Soba
A buckwheat dough with no gluten of its own, hydrated in three pours and worked fast.
Vegan.
Ingredients
- 400 g buckwheat flour
- 100 g strong wheat flour
- 250 ml water, roughly
- buckwheat flour, for dusting
Method
- BUCKWHEAT HAS NO GLUTEN, so none of the udon method transfers. There is nothing to develop and nothing to relax: the udon on this site is trodden flat and rested twice over three hours, and doing that here gives a pile of crumbs. This dough is worked FAST and rested barely at all.
- THE WHEAT FLOUR IS THE BINDER. Four parts buckwheat to one wheat is a forgiving start. Pure buckwheat is possible and is an order of magnitude harder; it is not the place to begin.
- THREE POURS OF WATER, NOT ONE. About half first, mixed with the fingers held like a rake until the flour is in crumbs the size of rice; then a third more, until it is like damp breadcrumbs; then the rest a little at a time until it just coheres.
- All the water at once gives a wet outside and dry pockets inside that never join, and they appear later as holes.
- Water quantity is approximate and depends on the flour. Judge by feel: it should hold when squeezed and crack slightly at the edges.
- Gather into a ball and knead only 2 to 3 minutes -- just until smooth. Longer does nothing, because there is no gluten to build.
- Cone the ball, press it out, and roll to an even 1.5 mm. Work steadily; buckwheat dries as you roll and a dry edge cracks.
- Fold the sheet in three with plenty of dusting flour between the layers, and cut 1.5 mm strips with a heavy knife, pressing straight down rather than drawing.
- BOIL 60 TO 90 SECONDS ONLY, in a lot of fast water. These are nothing like udon, which takes twelve minutes.
- Straight into iced water and rubbed gently to wash the surface starch off, then drained hard. Serve cold with a dipping sauce, or hot in broth added at the last moment.
Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.
Filed under Japan · All recipes