Well, I've been trying to find some time to make my own soba ever since I found buckwheat flour at the Bulk Barn. I have to say, it was a semi success. On one hand it was edible, on the other hand, it depends on your definition of the word edible. First, I had major issues finding a good recipe. Some didn't appear authentic, one even called for eggs. This sent off red flags, as it seemed like they were just using the method for italian pasta dough and substituting the flour. I finally found one that seemed okay, however, there were some issues. For example, what does it mean to work the dough until it reaches the smoothness of "a baby's ear lobe"? I started in anyways, and quickly ran into a problem. I didn't seem to have enough wheat flour (as buckwheat lacks gluten, wheat flour is needed to hold the noodles together, or so I read). Oh well, too late. Then, as I started mixing, I found the instructions to keep my fingers down in slicing motions a bit harder to follow than I expected, as the water was quickly absorbed and nothing like dough had formed yet. I added more water and hoped for the best. During this, the words "YOUTUBE" came to mind. I popped on quickly and found an instructional video, while cursing myself for not having thought of this earlier. Well, the noodles came out, sort of. A bit crumbly (very short noodles, as the strands would break along the folds), and definately full of fiber (perhaps will get the finer buckwheat flour if I try it again), but at least the flavour wasn't too bad. And dispite the coarse flour, the noodles were still somehow "smoother" than the dried ones, or so I'm telling myself. Now that I look at the picture of the fruits of my morning's labour, I can't help but think, this picture looks a lot like the one of the 2000 year old bowl of noodles they found in China I saw on the National Geographic site...is that good or bad?
