Chilled summer delight
Servings: 4

Ingredients:
For the sauce (soba tsuyu):
• 1/2 cup of kaeshi
• 1 1/2 to 3 cups of dashi stock or vegetarian dashi stock
Combine the two in a pan and bring up to a simmer. The less dashi added the more intense the sauce will be, so add the dashi a little at a time, and start tasting after you’ve added about 1 1/2 cups: keep adding if it’s too strong. Simmer for 2-3 minutes, then let cool. You can do this a day ahead of time, and refrigerate the tsuyu.
Quick and easy version: Buy a bottle of concentrated tsuyu or mentsuyu, and thin out with water.
For the noodles:
• 400g (about 14 oz) soba noodles, or about 100g (4 oz) per person Most soba comes in 100 or 200 gram packets.18 shrimp sliced in half horizontally (optional)
Condiments, or yakumi:
• Finely chopped green onions (commonly used condiment)
• Grated wasabi (optional)
• Seven-flavor pepper (nanami tohgarashi) (optional)
• Toasted sesame seeds (optional)
• Finely shredded green shiso leaves (optional)
• Finely cut nori seaweed (cut with a pair of kitchen scissors) (optional)
• Grated fresh ginger (optional)

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of water up to a boil. Unlike Italian pasta, you do not need to salt the water. Once it’s boiling, hold the noodles over the water and sprinkle them in strand by strand. Once all the noodles are in, stir gently so that they are all immersed in the water.

2. Bring the water back up to a gentle boil, then lower the heat so that the water is just simmering. (This differs from the ‘rolling boil’ that’s recommended for pasta.) If the water threatens to boil over, add about 1/2 cup of cold water (but if you lower the heat to the gentle simmer, and have a big enough pot, this shouldn’t be necessary). Cook for about 7 to 8 minutes, or following the package directions (for thinner noodles 5 to 6 minutes may be enough. Test by eating a strand – it should be cooked through, not al dente, but not mushy either).At this point, you may want to reserve some of the cooking water. This is called sobayu (そば湯), literally ‘hot soba water’, and many people like to add it to the remaining soba dipping sauce at the end of the meal to drink like soup!

3. Drain the noodles into a colander. Immediately return them to the pot and fill the pot with cold water. When you’re draining the hot water you may notice that it smells quite ‘floury’. This is what you want to totally remove. If the noodles threaten to flood out over the pot, put the colander on the pot to hold the noodles down. Leave the water running for a while over the noodles.

4. Once the water and the noodle are cool, start to ‘wash’ the noodles. Take handfuls and gently swish and rub them in the water. Your goal is to wash off any trace of starchiness or gumminess on the noodles. When you’re done the water should run clear.

5. Make ready a flat sieve – a bamboo one is ideal and looks pretty. (You can use a nice looking colander instead, but flat sieves like this aren’t expensive – look in Asian markets.) Take a few strands of the noodles at a time. Loop the strands onto the sieve to make a nice little bundle. This is one portion. Allow for about 10-12 portions or so per person, if you’re using individual sieves. Arrange each bundle separately, to allow for easy pickup with chopsticks.

6. To serve the noodles: place a plate under the sieve or sieves to catch any drips. Put out small bowls filled with the condiments of your choice, from which each diner can pick. The dipping containers can be anything that can hold about a cup or so of liquid. A rice bowl or a small soup bowl, or even a tumbler, can be used. Fill each dipping bowl halfway with the cooled dipping sauce or soba tsuyu.

7. To eat, each person puts in the condiments of their choice, take a portion of the soba, and dips it in the sauce briefly – then, immediately eats the soba. Don’t let the noodle soak in the sauce or overload it with condiments, otherwise the delicate flavor of the soba will be overwhelmed.

8. At the end of the meal, you can add some of the reserve sobayu to the rest of your sauce (see above) to finish your meal.

Cool light summer delight – tastiest version by littlejapanmama.com

Servings: 4

Ingredients:
• Fresh Ramen noodles (or other noodles like somen or soba)
Hiyashi Chuka Sauce
• 100 ml Japanese soy sauce
• 120 ml vinegar (rice vinegar is best, but apple cider or white will do)
• 120 ml cold water
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp sesame oil
Choice of Toppings (here are some common ones, or be creative with leftovers)
• Cucumber, sliced into thin strips
• 4 Eggs (1 per serving, see below for preparation)
• Cooked Chicken, cut into small pieces or shredded
• Bean sprouts
• Carrots slivers
• Canned sweet corn kernals
• Ham cut into small pieces or shredded
• Tomato diced or thin cut wedges or slices
• Cooked Prawns
• Kamaboko
• Pickled ginger
• Fresh green beans

Directions:
Hiyashi Chuka Sauce
1. Place all sauce ingredients into a small jar and shake to combine and dissolve sugar
Egg prepared for Hiyashi Chuka
1. Crack one egg into a bowl and add a small pinch of salt and sugar, then beat lightly
2. Pour into a pre-heated, oiled fry pan and lightly cook
3. After it looks firm enough, carefully flip and turn off heat and allow egg to cook a few
          more seconds, then tip onto a plate
4. Wait until cool before slicing into long slices about ¼ inch wide.
5. Repeat for each egg (1 per serving)
Ramen Noodles for Hiyashi Chuka
1. Place noodles in rapidly boiling water and boil noodles until done
2. Tip into a colander, fill the saucepan with cold water, return noodles to saucepan tip out
          into colander again, fill saucepan with cold water again
3. Repeat step 2 twice more to rinse and chill the noodles
Hiyashi Chuka
1. Arrange toppings, i.e., egg, cucumber and other things on top of noodles
          Or for a potluck – gently mix together like a tossed salad
2. Pour Hiyashi Chuka sauce over noodles and toppings
3. Serve chilled or room

Hiyashi Chuka is actually a Japanese adaptation of a Chinese-style dish.
“Hiyashi” means “Chilled” and “Chuka” means “Chinese”