Soba

[Hiroyuki]

Hiroyuki,

That looks wonderful!

Does the soba with the funori have a specific name? Do you know if they sell it dried?

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Well, hegi soba (へぎそば). Strictly speaking, hegi refers to a wooden, rectangular container used to serve the soba. I posted several types of dried hegi soba here.

[Hiroyuki]

That looks great! What's the method? Standard mixing & hand kneading, like bread? How much liquid did you use? Water only? Did you need to let the soba dough rest before cutting? Did you run it through a pasta machine or cut it by hand?

Curious minds want to know! I have buckwheat flour in the house right now because the other day I made crepes... Soba is one of my daughter's favorite dishes!

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No need to let the dough rest before cutting, and we used a special knife to cut it manually.

Unfortunately, we were not given full instructions, so I can't tell you the exact amounts of buckwheat flour, wheat flour, and water (in our case, funori solution). If I remember correctly, torakris has posted a link to a recipe for making soba somewhere in the Japan Forum, but I can't find it.

So, just some more photos, along with a brief description of each:

The soba master added five spoons of funori solution:

We were told to mix the ingredients together, taking care not to turn them into a ball.

When everything was mixed together, we were told to turn it into a single mass and knead it for some time.

Then, we were told to make it into a ball.

Then, we were told to make it flat on the board. A friend of my son's said it was just like heart massage.

Then, we were told to spread it further by using a rolling pin.

The master then fold it (twice, if I remember correctly) and told us to cut it into noodles, using a special soba knife and wooden plate.

[helenjp]

Hiroyuki, I was surprised that the funori didn't leave flecks in the soba dough. This is hegi-soba, isn't it??

I've read about it, never eaten it - is it less chewy than regular soba? Or is it smooth but still chewy?

[Hiroyuki]

Hiroyuki, I was surprised that the funori didn't leave flecks in the soba dough. This is hegi-soba, isn't it??

I've read about it, never eaten it - is it less chewy than regular soba? Or is it smooth but still chewy?

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Yes, it is. Hegi-soba!

I can't find the right words to describe the texture of hegi-soba... It's sleek and smooth, and is probably little chewier than regular soba. And it won't go floury.

The hegi-soba served at Tabata ya (a local soba ya we often go to) is greenish and glossy (probably because of more funori), and has good nodo-goshi!

[SuzySushi]

In Googling funori, I came up with its main use as a glue in restoring old books! Apparently, the seaweed used for funori is similar to carrageenan and has a mucilage-like effect.

That would explain the different texture of hegi-soba (both why the dough is so easily workable, and why the cooked noodles have a sliipery yet chewy consistency).

[Hiroyuki]

In Googling funori, I came up with its main use as a glue in restoring old books! Apparently, the seaweed used for funori is similar to carrageenan and has a mucilage-like effect.

That would explain the different texture of hegi-soba (both why the dough is so easily workable, and why the cooked noodles have a sliipery yet chewy consistency).

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The primary use of funori in the Uonuma district was warp sizing. This snowy region, especially Shiozawa and Tookamachi, is very famous for its fabrics.

Website describing Shiozawa fabric: http://www.kougei.or.jp/english/crafts/0109/d0109-5.html

But, little is known about when they started to use funori as a binder in soba making.

Like I said before, I am now a huge fan of hegi-soba.

[shinju]

Hiroyuki - wonderful pictures of soba making. How neat to have kids make soba like this! I've never heard of hegi soba and now can't wait to try it. Not sure exactly what funori is, but wonder if I can substitute nori wetted down with water? Maybe worth a try?

Initially I started making udon after hearing my mother describe how my grandmother used to make udon - walking on it to soften and I was intrigued - much like making wine. After udon, other types of pasta, and finally soba. By far, soba is the hardest to make, but also the most rewarding because of the taste. Freshly made soba is truly wonderful tasting.

[Hiroyuki]

Hiroyuki - wonderful pictures of soba making.  How neat to have kids make soba like this!  I've never heard of hegi soba and now can't wait to try it.  Not sure exactly what funori is, but wonder if  I can substitute nori wetted down with water?  Maybe worth a try? 

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Sorry, I don't know. Basically, funori functions as a glue, and I don't think that nori can have the same effect.

Anyway, you can make soba without using funori. As I mentioned before, funori is a special ingredient used only in the Uonuma district in Niigata.

[Hiroyuki]

That looks great! What's the method? Standard mixing & hand kneading, like bread? How much liquid did you use? Water only? Did you need to let the soba dough rest before cutting? Did you run it through a pasta machine or cut it by hand?

Curious minds want to know! I have buckwheat flour in the house right now because the other day I made crepes... Soba is one of my daughter's favorite dishes!

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I finally found this website, which torakris previously provided somewhere else.

[Hiroyuki]

In preparation for participating in the most recent Cook-off in the Cooking Forum, I made my first batch of kaeshi (kaa-eeh-shee) on January 25th, and have used it for a variety of purposes so far. Unfortunately, the kaeshi is a little too sweet for my taste, and I think I'll make another batch when I'm finished with it.

Anyway, I followed the recipe here.

The ingredients were:

500 cc soy sauce

100 g sugar

50 cc mirin (well, fake mirin, in my case)

The next time, I think I'll use much less sugar.

There is surprisingly little information on kaeshi on the Internet in English. This is probably the only English-language source that provides some useful information on it. So, let me explain it briefly.

Kaeshi is the pride and joy of any decent sobaya (buckwheat noodle restaurant). Each sobaya has its own secret recipe for kaeshi, which is the "flavor" of that sobaya.

There are three types of kaeshi:

1. Hon gaeshi (not kaeshi)

All three ingredients (soy sauce, mirin, and sugar) are heated.

2. Nama gaeshi

Mirin and sugar are mixed together and heated, the heat is stopped, and then soy sauce is added.

3. Han nama gaeshi

Mirin, sugar, and part of soy sauce are mixed together and heated, the heat is stopped, and then the rest of the soy sauce is added.

Of the three, hon gaeshi seems to be the most popular because they say it is mellower than the others.

Once you make kaeshi, you have to let it sit for at least two or three days, usually for at least one week. It is said that hon gaeshi can keep for half a year or longer. (My first batch was hon gaeshi.)

To make a dipping sauce for soba, just mix one part kaeshi with three parts dashi. The sobaya uses kaeshi in other dishes, with different kaeshi-to-dashi ratios.

[buffy]

Mmm, soba! I am partial to Izumo soba which gets it's name from the town of the same name in Shimane Prefecture. Usually you order either 3 or five of the small bowls, and often each bowl has different toppings, for example grated mountain potato, or a raw quail egg. I also like it hot topped with maitake mushroom tempura and roasted duck. I also highly recommend Izumo Shrine, one of my favorites in Japan. Izumo is a bit off the beaten track, but well worth a visit.

[torakris]

The kids left the tv on this morning when they left for school and I found myself watching one of those morning shows. Today they had two "talents" traveling to the town of Oochijuku in Fukushima prefecture and I was intrigued by a soba they were eating. The soba called Takato soba is a specialty (meibutsu) of the town. While it doesn't look too much different from regular soba topped with grated daikon and katsuo bushi, it is eaten with a negi (Japanese scallion) instead of chopsticks.

[Joon]

The kids left the tv on this morning when they left for school and I found myself watching one of those morning shows. Today they had two "talents" traveling to the town of Oochijuku in Fukushima prefecture and I was intrigued by a soba they were eating. The soba called Takato soba is a specialty (meibutsu) of the town. While it doesn't look too much different from regular soba topped with grated daikon and katsuo bushi, it is eaten with a negi (Japanese scallion) instead of chopsticks.

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When I first saw that picture all I could think was... nandato?!?!?! How do you eat with a scallion???

[torakris]

The kids left the tv on this morning when they left for school and I found myself watching one of those morning shows. Today they had two "talents" traveling to the town of Oochijuku in Fukushima prefecture and I was intrigued by a soba they were eating. The soba called Takato soba is a specialty (meibutsu) of the town. While it doesn't look too much different from regular soba topped with grated daikon and katsuo bushi, it is eaten with a negi (Japanese scallion) instead of chopsticks.

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When I first saw that picture all I could think was... nandato?!?!?! How do you eat with a scallion???

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You use the negi to scoop up the noodles, the guys on the tv both said it was a lot easier than they thought it would be and they didn't seem to be having any problem. The page I linked to says you you should be nibbling at the negi while you eat but I didn't notice the guys doing that on the program.

[_john]

I have a soba experiment to report on! I had an idea to try making soba using my pasta machine. First I set out to buy some soba flour. I went to a local soba shop and ate their teuchi soba. This shop uses stone ground soba flour that they grind at their shop with an old style millstone. I asked the master about ratios of soba flour to wheat flour and he said that each shop has their own blend but there has to be at least some wheat flour to add gluten or the noodles will fall apart while rolling. He agreed to sell me some of his fresh flour so I bought 300g which makes about 4 portions of soba. When I went to the supermarket to buy ingredients I looked carefully at the dried soba they had. Some packages advertised "80% soba flour!" and other such percentages. I noticed one that said "100% soba flour". I checked the ingredients and only soba flour was listed. So I decided to try and make 100% soba flour soba. In a large bowl I added water to the soba flour slowly until the dough reached the consistency of soft pasta dough. Because there is no gluten there was no need to knead so I let it rest while I boiled a big pot of water. Then I rolled it out on the pasta machine in 100g portions and cut it using the smaller noodle size on my machine. I boiled it for about 1 minute and cooled it in running water. It was the best soba I have had so far. Comparing it to the soba I ate earlier that day at the shop the texture was firmer and the aroma was definitely stronger. The best thing about it was that it was extremely fast and easy to make. From start to finish, including the boiling/resting time, it took about 10 minutes. I froze the remaining dough so that I can enjoy teuchi soba any time. 大成功！Now I will try to get some different type of flours, I would like to try inaka soba.

[Hiroyuki]

I have a soba experiment to report on! I had an idea to try making soba using my pasta machine. First I set out to buy some soba flour. I went to a local soba shop and ate their teuchi soba. This shop uses stone ground soba flour that they grind at their shop with an old style millstone. I asked the master about ratios of soba flour to wheat flour and he said that each shop has their own blend but there has to be at least some wheat flour to add gluten or the noodles will fall apart while rolling. He agreed to sell me some of his fresh flour so I bought 300g which makes about 4 portions of soba. When I went to the supermarket to buy ingredients I looked carefully at the dried soba they had. Some packages advertised "80% soba flour!" and other such percentages. I noticed one that said "100% soba flour". I checked the ingredients and only soba flour was listed. So I decided to try and make 100% soba flour soba. In a large bowl I added water to the soba flour slowly until the dough reached the consistency of soft pasta dough. Because there is no gluten there was no need to knead so I let it rest while I boiled a big pot of water. Then I rolled it out on the pasta machine in 100g portions and cut it using the smaller noodle size on my machine. I boiled it for about 1 minute and cooled it in running water. It was the best soba I have had so far. Comparing it to the soba I ate earlier that day at the shop the texture was firmer and the aroma was definitely stronger. The best thing about it was that it was extremely fast and easy to make. From start to finish, including the boiling/resting time, it took about 10 minutes. I froze the remaining dough so that I can enjoy teuchi soba any time. 大成功！Now I will try to get some different type of flours, I would like to try inaka soba.

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Congratulations, John! The next time you make it, don't forget to take some photos to post here.

Years ago, I saw a machine that could make 100% soba (juuwari shoba 十割蕎麦 in Japanese) very easily, just like pasta, like this one. The soba is not authentic teuchi (hand-made), but I'd like to try it some day.

As you say, 100% teuchi soba is very hard to make. Some people use hot water to make it (pour hot water to a portion of soba flour and knead to make paste then add additional dry soba flour and knead).

[_john]

dough thickness

fresh soba!

before garnishing

recently Takara Tomy has started to sell a soba machine called いえそば　house-soba. If you turn it on it's side you can knead and mix. then you turn it upright and cut the noodles. It looks pretty good but it is about $100 and it is made of plastic. I recommend a 6000¥ pasta machine if you want to make pasta, udon, soba, and ramen. Also check out this book: パスタマシンで麺道楽—うどん、中華麺、韓国風冷麺、もちろんパスタ!

[Hiroyuki]

Thanks for the photos and the links, John. How did you make the men tsuyu (noodle dipping sauce)? I'm not familiar with the soba tsuyu in Osaka.

[prasantrin]

recently Takara Tomy has started to sell a soba machine called いえそば　house-soba. If you turn it on it's side you can knead and mix. then you turn it upright and cut the noodles. It looks pretty good but it is about $100 and it is made of plastic.

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I saw that at Tokyu Hands in Shinsaibashi yesterday. It was pretty, but looked cheaply made. And with the way it was built, it seemed it would take forever to crank out enough soba for even one person. But it really was pretty!

Edited November 18, 2007 by prasantrin (log)

[_john]

Thanks for the photos and the links, John.  How did you make the men tsuyu (noodle dipping sauce)?  I'm not familiar with the soba tsuyu in Osaka.

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I actually used your recipe 4:1:1 but I added a few things. I used light soy, and made dashi using ago (flying fish?) instead of katsuo, and I added konbu and a few small pieces of shiitake and let it sit over night. then I boiled off the alcohol.

I found this information about the difference between kansai and kantou's soba tsuyu, sorry Japanese only:

食文化の進んだ現代において、関西風そば、関東風そばとわけるのは難しくなってきました。おおよその違いということで、そばつゆならだしの混合の差異が挙げられます。関東では鯖または鰹一本、関西は本鰹を中心に潤目鰯や鯖、めじかを加えます。どちらかと言うと、味のコクを求める関西に対して、関東は味のキレ。普通、つけ汁は関東、かけ汁は関西と言われています。京料理のだしの取り方に学び、昆布を少し煮立ててから取り出します。いくつもの材料よりだしを採ることにより、奥行きの深いそばつゆを作っています。そばつゆのことを、汁ともだしとも言いますが

generally flavors are lighter in kansai and that extends to tsuyu as well.

[Hiroyuki]

Thanks for your explanation, John, and yes, ago = tobiuo = flying fish.

Ago dashi is also well known in Niigata as the top-quality dashi or the king of dashi.

[shinju]

dough thickness

fresh soba!

before garnishing

recently Takara Tomy has started to sell a soba machine called いえそば　house-soba. If you turn it on it's side you can knead and mix. then you turn it upright and cut the noodles. It looks pretty good but it is about $100 and it is made of plastic. I recommend a 6000¥ pasta machine if you want to make pasta, udon, soba, and ramen. Also check out this book: パスタマシンで麺道楽—うどん、中華麺、韓国風冷麺、もちろんパスタ!

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Wow, congrats on your soba making. Looks great! I used to make my own soba often when my mom was still living, but haven't in a while. My method is traditional and very time consuming. Although I make pasta using the pasta machine I never thought about using it for soba. Will definitely try it. BTW, my soba is also 100% soba flour and if not quite right, it does crumble easily.

[Hiroyuki]

Today's edition of Me Ga Ten, which featured soba, was very interesting. On her first try, Ms. Sato failed to make juwari (100% buckwheat) soba because she failed to knead the dough while distributing the water evenly. On her second try, she used a special gagdet: an atomizer. She sprayed water evenly and repeatedly while kneding the dough, and succeeded in making smooth dough that did not crumble.

The TV show also proved the importance of slurping soba. When you slurp up soba, you inhale some air together with the soba, which then passes through the nose, with the flavor of soba.

[Hiroyuki]

My son's birthday is in April, and I asked him the other day, "Where do you want to eat out for your birthday?" Just as I had expected, he replied, "Tabataya". Tabataya is a soba restaurant here in the Shiozawa area. (If anyone is interested in the exterior and interior of the restaurant, visit my foodblog on eGullet.)

We went there this evening.

My daughter had a Shogakusei (Elementary school pupul) B Set:

(Sorry, not a good photo. I was too lazy to take a good photo.)

My son had a Ten (short for tempura) Zaru* Soba Set:

*Zaru means colander, but actually means that the soba is topped with shredded nori, unlike mori soba, which is nori-less.

And, I had a Tabataya Set:

The cup with a lid on it contains chawanmushi. Behind it is a bowl of salad.

My son's and my tempura dishes include fukinoto (butterbur sprout) tempura, which is in season.

As I have mentioned before, the soba here in this snowry region contains funori (a type of seaweed), and is greenish, sleek, and very tasty. It was an acquired taste for me, and now really like it.

[MoGa]

Soba is my favourite kind of noodle.

Years ago I bought The Book of Soba by James Udesky and I've been working my way through his Tokyo restaurant recommendations.

I'm another tororo soba fan and particularly enjoy eating it this way at the foot of Mount Takao in the winter time. I also enjoy sampling different styles of soba, such as the set offered at Hojinbo (Amano Building B1, 1-5-10 Nishi Shinbashi, Tokyo) where you are served a portion of their regular soba, followed by soba flavoured with yuzu, and then dark soba (with a stronger buckwheat taste)

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I've made soba at home before with buckwheat I milled myself using a stone pestle and mortar (the seeds are surprisingly easy to turn into powder) but the results weren't really worth the effort involved. I can justify making udon from scratch as they taste much better than what I can get dried or fresh in London, with soba, the 100% buckwheat dried noodles I can buy taste better than what I am capable of making myself. Certainly for the moment, but it's something I may work on in the future.

As for preparing soba, I like them cold with a dipping sauce (I keep the cooking water - soba-yu - to add to any left over broth) with or without nori. I also like them hot.

Occasionally I wrap them in a sheet of nori using a bamboo mat and roll them up like a makizushi. I like to then place this on a hot dry pan, it toasts the nori and the nori itself shrinks a little making the roll tighter and so easier to cut into segments. These are lovely dipped in cold broth.

I have a vegetarian friend who doesn't eat wheat and it took me a while to come up with a way to eat soba without dashi that I could recommend to her. I took my inspiration from the Korean Bibim Guksu and combine gochujang, dark miso, vinegar, honey and sesame oil. This is mixed with cold drained soba and assorted salad vegetables.

It ended up becoming a summer favourite for us too, a lovely alternative to another summer staple - Hiyashi chuka. It's probably the way my non-soba appreciating husband best likes to eat soba. (Again, I keep some soba-yu and add it to miso soup, it's a shame to waste such good vitamins)