Passport & Plate - Green Soba Noodles
Australia | Thursday, February 26, 2015 | 5 photos
Ingredients
Yield – 2 serves.
SOBA NOODLES
1 cup organic buckwheat flour (try a health food store)
1/3 cup plain wheat flour
100ml water
Shortcut: Skip this step for a midweek dinner and buy soba noodles
GREEN VEG
2 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic finely chopped
2 spring onions sliced (white part)
½ cm piece of ginger finely diced
8 baby zucchini halved, cored and grated OR 1 bunch silverbeet stem removed finely sliced
1 ripe avocado, halved and scored
1 tsp shiro (white) miso
½ lime (juice only)
Tamari
Sesame oil
Japanese 7 Chilli Spice (try an Asian supermarket). Bonus points if you’ve brought back Chilli & Yuzu citrus spice from Japan
Whole or ground white and or black sesame seeds
Small rectangle of nori, sliced into strips
How to prepare this recipeFIRST, MAKE YOUR NOODLES
In a mixer with dough hook, or in a bowl with your hands, combine the flours and water. Knead until a ball forms, adding a little extra water if crumbly.
Run the dough through your pasta attachment, or roll & cut your noodles by hand. Flour your work surface. Roll the dough out to a 2mm thick rectangle. Flour the top of the rectangle, and fold in half. Flour again, and fold in half again, before slicing from the short side with a ruler to guide your knife, making even, thin flat noodles.
PREP YOUR GREENS
Put a pot of water on to boil.
Heat olive oil in a fry pan. Add the zucchini or silverbeet, garlic, half the ginger, half the spring onion, a few shakes of the Japanese chilli, the miso and saute until just tender.
COOK THE NOODLES
Once the water is boiling, drop in the noodles and stir gently to ensure they aren’t stuck together. Cook for 3 minutes, then drain. Rinse and refresh the noodles well in a large pot of cold water. Move the noodles about in the water with your hands to rinse off excess starch. Drain.
COMBINE THE DISH
Add the avocado, remaining ginger, lime juice and a few splashes of sesame oil to the zucchini/silverbeet mix and combine. If using zucchini, wait until any water has been boiled off.
Turn off the pan and add the noodles to the pan of vegetables. Gently combine with tongs.
Divide into bowls, and garnish with spring onion, sesame, sliced nori, and an extra sprinkle of Japanese chilli powder.
The story behind this recipePop, fizz, glug, glug, glug.
Finest sound in the world
Bubbles shared with friends & family in the heart of the home, the kitchen.
Mum loves this dish. Soon after the idea came to me, we made it together. Now it's permanently on the menu when she visits. Along with the obligatory glass of bubbly of course.
With the bright lights of Sydney two years in my rear view mirror, the abundant bounty of 'the Mediterranean of Australia' – McLaren Vale – my new home, still excites me.
From the beauty where the hills sink into the vineyard plains, and slip into the sea, I journey each year to Japan. Somewhat like a pilgrimage. To find snow, peace in the mountains, and huge bowls of warming ramen washed down with crisp beers topped with more than a third of head.
It’s also here in the snowy peaks of Nozawa Onsen that I sup daily on handmade buckwheat soba noodles, presented on a lacquer plate with dipping sauces. At the little on-mountain diner I frequent, a cuckoo clock chirps when meals are ready for service. After a meal, the happy hostess brings a plate of peeled and cut prized Nagano apple with a smile and a dozoo. This is my happy place.
At home we don’t have the same cold. Also less of the wild eating abandon I show on holiday (need to keep ski-fit!). Local flour mills grind Australian grown buckwheat into fine flour that makes perfect higher protein soba noodles. The green vines and hills surrounding me inspired the green ingredients – baby zucchini, soft creamy avocado, spring onion. Salty umami from tamari and miso, freshness from lime. My annual take home treat of chilli yuzu sprinkle that just makes everything taste better.
And those slippery, slurpable, burpable noodles.
Now they are always made for a coming together of family of friends, always served with bubbly, and tinged with memories, stories and longing for Japan.
