Chilled Buckwheat Noodles
Serves 4.
Ingredients
300 g/10 oz buckwheat noodles
4 small fish cakes (chikuwa)
1 tablespoon finely grated ginger
3 spring onions (scallions), finely sliced
Dipping sauce
500 ml/1 pint/2 cups dashi
4 tablespoons Japanese soy sauce
4 tablespoons mirin or sherry
Directions
Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil and add noodles. When water returns to the boil add 1 cup cold water. Bring to the boil again and cook until noodles are just tender, testing at 1-minute intervals. Stop cooking as soon as they are tender to the bite. Run cold water into the pan and drain in a large colander. Rinse under cold water two or three times, until they are completely cold. Drain well and put on 4 plates.
Dipping Sauce: To make the dipping sauce, bring ingredients to the boil in a small pan, allow to cool.
Cut fish cakes into thin slices and place on noodles. Combine ginger and spring onions. Pour some of the cooled sauce into small sauce dishes beside each serving, with some of the ginger and onion mixed in. Noodles are dipped into the sauce before eating.
Recipe excerpted from Encyclopedia of Asian Food by Charmaine Solomon (Periplus Editions, 1998)