| Cold soba noodles with golden poached tofu |
 Finally, summer is really making itself felt - the last week or so has been pretty warm, and the air has been still and muggy. I have been craving cold soba noodles, the ideal summer food. Tonight I cooked them, dressed with a combination of soy sauce, mirin and dashi, and also poached some tofu in a diluted version of this sauce to eat alongside.
I used firm silken-style tofu, which is lovely and smooth like silken tofu, but slightly less likely to fall apart as soon as it is touched. This kind of tofu is delicious cooked in this way - it loses its slightly raw flavour, but does not become tough with overcooking, and the golden colour from the sauce penetrates only a little way into the tofu, leaving it a gorgeous creamy white inside.
I also steamed some broccoli and tossed it with sesame oil and lighly toasted sesame seeds, before leaving it to cool - this was not bad, but I think broccolini, or some asian greens, would have been better. Still, this was a very satisfying dinner for a summer night.
| 200 g soba noodles |
| 3 tablespoons mirin |
| 6 tablespoons light soy sauce |
| 1 teaspoon sugar |
| a pinch of dashi granules |
| 300 g firm silken-style tofu, cut into 1 cm slices |
| 1/4 sheet of nori, finely chopped |
| 2 spring onions, finely chopped at an angle |
Cook the soba noodles in boiling water until al dente. Drain in a colander, and rinse well with running water until the water runs clear and the noodles are no longer warm. Place in a bowl.
Mix together the mirin, soy sauce, sugar and dashi granules. Tip half this mixture over the noodles and set the rest aside. Toss the noodles well with the sauce, and place in the fridge to cool.
Add about a half of a cup of water to the remaining soy sauce mixture and stir well. Heat a frypan over low-medium heat, then add the soy sauce mixture. Gently place the slices of tofu in the pan, and let them poach in the liquid for about 5-6 minutes, spooning the sauce over the tops of the tofu pieces now and then during cooking. Remove from the heat and let cool a little.
Take the noodles out of the fridge, and toss with the chopped nori and spring onions. Using tongs, divide the noodles between two plates, leaving any extra sauce sitting in the bottom of the bowl - you only want what clings to the noodles. Gently lift the tofu out of the pan with a slotted spatula and place half on each plate. Serve with cool greens on the side if desired.
Serves 2.
Comments (6)
3 August 2004
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