mulberryshoots

Have you ever tried cooking soba noodles? They’re made out of buckwheat so they’re usually a medium brown color. There’s also a type of buckwheat soba noodles made with green tea (yep!.) and these are the ones that I turned to make supper for tonight when my piece of fresh salmon from Canada turned out to be perfect to be eaten in very thin slices of salmon sashimi dipped in Osawhwa organic soy sauce and wasabi.

We’ve had a beautiful day with a breeze, sun and temperatures in the mid-seventies. It’s not really hot but I thought I’d make a cool dish out of the soba noodles since the salmon sashimi was cool. Here are the steps I followed:

1. I boiled two ribboned stalks of green tea soba noodles for about five minutes. I had prepared a shallow pan filling it with ice cubes to chill the noodles once they were drained from cooking. I let them set there for a few minutes while I prepared the vegetables.
2. I had about six beautiful stalks of asparagus. I quarter cut them at a slant to where the stalks were too tough to use. I sauteed these asparagus pieces in canola oil until they were almost cooked. Then I drizzled in some “super sesame oil” – which has a little spicy taste to it – and a few drops of tamari (a darker soy sauce from Japan.)
3. I also peeled a Persian cucumber and cut into thin lengths, then cut diagonally to make slivers.
4. For the main noodle marinade, I poured about 1/4 cup of soy sauce, 1/8 cup of Marukan seasoned rice vinegar, a few drops of honey, a squeeze of Meyer lemon juice and about 1/8 cup of spring water. I tasted it for a balance between piquant but not too sour with just enough sweetness.
5. I drained the chilled noodles from their ice water bath and shook them until they were really dry. I poured them into a shallow serving dish, poured the marinade over them and tossed the cooked asparagus and raw cucumber into the dish. I covered it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for about an hour before serving.

Without salmon sashimi as the main protein “condiment” which was thinly sliced and dipped into soy and wasabi before eating, I would suggest that the green tea soba nooole marinade could be served topped with grilled or broiled shrimp, or perhaps some grilled flank steak thinly sliced on the side too.

In any case, we’ve inaugurated the warming Spring weather with this refreshingly cool supper tonight. Bon Appetit! or in plain English – TRY IT because it was YUMMY!!