Let's Start All Over Again

Happy New Year! Has it started well for you all? How did you see it in? I had a laid-back kind of evening; lots of food, lots of drink, some bad TV and watching fireworks from the balcony.

Shoo was set on making soba to be washed down with the sake that we bought from the Japan Centre earlier in the day. In Japan, toshikoshi soba (????? - "year-end soba" or "year-bridging soba") is the fare of choice on the 31st. It consists of soba in a hot in a broth, with some garnishes according to taste. Shoo and I both prefer the cold variety of soba, that is dipped into a small bowl of chilled savoury broth called tsuyu (??) as you eat, so that is what we had.

Shoo improvised the tsuyu; he soaked a few dried shiitake in boiling water, removed the mushrooms (to use in a different recipe), added a small amount of dashi granules, cooking (rice) wine, salt, sugar, shoyu, mirin, whilst heating gently for a few minutes. The tsuyu then went into a bowl and into the fridge for a few hours to chill really well.

The soba noodles are cooked in plenty of boiling water (with no salt added), and cooked for 4-5 minutes. I think they taste best when cooked al dente, just like pasta. Rinse with cold water when just cooked; you can then sprinkle some shredded nori on top as a garnish. And I like to mix a really good dose of wasabi into the tsuyu before I start dipping.

For your reference there is a recipe for the hot version here (with lots more detail about New Year in Japan too, if you're curious).

In borrowing this Japanese new year's tradition, I put aside an Italian one that used to mark new year when I was a child: lentils. Superstition has it that they bring you money in the year to come. Come to think of it, this is one year when I maybe should have made a point of serving them up. I wonder if eating them on the 3rd is too late?