Soba noodles with Tempura (Tempura-soba)

Japanese kitchen is impossible without tempura. I was looking at this recipe for long while and was always feeling a bit afraid of trying it. Deep drying was just not my thing, I thought.
I went through some recipes, video tutorials and finally was ready for this experiment. To begin with - let me highlight some tips which were very helpful for me:
1. Oil temperature should be about 160-170 C (320-340 F) for meat of thick and large pieces; about 170-180 C (340-360 F) for meat of a small bite-size pieces. For vegetables though - 160-170 C (320-340 F) is quite enough. Best way to determine temperature of oil is candy thermometer. But there are some hint ho to without. Tip 1: drop a few drops of batter into frying pan with oil and if it sinks to the bottom of the pan and floats up to the surface quickly than temperature is around 160 C. Tip 2: drop of batter sinks halfway to the bottom, and floats up quickly - about 170 C.
2. Ingredients for deep frying should be put in order. First: pumpkin, sweet potato and carrot (all vegetables with  a little smell). Second: squid, shrimp and sillago (and other seafood or meat).
3. Do not deep fry many ingredients at once - they will overlap with each other preventing heat from distributing evenly.
4. Before tossing ingredients in batter - pat them dry and sprinkle with some flour.
5. Use really cold water, add few pieces of ice if needed.

I made tempura only with shrimps and served it over soba noodles in tasty stock. Soba can be easily substituted for udon.

Ingredients for Tempura:
8 fresh shrimps in shell
4 pieces of maitake mushrooms

Ingredients for Tempura batter:
1 egg yolk + chilled water to make 3/5 cup (5 oz or 142-150 ml)
3/5 cup of Hakurikiko flour (weak flour with gluten content 6 1/2-9 %)
Oil for deep frying (canola is mainly used, hence does not have a strong smell)

Method:
1. Wash shrimps in cold salty water. Remove the heads of the shrimps, devein and shell. Remove back vein with toothpick. Chop off the tips of the shrimp tails and gently press out moisture with a flat blade of the knife. If moisture remains in the tail - it will cause oil to sputter). To prevent shrimp from curling, make 3 incisions across the belly and open each of the cuts with hands to straighten the body. Wash and pat dry the mushrooms.
2. To prepare the batter: sift the flour. In a mixing bawl, lightly beat the egg yolk and pour in chilled water to make 2/5 cup. Add the sifted flour, and stir briefly. Do not over-mix, other wise the batter will become too sticky.
3. Dust shrimps and mushrooms with extra flour. Heat oil and start deep-frying while coating each ingredient with batter. Deep fry maitake first, than shrimps. Skim the oil surface to keep it clean. When the bubbles around the edges of each piece become small with the noise fading away - touch it with cooking chop-sticks. When the batter feels crispy, it is time to take it out of the pan. Place them on draining tray.

Ingredients for noodles:
7 oz dried soba (buckwheat noodles)
8 Tempura deep fried-shrimps (recipe above)
1 inch green onions
3-4 stalks trefoil

Ingredients for broth:
3 1/3 cups water
1 tsp granulated Dashi (Niboshi small dried sardines and bonito flakes flavor)
3 Tbsp sake
3 Tbsp soy sauce
3 Tbsp Mirin sweet cooking wine
1/2 tsp salt

Method:
1. Bring water to the boil in a large pot. Place soba noodles in the pot, boil while stirring with chop-sticks. When the water rolls up to the edges of the pot, pour in 2/5 cup of cold water. It will reduce the boiling and make noodles harder. Cook for as long as prescribed on the package - mainly 6 minutes. Drain soba on the sieve, rub and rinse in running cold water to eliminate slipperiness.
2. To prepare broth - bring water to boil with dissolved dashi. Add sake, soy sauce, miring and salt. Simmer for 1 minute.
3. Put noodles into donburi bawls and put tempura on top. Pour on hot broth and garnish with green onions and trefoil stalks cut into 5 inch lengths.

Japanese Fried Noodles (Yakisoba)

One of the most loved japanese dishes in our house (after curry of course). You just need some vegetables, any meat you like and yakisoba sauce. The sauce is a bit tricky - books and web offers quite a variety f possible ingredient, you can buy even ready one from japanese grocery or just use concentrate which comes sometimes in dry soba packs. (I will upload a pictures later of that type). I made yakisoba with Tonkatsu sauce base (Buldog Brand). It was recommended to me by some japanese couple shopping in japanese grocery.

Ingredients:
2 portions (150 g. each) cooked soba noodles
60 g. chicken, cut into bite-size pieces
3 cabbage leaves
1/2 carrot
1/2 green bell pepper
3 stalks baby asparagus
3 baby corn
30 g. white mushrooms (keep in hot water if using dried)
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
Salt and pepper
For yakisoba "handmade" sauce:
1 Tbsp. oyster sauce
1 tsp. Japanese-style Workcestershire sauce
1 tsp. Tonkatsu sauce
2 tsp. soy sauce
2 Tbsp. Sake
Salt and pepper
For garnishing:
Green laver
Beni-shoga red vine-gared ginger.

Method:
1. Cut chicken, season with salt and pepper. Cut the cabbage leaves into 3/8 inch wide rectangles. Peel the carrot and cut into thin stripes. Soak dried mushrooms in hot water. Cut asparagus and baby corns diagonally in three pieces. Slice green bell pepper into thin stripes.
2. Mix all ingredients for sauce in a small bawl and set aside.
3. Start stir frying in two portions (one for each). Spread 1 Tbsp. of oil over the frying pan or wok and add chicken, mushrooms and all vegetables. Stir fry for 3 minutes. Add noodles and fry. For better taste - fry the noodles until both sides are browned first, during drying drizzle 1 tsp. of sake or mirin on them to enhance the taste even more.
4. Add sauce to yakisoba in pan and stir to coat. Arrange on one plate and cover to keep warm.
5. Prepare second portion following above instructions.
6. Sprinkle on top green laver and garnish with beni-shoga red vinegar ginger.
7. Eat with marinated cucumbers with wakame seaweed or kimchee (chinese pickles cabbage)

Miso Udon

Japanese week still on going. After visiting so many of japanese groceries and finally collected all needed ingredients around Dubai - just can get enough of cooking japanese dishes. Does not look on the picture as good as it tasted! This recipe is combination of many recipes i read and i think can be even more variable than this. Main thing is the tasty stock!

Ingredients:

(serves 2)

Stock:

750 ml. of water

6 shiitake mushrooms steams

1 Tbsp. of instant dashi

2 Tbsp. of red miso paste

1 Tsp. of dark soy sauce

Topping:

3 slices of slightly fried or deep-fried tofu (auberage)

1 small bunch of bok choy

6 Jambo Shrimps

6 shiitake mushrooms heads

1 bunch of enoki mushrooms

2-4 pieces of japanese fish cake

For Garnish:

2 pkg. of boiled udon noodles

dried cut laver or scallions

Method:

1. Bring water to boil with mushroom steams.

2. Add miso paste, dashi and soy sauce.

3. Stir for 3 minutes, while boiling and then remove mushroom steams.

4. Add to stock tofu, all mushrooms, bok choy and shrimps.

5. Simmer for 10 minutes, or until all ingredients are cooked through.

6. Switch off the heat and cover with a lid.

7. Udon noodles put into a boiling water for 2 min and drain well.

8. To assemble: place udon into the serving bowls. Arrange the topping, carefully picking up each piece from the stock (the most comfortable way to do it is to use chopsticks). Add stock to noodles as per your liking. Sprinkle some cut laver on top.

Japanese Chicken Hot Pot (with udon)

After our European vocation i got a felling that i am in need of asian flavored light dish. Chicken Bawl is perfect light dish from japanese home cooking. Easy and quick to cook, can be served over rice, or as is did over Udon Noodles.

Ingredients:

(serves 2 persons)

1 big skinless chicken breast

5 cups of water

1 Tbsp of kombu dashi granules

6 leaves of bok choy

4 slices of firm tofu

6 dried mushrooms (shitake, portobello are the best, but is used some white mushrooms from japanese grocery)

1 bunch of enoki mushrooms separated into small bunches

A couple of straws of scallions

Bean sprouts

2 packs of frozen udon noodles

Some soy sauce for garnish

Method:

1. Heat water in a pan with 1 Tbsp of dashi stock.

2. Carefully fry tofu slices in 2 Tbsp of canola or olive oil. Tofu is very soft, while it is raw, so try not to move it on the pan. Place it in hot oil on one side and then tern in to the other side only after making sure, that it is nicely browned.

3. Add dried mushrooms, enoki, mushrooms and tofu into the boiling stock.

4. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for few minutes, add chicken (cut into bite size pieces) and bok choy.

5. Keep simmering until all ingredients are fully cooked.

6. In meanwhile cook udon, as prescribed on the pack (for cooked frozen udon it is 3 min in boiling water).

7. Assembling the dish: put udon into serving plates. Arrange all ingredients from the pot over it, carefully picking them up from the stock with chopsticks. Pour some stock over the dish enough to your liking. Garnish on top some bean sprouts (slightly simmered in the same stock) and scallions.

Enjoy light and healthy dish! And happy dieting :-))