished with bits of dried nori seaweed, with a dipping sauce known as soba tsuyu on the side. The tsuyu is made of a strong mixture of dashi, sweetened soy sauce and mirin. Using chopsticks, the diner picks up a small amount of soba from the tray and swirls it in the cold tsuyu before eating it. Wasabi, scallions, and grated ginger are often mixed into the tsuyu.

* Mori soba 盛り蕎麦 – Basic chilled soba noodles served on a flat basket or a plate.

* Zaru soba 笊蕎麦 – Mori soba topped with shredded nori seaweed.

* ******* soba ぶっかけそば – Cold soba served with various toppings sprinkled on top, after which the broth is poured on by the diner. It may include:

o tororo – puree of yamaimo (a Japanese yam with a slimy texture)

o oroshi – grated daikon radish

o natto – sticky fermented soybeans

o okra – fresh sliced okra

* Soba maki – Cold soba wrapped in nori and prepared as makizushi.

Hot

Soba is also often served as a noodle soup in a bowl of hot tsuyu. The hot tsuyu in this instance is thinner than that used as a dipping sauce for chilled soba. Popular garnishes are sliced scallion and shichimi toragashi (mixed chilli powder).

* Kake soba 掛け蕎麦 – Hot soba in broth topped with thinly sliced scallion, and perhaps a slice of kamaboko (fish cake).

* Kitsune soba (in Kanto) or Tanuki soba (in Kansai) – Topped with abura age (deep-fried tofu).

* Tanuki soba (in Kanto) or Haikara soba (in Kansai) – Topped with tenkasu (bits of deep-fried tempura batter).

* Tempura soba 天麩羅蕎麦 – Topped with tempura, usually a large shrimp.

* Tsukimi soba ("moon-viewing soba") – Topped with raw egg, which poaches in the hot soup.

* Tororo soba – Topped with tororo, the puree of yamaimo (a potato-like vegetable with a slimy texture).

* Wakame soba – Topped with wakame seaweed

Soba served on special occasions

Soba is traditionally eaten on New Years Eve in most areas of Japan, a tradition which survives to this day. In the Tokyo area, there is also a tradition of giving out soba to new neighbours after a house move, although this practice is now rare.

Varieties of Soba noodles

Izumo soba, named after Izumo, Shimane Prefecture

Izumo soba, named after Izumo, Shimane Prefecture

The most famous Japanese soba noodles come from Nagano. Soba from Nagano is called Shinano Soba or Shinshu soba. Ni-hachi (two-eight) soba, consists of two parts of wheat and eight of buckwheat.

* Sarashina soba – thin, light-colored soba, made with refined buckwheat

* Inaka soba – "country soba", thick soba made with whole buckwheat

By location

* Shinshu soba – named after the old name of Nagano Prefecture. Also known as Shinano soba. (Shinano=Shinshu)

* Etanbetsu soba – named after the central region of Hokkaidō (Asahikawacity)

* Izumo soba – named after Izumo in Shimane

* Izushi soba – named after Izushi in Hyogo

By ingredients

* Tororo soba or Jinenjo soba – flavored with wild yam flour

* Cha soba – flavored with green tea powder

* Mugi soba – flavored with mugwort

* Hegi soba – flavored with seaweed

* Ni-hachi soba – soba containing 20% wheat and 80% buckwheat

* Towari soba or Juwari soba – 100% buckwheat soba

Soba Tsuyu Recipe

Boil some water on the stove - just like normal noodles. Then once it is boiling, take the pot off the stove and place the noodles in it. You don't have boil the noodles because they aren't made of flour like Western noodles. If you boil them, they will be soggy and lose flavor. Then, once they look al dente (which should only be about 5 minutes or less, place them in a bowl with ice cubes and water. Soba noodles are always eaten cold - never warm. After that, you can add them to the recipe that you have already. Good Luck! Enjoy!

Ingredients for one serving: One bundle of soba noodles, 3 cups of water, a bunch of spinach, a couple of chopped green onions and soba noodle soup base.

You may have seen a package of buckwheat noodles that looks like this at your local grocery store as soba is growing in popularity, particularly as a health food. A package typically contains 3 or more bundles, and one bundle is approximately one serving.

Boil plenty of water in a large sauce pan and add the soba just as you would with pasta. We usually don't measure the amount of water, but about 6 cups should do for one bundle of soba. If you cook two bundles, increase the water just a bit. Boil the noodles for about 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. If it looks like your noodles are about to boil over, a good trick is to splash a bit of cold water into the pot.

While the noodles are cooking, prepare the soup. This particular kind is made by the Japanese company "Kikkoman" and it says "Memmi, Noodle Soup Base" on the bottle. Boil 3 cups of water and add 1/3 cup of soup base.

Cut the spinach into three bunches, and in a separate pot, boil it for 3 to 4 minutes.

When the noodles are ready, pour them into a strainer.

Now this is a very important detail. Rinse the noodles really well with COLD water. Then, drain the water thoroughly.

Put the noodles into a large bowl and pour on the hot soup. (Before you do, you might want to run hot water over them very quickly so that they won't make the soup too cold.

Add the spinach and chopped green onions to the bowl, and it is ready to serve. You know what is good with this?: Shichimi pepper! Another tasty idea is to put a couple pieces of tempura in your soup--you can sometimes find pretty good frozen tempura at your grocery store.

ENJOY :)

You are required soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, and tenderloin strips in advance along with hot water, sesame oil, corn oil and peanut oil, rimsing and simmering for noodles and meat to combine together, adding some milk will enhance the flavor. With some extra time vegetables are a fine combination, using only eastern mixes gets the recipe complete. Final step in frying this soba noodles is add sake, hot and rip. Some japanese beer will help those noodles into later action.

Soy Sauce is too salty, you will only be able to pout in a small amount, and even then it wont be able to distribute evenly between the noodles. If you try to dilute it with water, then the taste will be very weak. If you have noodles often, i suggest buying a proper Japanese dashi, which can be diluted specifically for noodles. btw, Japanese people NEVER add teriyake sauce to soba, its called teriake sauce because it is only meant to be used for teriyake.

Cook them like you would cook top ramon noodles. Cook them, then put in the packet of stuff that comes with them. Then add some meet of some sort.

Or you can make Yakisoba...that is really good! I live on Okinawa Japan and I made it for my husband one night and it was sooooo good...

NGREDIENTS

* 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

* 1 tablespoon canola oil

* 2 tablespoons chile paste

* 2 cloves garlic, chopped

* 4 boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 1 inch cubes

* 1/2 cup soy sauce

* 1 onion, sliced lengthwise into eighths

* 1/2 medium head cabbage, coarsely chopped

* 2 carrots, coarsely chopped

* 8 ounces soba noodles, cooked and drained

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large skillet combine sesame oil, canola oil and chili paste. Stir fry 30 seconds. Add garlic and stir fry an additional 30 seconds. Add chicken and 1/4 cup of the soy sauce and stir fry until chicken is no longer pink. Remove mixture from pan, set aside and keep warm.

2. In the emptied pan combine the onion, cabbage and carrots. Stir fry until cabbage begins to wilt. Stir in the remaining soy sauce, cooked noodles and the chicken mixture to pan and mix to blend. Serve and enjoy!

lol u've got loads of opinions here and only some are useful....newayz i hope i am useful in suggesting u.

Just boil water and when the water starts to bubble add 1/2 tsp of butter or 1 tsp olive oil and 1/2 tsp salt now add in the noodles let them in for 3 minutes and then drain them off add in 2 tsp of olive oil or 1/2 a tsp of melted butter and mix the noodles gently this is done just so that the noodles don't stick together now spread the noodles on a plate and it will surely cool them off easily too no need to add cold water or anything of that sort and now u can carry on with the recipe u have in ur mind :) or whichever recipe u've got in from these people out here too cheers.

Ok this is simple. My chef fixes it for me all the time. You take boiling water, put the noodles in, put some butter in, and then you put in a little bit of pepper and salt. Wait till it's cool enough to eat and then wah-la! You have soba noodles! Your Welcome. Love, Vanessa Hudgens.<3

may i suggest you watch a movie. it's call the red chrysanthemum, it's chinese. it's a wonderful and quite moving film, the subject, how to cook noodles. the treatment is almost religeous which is pretty spectacular on it's own as this film is a product of chinese cultural revolution. (english sub titles).

soba should be cooked quickly over high heat, transferred to the bowl, and immediately covered with hot broth and garnish with finely sliced barbequed pork and finally scatter thinly sliced green onion on top.

this simple dish is exquisite.

slurp it up. yum.

What the hell is a soba noodle and where do I get some, sounds fantastic.