Soup

While the underlying dashi is the same, udon broth is not as strongly flavored as soba broth because these wheat flour noodles absorb liquid easier than do the hard buckwheat of soba. You can freeze this broth for up to a month or keep in the refrigerator for up to a week and use for a number of dishes, which is what we do at my home because my family is crazy for udon!

Tempura soba is a delicious and satisfying lunchtime favorite in Japan, served both at home and in restaurants across the country. Tempura has a long history in the country. The cooking method was introduced by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century and has been refined into a uniquely Japanese food ever since. Make sure you eat this dish quickly, while the soba is still steaming and the tempura is hot and crispy. The way we enjoy this dish in Japan is to dip the tempura into the soba broth as we eat it. This serves two purposes: First, the broth flavors the tempura, acting as a dipping sauce. And second, the tempura returns the favor, adding richness to the broth while its crumbs add texture. So we have both foods working together to create an irresistible whole!

Zucchini blossoms are an ingredient that always catches my eye in the early summertime, especially at the farmers’ markets here in my hometown of Chicago. They inspired me to come up with this recipe, my own interpretation of the classic stuffed zucchini blossoms of both Italian and Japanese cuisines. In this dish, I stuff the flowers with onion and shrimp, then fry them as tempura, a combination of flavors and textures that complements the toothsome soba.

This dish packs flavor with history. Take the word nanban, which refers to foreign influence in Japanese cooking. But duck is native to Japan, so what’s so foreign here? Back in the seventh century, the emperor issued a decree forbidding meat, and the country followed a Buddhist diet of fish and vegetables for more than a thousand years. Once Japanese started eating meat again in the nineteenth century, they called dishes like duck soba nanban—duck is something a foreigner would eat. It’s a convention that continues to this day.

Kaki-age is a kind of tempura where a variety of ingredients are mixed with batter and deep-fried. The result is a delicious tempura patty that is paired here with soba and hot broth for a wonderful play of flavors and textures. You’ll experience a progression of tastes as you enjoy this dish: a crispy and crunchy patty at first, then the broth infusing it more and more, all the while, the tasty tempura crumbs enhancing the broth.

You can whip up these fast and easy noodles in 15 minutes. They’re a typical lunchtime dish in Japan, and the hot soba and broth are especially comforting on a frigid winter day. If you have any leftover chicken, pork, shrimp, or grilled fish in the refrigerator, you can easily add them to this dish, if you’d like. Be sure to shred the chicken or pork. You can also try this soba with cubed firm tofu, which complements the garnishes nicely.

Tsukumen means, literally, “dipping ramen,” and it’s a dish that’s taken Japan by storm. When I was growing up, we didn’t eat ramen this way, but now you can find this dish offered in shops across the country. It’s not hard to understand why—eating ramen in this deconstructed way gives you a chance to enjoy the noodle and each of the garnishes on its own, dipped in the flavorful broth. This dish is also a delicious play between cold ramen and hot broth. Think of it as noodle nouvelle cuisine! Naruto has a signature spiral swirl, and interestingly enough, it’s an ingredient used almost exclusively for ramen (and on rare occasions, udon).

Spice alert: this ramen is guaranteed to make you sweat. These snappy noodles are very popular in Japan, even in the summer—some people, I guess, don’t find our sultry and humid hot season sticky enough! I, for one, prefer this ramen in the winter, because its rich pork and miso broth is warm and comforting.

This is a classic ramen dish that was one of my favorites when I was growing up, but today it’s not as popular as it used to be in Japan. That’s a shame, because there’s so much to love about this dish, especially the play between the sweetness of the crab and the crunchiness of the water chestnuts, and the dramatic presentation of a big chunk of omelet sitting atop the noodles. This dish is finished with two kinds of broth, one to serve as the soup, the other to add a bit of sheen as a glaze. I hope you love this ramen as much as I do.

In this hearty ramen, stir-fried vegetables are combined with seafood and pork to create a rich, filling dish with lots of flavors and textures. When I was growing up, this was one of my favorite foods after baseball practice—the noodles refueled me quickly, and deliciously, and helped me stave off hunger until dinnertime. These days, it’s the perfect antidote to a gray, frigid winter day.

Like Miso Ramen (page 19), Shio Ramen hails from the northern Japanese city of Sapporo, and is a perfect antidote to a frigid winter day. Shio means “salt” in Japanese, and indeed, the clear broth has an appealing sea-salt flavor. These noodles are a relatively late addition to the ramen lineup, but they’re now popular across Japan. This is the classic recipe, which is loaded with fresh vegetables.

This is Japan’s classic ramen, the one I crave most when I want to go back to the basics. Also known as “Tokyo-style” ramen, it’s the way ramen was originally prepared after it was adopted from Chinese cooking. Native to, yes, Tokyo, it’s always served with the same venerable toppings, which I include in the recipe below.

My love affair with mushrooms started when I was a kid, when I would go wild-mushroom hunting with my father in the forests that surrounded my hometown of Mito. I still love their earthy, nutty taste, and the different textures found in different varieties. In fact, when you dine at my restaurant, you’ll see I use them in everything from appetizers to main courses. Mushroom ramen isn’t a dish you’ll typically see in a Japanese ramen shop, but I think the two ingredients work perfectly, especially accented with shungiku, which are tangy chrysanthemum leaves.

This ramen is a wintertime standard in Japan, and no wonder: it hails from the city of Sapporo in the far northern island of Hokkaido (home of the eponymous beer), a part of the country that’s very frigid and snowy in the winter. The hearty pork and miso-flavored broth in this dish is the perfect warm-up for even the chilliest day. Miso ramen is a relative newcomer to the noodle scene, becoming popular only since the mid-sixties. But corn, a surprising ingredient for a Japanese dish, has been grown in Hokkaido since the nineteenth century.

This soup is decidedly uptown and was inspired by one I had at the Ritz-Carlton dining room in Atlanta. It’s a perfect marriage of Southern ingredients and French techniques that clearly states, bon appétit, y’all! I like to serve it in mason jars or French glass yogurt cups so you can see the layering.

In the summer, we’d sit on the porch shelling the black-eyed peas that Dede had picked that morning. The purple hulls dyed our fingers smoky violet. I’ve used frozen black-eyed peas to prepare this soup, but don’t use canned, as they are too soft. If using frozen peas, reduce the cooking time according to the package instructions or until the peas are tender. Note that the dried peas must soak overnight or have a quick soak. Don’t skip the essential step of simmering the ham hocks in the chicken stock. The flavor and aroma are what makes this soup extraordinary.

Since this soup is the liquid version of a baked potato, calories and all, you can use low-fat milk with no detrimental effect on flavor, if it gives you any comfort. But don’t do anything silly, like use low-fat cheese, which melts poorly and tastes worse. It’s important to add the cheese a little at a time, so it incorporates and doesn’t become an oily mess.

Chowders are thick soups containing fish or shellfish and vegetables such as potatoes and onions in a milk or tomato base. People most often associate these hearty soups with cold New England winters, but the Gulf of Mexico also has a history with them. Poor people living on the coast were able to supplement a diet of salted, preserved meat and inexpensive potatoes with seafood they caught or harvested. Meme would prepare this soup in the fall more often, using fatback for salt and flavor instead of bacon. Both meats produce a smoky, salty layer of flavor that is complemented by the sweet oysters. Use canola oil if you prefer a lighter, healthier version.

Like many recipes of humble country origins, there is no carved-in-stone recipe for minestrone, the iconic Italian vegetable soup. Mamas from both sides of the Atlantic have used fresh seasonal vegetables with a bit of hambone or cheese rind to prepare soulful, satisfying soups. We’ve long known that this combination tastes good. Now we have a name for why it does: umami. The Japanese term umami is now familiar to culinary professionals, chefs, and informed foodies, yet Asian cooks have appreciated the taste for centuries. It is the fifth taste after sour, salty, bitter, and sweet. Scientifically, umami is the distinctive flavor of amino acids, which are the building blocks of protein. Think about classic Caesar salad dressing, a combination of egg protein and salted anchovies. Or old-fashioned greens simmered with ham. Or this soup, in which the rind of the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese complements the vegetables in the tomato broth.

Gazpacho is essentially a liquid salad. It’s best prepared at the height of summer, using fresh, local ingredients—I always use Georgia-grown vegetables when I make this gazpacho. The key is to use the proper amount of salt to draw out the moisture and flavor of the vegetables. There is nothing so simple, yet so vitally essential to cooking, as salt. Without salt even the most elaborate dish would be lifeless and dull. I remember staring incredulously as my chef in culinary school would toss what seemed to be handfuls of salt into food. Now I giggle when my students stare at me when I do the same!