Hot Tomato & Soba Noodles in a Light Dashi Broth
Tomatoes are not in season right now, but I can't resist them in this nutritious, bright dish full of winter warmth and colour.
Tomatoes? Yes! They do make an occasional, if a little rare, appearance in Japanese cookery.
There’s a strange love affair with the tomato in Japan. It’s an ingredient we love. One we are really familiar with, know and crave. They can be found in every supermarket. We eat tonnes of them each year, but, tomatoes are only occasionally spotted in Japanese cooking.
Can you think of a Japanese dish that features a tomato?
Tomatoes have this unique position in Japan of being one of the most widely available and popular ingredients in the country, yet they’re only being cooked in a handful of Japanese dishes. Raw yes, cooked no. A quick google of bento boxes and you’ll see tomatoes appear in many images. In Bento, it’s normally the little cherry red ones, that you’ll spot, uncooked and sliced in half perhaps. They make a similar appearance in many salads, as a little side or a garnish.
In the cities, you’ll find Japan’s own version pasta restaurants. Italian food is hugely popular and tomatoes are a must for the sauce. If you visit, check out Spaghetti Naporitan. It’s a pasta dish invented in Japan. Naporitan is about as Italian, as Chicken Tikka Masala is Indian. I’m guessing it’s the popularity of dishes like this, and other Yoshoku, AKA adapted Western Cuisine, that have a lot to do with the quantity of tomatoes imported.
So yes, the tomato is hugely popular in Japan, but I’ve been thinking of the rare occasions that they appear, cooked, in a Japanese recipe. Where do they pop-up?
One dish, and a creative use of the ingredient, is Tomato Ohitashi. A delicate dish where a larger, single tomato is marinated in the dashi broth. The tomato is peeled first then left to soak in the dashi overnight, to absord the flavours. Then it’s served on its own in a shallow bowl, with the dashi and topped with a little chopped spring onion or pickled prawns perhaps. Seriously worth a try!
At my mum’s house in Yamanashi, she grows tonnes of tomatoes. The ones that really stand out are called momotaro. They are amazing, so fleshy, sweet, brightly coloured and firm. I love finding ways to use them when I’m there. We’ll add them to miso soup, but it’s not a traditional recipe, just our version. A batch will go into the freezer, as we believe it boosts the nutrition when frozen.
For me, a real summer dish, is Tomato soba. Often served cold, the soba noodles are dressed in a chilled dashi then topped with tomatoes for colour and flavour. In winter, I make my own version of this. A steaming bowl of clear dashi broth that you can boost the flavour of with a few tablespoons of kaeshi sauce. It is deeply nourishing. The tomatoes are added towards the end, but are cooked in the light broth to extract their flavour.
This is a really pretty dish and a great way to enjoy tomatoes, in the middle of winter. You can use any tomatoes. From the supermarket, they can look great but be a little tasteless. This dish will correct that, and soft them when they’re too firm. The kaeshi sauce and dashi will lift their taste and bring umami. Of course, home grown tomatoes will be best and you can freeze a little batch of them from the summer if you grow too many.
This is the recipe I use, you can choose any type of dashi. For this dish, I’d go for a bonito flake dashi, and you can make this in a few seconds, in advance with a cafetierre. Technique (a big word, given how easy this is!) shown here:
Have some fun cooking the soba noodles. They’re fast to cook, but they love to foam up and spill over. Avoid this by keeping a glass of cold water in hand. When you spot that foam, pour some in to reduce the heat. Chop into the water with chopsticks too to reduce that foam. Keep an eye on, this way you’ll not have more mess to clean up. Here’s a reel showing the method:
I hope you enjoy the recipe, it’s one I love and find uplifting during these darker days. Try out different types of dashi and add more or less of the kaeshi sauce to suit your taste. Oh, and make up a batch of the kaeshi sauce, you can keep it in the fridge for a month.
Recipe
Serves 2 people
Dashi (Broth Base) & Kaeshi Sauce Ingredients
700ml dashi
1cm ginger grated
100ml Japanese soy sauce
2tbsp Sugar (20g)
2 tbsp Mirin (30ml)
Other Ingredients
2 portions (160g) of soba dried soba noodles
2 small tomatoes
Toppings
2 Spring Onions chopped
Sesame oil
Japanese Seven Spice (Togarashi)
METHOD - KAESHI SAUCE
Put the soy sauce, sugar and mirin into a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for a couple of minutes, using the lowest possible heat. Watch it carefully whilst it simmers, as it burns easily. Turn off the heat and set to one side.
METHOD - DASHI, SOBA & BROTH
Bring your dashi to the boil, then add grated ginger. Simmer for two minutes longer.
Combine 5-6tbsp of the Kaeshi sauce. Add more Kaeshi sauce for a deeper flavour, to your taste.
Chop the two tomatoes into halves, then quarter each half. Don't chop the tomatoes into smaller pieces than this. Bring back to the boil.
Now prepare the soba noodles. Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil, then add the noodles. Cook them for 3 minutes. As the water starts to foam, add cold water to prevent them from foaming over.
Once cooked, drain the noodles and immediately rinse them with cold water, to remove the excess starch.
To serve, divide the noodles into two portions, placing them in deep serving bowls. Pour over the kaeshi dashi broth with the tomatoes. Scatter with sliced spring onions, optional spice (if using), serve and enjoy!