What are zaru soba?
Zaru soba or mori soba is a Japanese dish made of soba noodles. This buckwheat flour-based pasta is typically Japanese and requires a real skill to make. Fortunately, they are becoming more and more readily available in stores.
Once cooked, the noodles are cooled and served at room temperature with some condiments such as fresh scallion stems, wasabi paste, nori leaves called kizami nori and a soup called mentsuyu.
What is the origin of zaru soba?
Along with udon and ramen, soba is the most popular noodle in Japan where buckwheat, a plant often mistakenly considered a grain, has been cultivated since the Jomon era in the fourth century BC.
However, it was not until the 16th and 17th centuries and the Edo era that the production of soba began. These noodles spread throughout Japan only from the 19th century. It is customary to offer noodles to new neighbors when they move into the neighborhood, as long noodles represent longevity in much of Asia.
In Japanese, the word soba means buckwheat, but it is also used in culinary names that do not include buckwheat.
How are zaru soba prepared?
The preparation of zaru soba is elementary and fast but requires some specific ingredients. Commercial dry pasta can be cooked for four to five minutes in a large pot of boiling water. Traditionally, the water is not salty.
They are then transferred immediately after cooking to a bowl of ice water. The soba noodles do not need to be drained through a strainer, they are simply fished out with a skimmer and placed in ice. This technique has the effect of stopping the cooking of the pasta, which must
remain al dente.
If the variety of noodles used is too starchy, the soba noodles can be lightly rubbed between the hands before being put in ice water.
The various condiments such as green wasabi paste and chives are then served. The julienned nori is added directly to the noodles. The mentsuyu soup is served separately. Simply dilute the mentsuyu mixture with water, broth or soba cooking water.
Zaru soba are eaten cold. Traditionally, this dish is served on a zaru tray which gives its name to the preparation. It is a bamboo tray that can sometimes be found in Japanese grocery stores.
How to make homemade soba noodles?
To make homemade soba noodles, some experience and a recently ground buckwheat flour are needed. Japanese restaurants specializing in soba usually have small stone millstones to grind the buckwheat as late as possible.
The flour is placed in a lacquered bowl and fresh, filtered water is added gradually. At the beginning, the flour is worked with wide movements of the hand by opening the fingers widely. Then the flour is lifted to be aerated and thrown into the center as if to imitate a volcanic eruption.
Finally, the flour is moved with the hands to give it the movement of a wave. Once the flour is perfectly hydrated, the mass is worked in the palm until a smooth ball is obtained. This ball then takes a conical shape. The whole shaping process should be quick so as not to make the noodles too sticky.
The dough is then rolled out thinly on a floured wooden board. It is then folded on itself and cut with a wide and straight blade.
The soba are stored in a rectangular container with a lid, usually a lacquered box. A large quantity of starch is added to the bottom of the bowl. The soba are stored in these boxes that capture excess moisture until they are used. These noodles are cooked fresh, therefore quite quickly after their elaboration.
What are the variations of zaru soba?
In Japan, there is a wide variety of soba noodles, the most common are soba hachi-wari. Hachi-wari means 80% in Japanese because this pasta contains 80% buckwheat flour and 20% wheat flour. The addition of wheat in the preparation makes the pasta more elastic and easier to shape thanks to the gluten contained in the wheat, buckwheat does not contain any.
The most traditional and oldest soba, associated with the peasant tradition, are jyu-wari soba made exclusively of buckwheat flour, their taste is more pronounced.
More modern and original variants also exist, such as soba flavored with green tea (cha soba) or plum ume. The first ones are green, the others pink.
There are also sotonihashi and nihachi with relatively small amounts of wheat flour.
Zaru soba is very similar to a South Korean dish called mak-guksu. Originally from Gangwon, these buckwheat noodles are served in a cold broth. These are sometimes enhanced with sugar, mustard, sesame oil, vinegar or a mixture of these elements. Makguksu belongs to the family of naengmyeon, cold noodle dishes usually eaten in summer.
Zaru Soba
Ingredients
- 14 oz. soba
- 1½ cup mentsuyu (Japanese soup base)
- 1½ cup ice water
- 2 scallions , finely chopped
- ½ nori sheet , finely cut into strips (kizami nori)
- Wasabi
- Very cold water
Instructions
- Pour the ice water, possibly with a few ice cubes, into a bowl and set aside.
- Boil a large pot of water and cook the soba according to the cooking time indicated on the packaging, generally 4 to 5 minutes maximum.
- Drain the noodles and rinse them well, rubbing them to remove the excess starch, then pour them into the bowl of reserved ice water to cool them completely.
Assembly
- Place a little scallion and wasabi in 4 small cups.
- Fill 4 bowls with approximately ⅓ cup (90 ml) of mentsuyu and 1 cup (250 ml) of very cold water. If the mixture is too salty, add a little more cold water.
- Add a little wasabi and finely chopped chives to this broth.
- Drain the soba and arrange them on a traditional bamboo zaru tray and sprinkle with nori strips.
- To taste, soak the noodles in the cold broth before tasting them.
Ratings
- It is possible to add the soba cooking water to the mentsuyu.
- There are many different types of soba that can be used for this recipe
- Soba hachi-wari (hachi-wari means “80%” in Japanese). It is a very common type of soba made from 80% buckwheat flour and 20% wheat flour.
- Soba jyu-wari, made from 100% buckwheat flour, with a taste close to hazelnut.
- Green tea soba, containing powdered green tea for its green tea taste and attractive green color.
- Ume plum soba, flavored with traditional Japanese ume plum and pink in color.
Sources
Wikipedia (EN) – Mak-guksu
Wikipedia (EN) – Naengmyeon
Wikipedia (FR) – Soba
Esther and Morgan are the two foodies behind Renards Gourmets. They are based in Paris where they develop four-handed recipes and culinary photos.
Leave a Reply