Daring Cook's February Challenge

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

Hiyashi Soba Salad with Mentsuyu and Spicy Dipping Sauce.  I chose to use the traditional Soba noodles and was surprised how dark they were. The cooking was not difficult, though I was a bit anxious about the noodles becoming mushy. Adding cold water each time the water came to boiling for a total of 3 times and letting them boil about 3 minutes the last time yielded a nice texture; firm but not mushy. My family loved the various toppings. I had Wasabi, pickled ginger, cucumber, tomatoes, nori available and a choice of the two dipping sauces which I made using the recipes in the challenge.

 The noodles in the pictures on the challenge site looked quite white, though these buckwheat soba noodles were more brown than I had thought they would be. I watched the video and used her tips in making the noodles and the tempura batter as shown later.

My batter seemed rather thin, but it cooked up as it should. It was a little difficult to get the dry ingredients mixed through without over stirring the batter. I has seen a couple of recipes where there was a big difference in the amount of cornstarch used. I used 1/2 cup as called for in the recipe as posted in the challenge.

 I think the sweet potatoes were my favorite of the vegetables. I used shitake and cremini mushrooms, carrots, and sweet potatoes. Mmmmm! The shrimp was absolutely lovely! My husband loved the light batter....not sure he'd had tempura before, but it was definitely a hit.

This meal was definitely a hit. I have to admit, my husband and I had to give up on the chopsticks with the noodles, but my daughter seemed to be a natural with them! It was fun to prepare and it felt like a nutritional meal despite the frying since I use such great vegetables and canola oil for the frying. I will definitely incorporate this into one of my regular meals.