Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives

Soba, Tempura, and the Flu, I think.

I love just about every international cuisine out there,  I say just about, because there are some I’ve never tried, like Ethiopian, Peruvian etc.  Of course there are what I call ‘international American’ because it’s common American eats even though it’s origins lie in the country it’s from (unlike chicken chow mein, which actually originated IN America).  One of those is Japanese, obviously sushi, but so so much more, from Katsu Don, to Tonkatsu, to my all time favorite, or let’s say must always order with the aforementioned other favs – tempura anything.  I also love all kinds of Asian noodles and noodle bowls, so this month’s challenge is awesome for me, and boy am I going to eat goooood.

Fast forward two weeks.  I’m sick, so I’m not going to eat good.  In fact, I made everything two days ago, and I sill haven’t touched it.  I was queasy photographing it all, so queasy that I couldn’t even get my post up because it would mean I have to look at it all again.  What started as a simple cold, has morphed into aches, pains, nausea, sore throat, and of course, the stuffy nose decided to stick around and occasionally run, turning my bedroom into balled up kleenex tickertape pararde aftermath.  I just inserted this paragraph so you’d all understand why it took me three days past reveal day to get this post up.  Now I have to take a deep breath and try not to hurl as I upload the photos.  I’m ticked off, I was really looking forward to eating this.  OK, back to me before I was sick, below.

The February 2011 Daring Cooks’ challenge was hosted by Lisa of Blueberry Girl. She challenged Daring Cooks to make Hiyashi Soba and Tempura. She has various sources for her challenge including japanesefood.about.com, pinkbites.com, and itsybitsyfoodies.com

The only problem I have with this month’s challenge is the ‘cold’ factor for the noodles.  I’m sorry, but we’ve been blasted with freezing cold weather and storm after storm, from snow to heavy rain, to freezing rain to sleet.  I don’t want cold noodles, I need to be warmed up!  This is why I decided to go against the challenge grain a bit and make myself a nice bowl of spicy, warm Soba, along with my spicy, warm tempura.  Wow, I’m already feeling toasty.

Naturally, the egg is then deep fried (20 seconds at 375°F), but as most of you know, I can’t give you deep frying photos because my kitchen has no windows outside of a tiny one on the door. 

First let me start with the tempura.  I decided to tempura batter what I order all the time.  My favorite tempura is sweet potato and broccoli, but along with those I love cauliflower, sweet onion and asparagus.  I also decided to tempura batter a few poached eggs.  WHAT? You ask?  Yep, you can bread or batter a poached egg and deep fry it.  Not sure many know that, because I’m sure some think that there’s no way the hot oil won’t cook the yolk.  Two words, twenty seconds – that’s all it takes.  Of course you have to take great care in flouring and dipping the egg in batter aka, don’t use chopsticks to hold it, a slotted spoon is perfect.  I always wondered why those pubs that claim they can and will deep fry anything, have yet to approach a poached egg?  Then again, maybe they have, but I’m always hoping when I see one them on TV deep frying candy bars and sneakers.

Here’s another great thing about my tempura battered poached egg – Shichimi Togarashi.  I LOVE this spice so much.  I used it back in ’08 in the Lavash cracker challenge (the same night I took a flying leap and annihilated my knee), even made my own, but hadn’t used it in a while.  Shichimi Togarashi is 7-spice blend that usually includes red chile pepper, dried orange peel, white and black sesame seeds, Japanese pepper, nori, and ginger. However, sometimes poppy seed …wait, you can read about it HERE, and if you’d like, purchase it HERE.  You can also make your own – swapping in and out what you’d prefer.

This was a deep fried pancetta bowl holding the noodles and egg.  It busted open just as I was about to snap the photo.  Figures.

With that said, I added a whole tablespoon of shichimi into the tempura batter for the poached eggs.  Yes, I made two batters, because I ended up using up my first batch (which was already doubled) on enough of the aforementioned veggies to feed a small country.  It would have been well worth it if I had been able to like..umm..eat some of it without the nausea wave coming, ready to knock me off my surfboard.

Before I get to the soba, I have to mention that the tempura batter recipe provided to us by our lovely hostess is really good.  However, I prefer my old standby of rice flour and seltzer or beer.  Stays crispier longer.

Here’s how I treated my soba noodles.  I didn’t make the dashi dipping sauce (errr, soup..I’m sorry, it’s a broth, not a dipping sauce!).  Instead I chose the spicy dipping sauce and used that to not only dip the tempura, but dress my noodles.  I added a bit of chili-garlic sauce to it because, calling it spicy as is, is like calling a box turtle, fierce.  I topped it with red bell peppers, carrots, spinach, green onions, shredded cucumber and deep-fried pancetta.  You see, since I was topping some of the noodles with a poached egg, Eggs Benedict came to mind, so why not a little eggs Benedict fusion?  It just seemed naked without some kind of pork product.  I actually tried to make a cup out of the pancetta to hold the soba and the poached egg, but unfortunately, which shouldn’t be an ‘unfortuanetly, my noodles were perfectly cooked and dressed, so not even a little starch to contain them within the small pancetta bowl, as you can see in the photos above.  They just kind schlumped, spread and broke the bowl open.

Of course everyone had their choice how to have their soba, so only a poached egg and pancetta on request.  It was just as yummy with just veggies, as you can see directly above.

To see all the delicious soba – tempura creations/combinations by other Daring Cooks, click on the links to their blogs, HERE.  For the recipes for tempura and soba, plus fantastic instructions and links, click HERE.

Tempura Battered Poached Eggs
4 poached eggs
Well seasoned flour
Tempura batter from recipe linked at end of post, or one of your choice

DIRECTIONS:
1. Poach 4 eggs, then immediately slide into a bowl of ice water.  Cover and let chill while you make your tempura batter.

2. Heat 2 inches oil in a 3- to 4-quart heavy saucepan (about 1 1/2 inches deep) over high heat until deep-fat thermometer registers 375°F.

3. When ready to fry, gently blot any water from top of poached eggs with paper towels, then sprinkle each egg with salt and pepper and/or spice of your choice.

4. Carefully dredge 1 poached egg in flour, gently dusting off excess. Transfer egg too bowl of batter, spooning to coat completely.  Lift it out gently with a slotted spoon, letting excess batterr drip off. Gently lower spoon into oil and let egg slide off. fry for 20 seconds, then remove and place on a cooling rack. Repeat with remaining poached eggs, 1 at a time.