Cold noodles

The weather is crazy these days!  On Saturday and Sunday, we saw downpours and temperatures of 70-76°F (21-24°C).  But today, the sun came out and so did the heat.  We had a high of 96°F (36°C)!!!

I stayed inside most of the morning, but in the afternoon, my son wanted to go to the park.  Knowing that the rain was going to come back, I decided to take him even though I knew I would be a sweaty mess.  Luckily, there was a strong breeze and lots of shade at the park, which made it actually pretty tolerable.

However, when I got home,  I still needed to make dinner.  The thought of standing over a hot stove or warming up the house by using the oven really did not appeal to me.  So I enlisted my husband to help me make hiyashichuka (he-ya-she-chew-ka) also known as cold noodles or cold ramen.  

My husband did all the hard work by boiling the noodles and cooking eggs into crepe-thin layers.  After he cooked the noodles, he rinsed them in cold water and let them sit for a couple minutes in some ice water.  While they were chilling, he stacked up all the egg-crepes and cut them into thin strips.

I gathered the cold ingredients and cut them into match sticks.  While only ham, egg, cucumber, and tomatoes are traditional, I also cut up kamaboko (fish cake), red bell pepper, and egoma (sesame leaves).

Our son was eager to help, so he was tasked with assembling the plates.  He first placed a mound of noodles on each place.  Then he put a small pile of each of the cut ingredients on top in a colorful pattern.

Typically we make our own sauce, but today we just used the packets from the noodle package because I bought an actual hiyashichuka set.  We simply spoon the sauce on top.

In less than 15 minutes, dinner was served.  It was refreshing and cool.  Just what I wanted to enjoy on such a hot day.

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Hiyashichuka

Noodles:

3 servings fresh ramen noodles (6 oz fresh noodles per person)

Toppings (everything cut into matchsticks):

1 cucumber

3-4 slices ham

6-9 cherry tomatoes, halved

2 eggs with a small amount of dashi powder

or other ingredients as desired (like egoma or shiso, sautéed bean sprouts, and microgreens)

Dressing:

6 tbsp. soy sauce

3 tbsp. sugar

2 tbsp. rice vinegar

1 tbsp. lemon juice

2 tbsp. sesame oil

1 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds

1 tsp la-yu (Japanese chili oil), optional

1. Gather all the ingredients.
   
2. Combine all the noodle dressing ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk all together. Keep it chilled in the refrigerator.
   
3. For eggs, you make thin egg crepe. Whisk together the eggs and dashi powder. Heat the oil in the pan over medium heat. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and cook on both sides. Cool the crepe and slice into very thin strips.
   
4. Cut all the topping ingredients.
   
5. For the noodles, bring a pot of water to a boil and add the noodles. Cook according to package directions. Drain the water and rinse the noodles to remove starch. Put the rinsed noodles into a bowl of ice water to cool. Drain completely and divide the noodles on plates/bowls.
   
6. Place all the toppings and pour the dressing on top before serving.