TAs temps edged upward this past week, I began thinking about cold noodle dishes to counter the heat. One of our favorite ramen joints in San Jose features a summer noodle salad that the hubster loves. This prompted me to think it was time to add a cold ramen dish to my repertoire.  I perused one of my favorite sites, Just One Cookbook, and found a classic Japanese cold ramen dish, Hiyashi Chuka.  Bingo, I was off to the races.  At first glance, it seemed very similar to my Somen Salad.  The dressing has soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and rice vinegar, for instance.  A big difference is Hiyashi Chuka starts with a thicker, more substantial ramen noodle.

Summer Ramence

The dish is eye-candy, the noodles are hidden by a colorful palette of toppings including julienned pale green cucumbers, orange-tinged crab leg, slivers of green onions, pink honey ham and shreds of fried egg.  Cold noodle salads like this refreshing and delicious Hiyashi Chuka are perfect for summer potlucks, picnics and pool parties.  I hope you will add it to your summer rotation.

The Skinny on Noods

Both fresh or dried noodles work in this dish.  I like using fresh ramen or lo mein. If you can get a hold of ramen noodles by Sun Co. from Hawaii, get it. This brand supplies the bulk of ramen houses in the US. and has a really nice chew or consistency.  In a pinch, you could use linguine or spaghetti but my first choice would be an Asian noodle. If you are gluten-free, rice or yam noodles would be a good substitute.  Confused about the multitude of Asian noodles out there? Here is a great Asian noodle primer from Serious Eats.

Dressing It Up

The dressing is on the sweet side so I would start with two tablespoons of sugar, taste and add more if desired.  You can use Ponzu, a citrus soy sauce, instead of soy sauce. Toppings can be ANYTHING you like or have on hand.  Keep in mind you want the play between sweet and salty, crunchy and soft. I like cucumbers, honey ham, imitation crab, egg, corn, and tomatoes. Don’t like imitation crab?  Use bay shrimp or splurge on real crab.  You can substitute honey turkey, shredded chicken (leftover soy sauce chicken would work really well) or char sir (bbq pork) for the ham. I leave out the lettuce sometimes or substitute shredded cabbage.  I love a good sprinkling of chopped scallions and cilantro.  Oishii!

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HIYASHI CHUKA (COLD RAMEN)

A delicious, refreshing cold noodle salad that is perfect for summer!

Course Main Course, Salad

Cuisine Asian

Keyword japanese, Noodle, Ramen, Salad, sesame

Prep Time 45 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Servings 8 Servings

Ingredients

Dressing

• 6 Tbsp soy sauce Any all purpose soy like Kikkoman will work, or substitute half with Ponzu for a hint of citrus
• 4 Tbsp sugar Adjust to taste! Start with 2 tablespoons
• 3 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 2 Tbsp sesame oil
• 2 Tbsp water
• 1 Tbsp white sesame seeds roasted/toasted
• ¼ tsp ginger grated
• ½-1 tsp la-yu, optional Japanese chili oil

Egg crepe, shredded

• 2 large eggs beaten
• 2 tsp sugar
• ¼ tsp salt kosher or sea salt; use half if using table salt
• neutral flavor oil vegetable, canola, etc

Toppings

• 1/4-1/2 pound Bay shrimp
• 1 Persian/Japanese cucumbers or 1/3 English cucumber, julienned
• 1 iceberg lettuce shredded, or use romaine lettuce
• ½ Tomato cut into wedges, or cherry tomatoes quartered
• 3-4 slices Honey Ham Sub bbq pork, or honey turkey, Canadian bacon, julienned
• 4-6 imitation crab meat kanikam or splurge and use real crab, or fish cake, shredded or julienned
• 1/2 cup Kaiware radish sprouts or green onions, chopped

Other toppings

• Poached chicken or leftover soy sauce chicken shredded, in place of ham
• Julienned carrots
• dried wakame seaweed
• shredded nori seaweed kizami nori

Noodles

• 2 package fresh ramen noodles 12 ounces each substitute dry ramen noodles, or Lo-mien

Garnish

• 1 Tbsp white sesame seeds roasted/toasted
• Japanese karashi hot mustard optional
• pickled red ginger beni shoga or kizami beni shoga, optional

Instructions

• Combine dressing ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk together. Set aside or if made in advance, store in fridge.
• For eggs, make thin egg crepes and cut it into thin strips. Heat oil in non-stick pan over medium heat. Pour the egg mixture into the pan, tilt & swirl pan to distribute egg. Like making a crepe. Cook until set and flip egg over. You will have a few brown spots, but should be predominantly yellow. Slide crepe onto a plate and reserve. When it is cool enough you can roll the egg crepe up and cut it into thin strips.
• You can use large prawns if you like, but I like using bay shrimp which generally come precooked. Easy peasy.
• Cut all the topping ingredients as directed.
• For the noodles, bring a pot of water to a boil and add the noodles. Separate the noodles before dropping into water. Cook according to package directions. Drain the water and rinse the noodles to remove starch. Allow noodles to cool completely. Chill in fridge if desire. Place noodles in a serving bowl and mix half of dressing into noodles.
• Place all the toppings and pour the remaining dressing on salad before serving. Serve with karashi hot mustard and pickled ginger on the side, if desired. Refer to pics, ingredients are usually arranged in a radial pattern on top of the noodles.