Monday was a holiday in Japan, National Foundation Day. This means schools were closed. Since we had an extra day for family time, I signed my son and myself up for a parent and child soba noodle making class at a community center. My son loves to cook, so he was super excited to make noodles together.
We arrived at the class eager to get started. We brought the requested items of an apron, bandana (for our hair), face masks, and a hand towel. These are often supplies brought by the participants.
The instructor gave a short speech about making soba and demonstrated the first couple steps in the process. We went to our assigned station and opened the two bags of flours - one with buckwheat flour and one with wheat flour. My son mixed the flours with his fingers while I added a small amount of water. He continued to mix and mix until the flour resembled flour again.
Once the flour was back to small particles, we added more water and combined it into a ball. I shared the responsibility in kneading the dough, but I made sure to let my son get a few good pushes in.
We let the balls rest for a few minutes as we watched the teacher demonstrate the rolling out of the dough. My son was super excited to get started rolling. He grabbed the long wooden pole and got busy pressing our ball into a flat mass. We were instructed to roll front to back, but not roll all the way to the end of the dough. Then we rotated the dough 30 degrees and rolled it more.
Once the circle had reached 30 cm (almost 12 inches), we dusted it with flour and rolled it up onto the rolling pin (which was actually a long stick). With the dough wrapped around it, we tapped it as we rolled it back and forth. We then removed the dough, rotated it 90 degrees, and did it again. I've never seen anything like it, but it magically became a square!
We thought the rolling was all done, but we weren't. We had to roll this square out super, super thin. When it was unbelievably thin, we floured it generously and folded it into quarters.
It was time for the cutting demonstration before we embarked on doing it ourselves. The knife was unlike any I had handled before. I was making my best effort of letting my son do as much as possible, but when it came to the knife, I needed to pull back the reigns. It was so big and heavy. After practicing a bit, I decided to let him give it a go. While holding onto his hands and giving him (way too many) instructions, I let him cut a few of the noodles. I lasted as long as I could before taking back the reigns. He was then in charge of wrapping the noodles into paper towels for us to bring home.
Mission complete! We successfully made soba noodles. We were super proud of ourselves.
The instructor cooked the noodles he made for us to enjoy a quick lunch of soba dipped in broth. The noodles were fantastic. Thin, chewing, nutty, and simply divine.
When we got home, my son beamed with pride as he recounted our journey to his dad. Making special memories together one meal at a time.
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*For those with celiac or gluten intolerance, it is important to read the label of the noodles as most soba noodles are made with a mixture of buckwheat and wheat.
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