Nyūmen

Wheat noodles in miso broth with green onion, eggplant, greens, and pepper

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City/Region: Japan

Time Period: 1643

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Noodles have a long and murky history in Japan (except for ramen, which was created in 1859). They’re involved with myths, legends, and traditions that go back centuries. The cookbook we’re using here is the oldest surviving cookbook published in Japan. It’s from 1643 during the Edo period, so it has old traditional recipes as well as newer influences from other cultures like Korea and Portugal.

The complex miso and dashi broth has so many layers of flavor and it just tastes like Japanese food to me. The texture of the noodles is wonderful and silky. It’s a little involved to make, but very much worth it.

“Nyūmen
To start with, cut short pieces of sōmen, boil, gently dry and put it aside. Add dashi to taremiso, and when it is steaming, put in the noodles. Add such things as young mustard greens, nebula, and aubergines. It is also served with usumiso [thin miso]. Add black pepper and sanshō powder.

Tare Miso
Mix 1 shō miso and 3 shō 5 gō of water and simmer. When it has boiled down to only 3 shō, put it in a bag and strain it.

Dashi
Chip katsuo into good size pieces, and when you have 1 shō worth, add 1 shō 5 gō of water and simmer. Sip to test and should remove the katsuo when it matches your taste. Too sweet is no good. The dashi may be boiled a second time and used.”

— Ryōri Monogatari, 1643

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Ingredients:

Tare Miso

• 4 tablespoons (60 g) miso paste, whichever you like as long as it doesn’t already have dashi added
• 1 cup (250 ml) water

Dashi

• 2 cups (40 g) kombu (dried kelp)
• 2 cups (12 g) katsuobushi (bonito flakes)
• 2 quarts (2 L) water
• 2 to 4 tablespoons sake, optional

Nyūmen

• 100 g somen noodles*
• Mustard greens or other leafy greens, roughly chopped
• Eggplant, cut into large pieces
• Green onion, chopped
• Black pepper, ground
• Sansho pepper*, ground

*See notes below.

Instructions:

1. For the tare miso: Stir the miso and water together in a saucepan. The miso may still have some clumps in it, and that’s okay.
2. Set it over low heat so that it steams. Make sure that it never boils, or a lot of the miso’s flavor will be lost. Reduce it to about 2/3 cup.
3. Strain it through a piece of cloth and let it cool. If you’re using cheesecloth, use at least 3 or 4 layers.
4. For the dashi: The kombu will have a white powdery substance on it. Keep it there, that’s actually where a lot of the flavor comes from. Add the kombu to the water in a saucepan. Let it soak for 30 minutes so it can soften. Once soft, put the saucepan over medium heat and slowly bring it to a simmer. Right before it comes to a full boil, remove the kombu. If it boils, it gets slimy.
5. Add the katsuobushi to the broth. Bring it to a boil for 30 seconds. Take the pot off the heat and let it steep for 10 minutes, or until most of the flakes have fallen to the bottom of the pot.
6. Pour the dashi through a strainer into another pot. For a clearer broth, you could pour it through a cloth like we did for the tare miso.
7. Add the sake and bring it back to a simmer for 1 minute.
8. For the nyūmen: Put the somen into a pot of boiling water and boil for 2 to 3 minutes. Strain and rinse them in cold water. Set them aside.
9. Cook the greens and eggplant by steaming, boiling, or grilling them.
10. Add the tare miso to the dashi and heat it to just before simmering. Add the noodles and heat them in the broth for 30 seconds.
11. Serve them forth in a bowl with the broth, vegetables, and a sprinkling of the black and sansho pepper.

Notes

• Kombu is a type of kelp or seaweed that contributes umami to many Japanese dishes.
• Katsubushi, or bonito flakes, are dried flakes of skipjack tuna that are used as the base of dashi (Japanese broth) or as a garnish on dishes like takoyaki or okonomiyaki.
• Somen are thin wheat noodles.
• Sansho pepper has a bright lemony flavor and leaves a tingling sensation like sichuan pepper.
• Link to kombu: https://www.amazon.com/Eden-Japanese-Harvested-Vegetable-Seaweed/dp/B00028QCD4/ref=sr_1_4_sspa
• Link to katsubushi: https://www.amazon.com/Eden-Japanese-Skipjack-Katsuobushi-Traditionally/dp/B0019JTH82/ref=sr_1_7_f3_0o_brist
• Link to somen: https://www.amazon.com/Hime-Dried-Somen-Noodles-28-21-Ounce/dp/B007W0D0LM/ref=sr_1_1
• Link to sansho pepper: https://www.amazon.com/Sansho-Pepper-12-grams/dp/B000WYCZX4/ref=sr_1_5

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