Friday, May 23, 2008

Crab soba with maitake and pea shoots


This is from last Monday's dinner, but I wanted to go ahead and share it since I feel another wave of good cooking juju coming on and I don't want it to get buried. This was the last of the pea shoots, the last Persian cucumber, some nice buckwheat soba, a half pound of lump Dungeness crab meat and a maitake mushroom the size of my head. This recipe serves four generously.

Prepare the sauce by combining a splash of shoyu (soy sauce), sake or rice wine, and rice vinegar; a dribble of sesame oil and a glug of mirin; 2 or 3 tbsp of grated ginger and a minced clove of garlic, a couple sprinkles of black sesame seeds and shichimi (nanami togarashi). I didn't have any left, or I'da added a tsp of yuzu marmalade.

This time I stripped the leaves off the pea shoots and chopped the stems. Blanch in the boiling water with a whole package (8 oz) soba. Slice the cucumber and a scallion thinly and add to the sauce. Break up the maitake into bite-sized pieces and saute until softened in a little light oil (or sesame). Add to the sauce, and ad the crab. Stir very gently (don't break up that crab). When the soba and pea shoots are cooked (after ~5 minutes), drain and rinse in cold water until they are lukewarm-cool. Strain and toss with sauce/crab/veg mixture. Top with a sprinkle of your favorite furikake (rice seasoning) and shichimi. If you have it, a little grated daikon and wasabi root would be excellent.

Enjoy on a hot day with a cold glass of Kirin or other crisp lager. Ittadakimasu!

22 comments:

michael, claudia and sierra said...

absolutley stunning japanesey dinner. to bury this would have been a terrible shame. my pantry kicks ass but i need some asian condiments to go with all the asian cooking i don't do.

but i wanna.

btw - say furikake 3x fast. just because...

Judy@nofearentertaining said...

I would so love to see your fridge, freezer and pantry!!! It has got to be amazingly stocked for you to keep coming up with these incredible kick ass meals! You have been on a great streak haven't you? I sure am enjoying it!

glamah16 said...

You are amazing woman!Have a great hoilday weekend.

Syd said...

Damn! I wish I had a fraction of your creativity.

Jen said...

Off the hook, Heather! BTW... left you a little something on my blog tonight.

Susan @ SGCC said...

I never met a noodle bowl I didn't like and this is no exception. It looks terrific! I wish I could get my hands on some pea shoots. But, I do have furikake.

Heather said...

Claudia - furikake, furikake, fukriakrkeakrake d'oh!

Judy - I'm gonna hafta slow it down or I'll run out of things to cook. :p

Coco - Right back atcha! You have a nice one as well.

Syd - You do have as much creativity, though. I wouldn't know what to do with a sheet of black cats and some asphalt shingles, but you've already though of a dozen ways to blow that shit up, haven't you.

Jen - Thank you so much! I will try to live up to that award. :)

Susan - Noodles chase the hate away. Yay, noodles!

Peter G | Souvlaki For The Soul said...

"Domo arigatooo" Heather for a wonderfully inspired Japanese dish.

Brittany said...

mmmmm! Asian-y goodness! And healthy too! I love soba noodles and usually just dowse em in sesame oil and soy cuz I'm so excited to eat them that I don't want to wait for myself to do more prep.
I must learn to be more patient. Thank you for showing me the way.

Peter M said...

Well blow me down...lump crab wins me over each & every time.

Alicia Foodycat said...

Another gorgeous meal! Everything about that sounds good.

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

Wat to go throwing in everything that is good and coming up with something even better:D

Anonymous said...

SOMEONE has their mojo back!! Great going! This looks delicious.

Emily said...

Wow- It looks delicious. I love soba!

test it comm said...

That looks nice and fresh and tasty! And it has crab...mmm...

Anonymous said...

This looks fantastic! Honestly I usually find soba fusion dishes a bit suspect, but it looks like you've done a fine job.

Mike of Mike's Table said...

This looks spectacular at pretty much every level. I wish I had a bowl!

Anonymous said...

Domo arigato Voodoolily.
Very Asian inspired these days. Very delicious. I love to roast maitakes and eat them with just a sprinkle of fleur de sel. Oishii!!

Brittany said...

Hey, I have crabs!

hehe.

But really, I do have some lump crab meat to use, and this would be perfect.

How do you come up with this level of food genius?

Heather said...

Petah-chan - Do itashimashite! ^-^

Brittany - I ain't mad atcha. Soba with sesame and soy sounds pretty good to me!

Peter the Greek v.1.0 - Damn skippy!

Foodycat - Arigato gozaimashita!

Valli - This meal was tastier than the sum of its parts. :)

Amy - I always assume it's you. Some sabbaticals really yield results. :)

Emiline - Soba is delicious. I just bought some green tea soba the other day to which I'm looking forward.

Kevs - Crabs are mighty tasty arthropods!

Marc - I giggle at your suspicion of soba-fusion. (’-^*)

Mike - Arigato! It was a lot simpler than it sounds.

Zen-chan - Tsugoi oishi! I love maitake.

Brittany - Maitake smells like oyster mushroom to me, and I figured it'd taste good with sweet crab. No genius involved!

Anonymous said...

Soba wa jouzu-desu! (I think that's how you say it's good? I can't remember hardly any Japanese from college. lmfao) I am ever so jealous of your pea shoots, too. .)

Laura Paterson said...

I agree with Judy - I would love to come and see your kitchen/ garden/ pantry, you always use the most amazing ingredients...

Fancy a foodie house swap?? ;)