Happy New Year Everyone!!
Hope you all had a great holidays!
It's my first new year's days in Philadelphia.
In Japan, we have words "San ga nichi", meaning 3 days of New Year, and the first 3 days of new year are holidays. Atomosphere there is like Thanks Giving in America. Family members get together, eat, eat and eat......!As the first Japanese recipe, I introduce you Japanese New Year's Eve tradition.
Do you know Soba noodle??It seems quite popular, at least in New York, where I'd lived for about 1year and a half. You can see it used for salad, or they even have a restaurant featuring soba.
For Japanese people, soba is always the symbol for New Year's Eve.We have this tradition to eat it as dinner on the day, watching special TV program.
Why??? Some says it's to wish live modest and long, because of the shape of soba noodle.
So here is my family's traditional recipe!
What you need
For Soba
- soba noodle
- mentsuyu broth
*you can get one at japanese foo market. it's sauce made from soy, bonito broth, slightly sweetened)
For Tempura
- Shrimp
- Any kind of vegetable you think is good!
*I use Lotus root, chinese egg plant(thinner than Italian), sweet potato, shiitake mushroom, oyster mushroom.Perhaps it's dificult to find them at regular grocery store, but if you go to china town, you can find them at very reasonable price.
*In Japanese cooking, we value the seasonal food very much. For example, root veges are good for winter time to warm up your body, for summer veges like zucchini,egg plant, tomato, cucumber are good to keep your body cool down.
For Tempura Coating
- flour.....1cup
- cold water.....a bit less than 200cc
- baking powdre....2 teaspoons
- egg......2
- ice cube.....2
For Garnish
- Grinded Japanese radish, ginger.
- Chopped scallion.
*Sesame seed, pickled plum, Nori(seaweed sheet you see at sushi bar) are also good.
sweet potato, lotus root.......For lotus loot, peel off the skin.
Cut both in round slices of 1/3".
egg plant.....cut off the stem, then cut lengthways in 4.
soak in water for 5 min to get rid off bitterness
mushrooms.....cut off stem. for oyster mushroom,
slice in 1/3" lengthways.
shrimp.....peel off head and shell except tail.wash well.
cut in halfway on belly side to prevent it curl
2, Prepare tempura coating .
Shit flour and baking powder into bowl. Add egg, water and ice cube, mix with chopstick.
*Don't mix too much, leave it a bit powdery. If you mix too much, it won't e crispy.
3, Deep fry. Heat oil to around 340. To check tempurature, drop one small drip of coating in the oil, if it won't sink to the bottom, but floating up with bubble, it's ready to go.
Coat veges with coating and gently drop into oil. When they become golden with smaller bubbles, take them out off oil, leave on net to drain surplus oil. For Shrimp heat oil up to 350 and deep-fry.
4, Cook Soba.
Boil pod full of water and add soba noodle. For boiling minutes, follow the instruction of the package, but normally 3mins-5mins. Drain boiling water with a colander, then wash with cold water(you can even put ice cube to give it a better texture).
Now it's ready to eat! Serve broth in a small soup ball, add garnish as you like, dip soba and tempura in it :)
For Tempura, simply salt is also good.
Itadaki masu!!(Bon Appetite!!)
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