Versatile cold dashi broth noodle
I’m literally a nobody but here is a fun little summer recipe.
So, long story short, the AC compressor in my apartment is dead and I’ve been having my meetings in a tank top because it’s a constant 100 degrees in Dallas, and my portable AC is loud as shit so I have to turn it off every time I hope on calls. Corporate dream eh?
What has been keeping me alive is some low-effort cold noodles that ensure my protein/fiber intake and won’t bore me to death nor drive me crazy with cleaning and manning multiple stoves. This isn’t the Bear honey, and I’m more like Han Lee in Two Broke girls if I’m inserting myself in a restaurant universe.
Here is how it goes, it’s versatile and it’s cold to calm your nerves! Ingredients and alternatives are listed below:
*Please notice that I am unhinged and a casual cooker so I barely measure anything, if it tastes right for you, it’s right. Trust your tongue as you trust it with anything else you do with it.*wink* Most important of all, trust your cooking and have fun!!
Sauce base
2 tbsp of soy sauce
(If you have white soup base soy sauce like the picture below, you can do one normal soy sauce and one tbsp of those too)
(Or 2 tbsp normal soy sauce with a tbsp of Hon dashi powder)
Top left: HONDASHI, Bottom left: white dashi soup base (lighter flavor), bottom right: Normal soup base (saltier than the left one)
2 tbsp of rice wine
A dash of Mirin
A sprinkle of salt for flavor
A Sprinkle of sugar to bring out MORE flavor
A sprinkle of white pepper
Finely chopped garlic or minced garlic
Optional: chili oil or sesame oil, based on your preference!
Bring a pot to a small boil and dump them into a glass measuring cup before adding all the sauces and ingredients into it. For one serving that goes on a shallow bowl/plate, it’ll usually take about 1 cup of liquid for that to happen, I always end up with a bit of them and re-use them for egg or tofu marinating.
Make sure you do this part first and put it in the freezer before you start making the add-ons to give it time and cool down. I would toss in 2-3 ice cubes to speed up the process, it won’t freeze that fast by the time you’re plating so don’t worry.
Add ons
2 Eggs
Any sort of veggies, Bok choy preferred but spinach and broccoli or lettuce works too. Eat your greens kids.
Shitake mushrooms or oyster mushrooms.
Protein: Pre-cooked shrimp, chicken slices, hot pot beef/pork. Whichever works for you works for this dish.
Beat two eggs and add them into a pan, season with white pepper or simple salt and pepper combo. Whichever seasoning you go for will allow the eggs to become their own entity in the dish without the broth making it just brothy eggs. Start folding them portion by portion until they are a rectangular strip. Slice them to serve.
(Now, it doesn’t have to be a tamagoyaki pan but I would highly recommend having one cause it’s small and it can often serve as a small frying pan if you’re working with a small quantity of things and hate cleaning a whole pan for that.)
You can most definitely cook the veggies, protein, and mushrooms with the noodle, just make sure you leave them in there for a bit before adding the noodles because it’ll only take 4 min-ish for the noodle to be fully cooked. Strain the entire pot out once the time is right and picked the add-ons out from the strainer into another bowl, leave the noodles in cause we’ll need to work on them a bit, as seen below.
My ultimate hack is soft-boiled eggs as a time indicator: 8 min for a jammy interior and 10 for fully cooked. Gradually add in the ingredients based on their cook time and noodle last. You’ll end up only using one small pot! Laziness FOREVER WINS.
Noodles:
1 strand of Japanese noodles
This type of noodle usually takes the shortest to cook. After you strained everything and picked out the add-ons, rinse the noodles with cold water while it is still in the strainer and gently wash out the starch out so it won’t be a clump of noodles. Give the noodle an ice bath for 5 mins while you are cleaning the counter, take a vape break, and fish out the cutest shallow bowl/any plate with a bit of depth, pasta dish works too.
Garnish
Thinly slice some scallion and put them in a small bowl with ice water for 15-30 seconds, add them on before serving.
Sesame seeds work too.
Furikake works too.
Plating order
First noodles in the center, surround it with your add ons then pour over the dashi broth you just made until they are all kind of sitting it. ENJOY!
I hope y’all can enjoy this simple yet refreshing dish that works with a lot of pantry staples. Most important of all everyone can learn that they are a god in the kitchen and it will be a safe space for you where you can have total control. You stocked it after all, right? Now go have fun and may it be the best one yet.