A great way to celebrate springtime is by cooking with fresh and colourful ingredients. Pickled cherry blossom or ‘sakura’ flowers are so pretty in cakes and to add detail to savoury dishes. Pink or plum infused soba noodles are vibrant and have a great spring feel to them.
I hope you enjoy making the spring pink soba noodle dish below!
Sakura Soba Noodles and Dipping Sauce –
What you will need:
- Pink, plum infused soba noodles 180-200g (these are seasonal and you can purchase them in any Japanese shop such as the Japan Centre)
- 1/2 sheet of shredded nori (seaweed)
- 2 chopped spring onions
- Ham (I used quorn ham as I prefer the taste and its easier to cut)
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/2 cup mirin
- 1/4 cup sake
- A few handfalls of dried bonito flakes
- (optional for extra decoration) pickled cherry blossom flowers
Method:
- Bring 2 litres of water to the boil, then add the soba noodles. Allow the noodles to simmer for 4-5 minutes
- Strain the noodles, wash thoroughly with cold water and allow them to dry
- In a separate pan add the soy sauce, mirin, sake, ginger and bonito flakes then bring this to the boil and allow to cool. Once cooled strain this to remove the bonito flakes and pour into a small dish to serve
- Arrange the soba noodles into five petal shapes and spread the spring onion inbetween each of these
- Cut small decorative pieces of nori to add detail to the petals and scatter the shredded nori in the middle. Use food cutters to make flower and leaf shapes