what i made for dinner :: soba noodles with squid meatballs

have you noticed the pace at which i'm posting food entries is slowing down? that's because i'm finding it more and more difficult to find new recipes to try out. (that's just a nice way to say, "i'm burning out on cooking.")

as i was rummaging through the fridge crisper checking out the vegetables i still have, i was somehow reminded of the many japanese cooking magazines in my collection. surely there's something in one of them i could cook for dinner tonight.

what i found in an old orange page magazine was ika dango soba, soba with squid meatballs. (unfortunately, they don't have the recipe online.)

the ika dango was easy to make, even though i had to clean out two whole squids, which was actually kinda fun. instead of mincing the squid by hand like the recipe says, i used the food processor after separating the body from the head/tentacles, cleaning out the inside of the body, and coarsly chopping the meat. the food processor works quite well actually; not only does it finely mince the meat but it whips it up so the meatballs are nice and fluffy. to the mixture i added chopped green onions, salt, and corn starch.

before cooking the meatballs i blanched fresh spinach and cooked the soba noodles (which i overcooked -- again -- what is wrong with me?!). the recipe also calls for enoki mushrooms but the stuff i had in the fridge was bad. my fault for not checking before going to the market.

as the soba is cooking i spooned little balls of the squid into simmering soba broth for a minute. when everything is done, i plated the noodles into a bowl with the squid meatballs and spinach, and poured the broth over it all. i finished off mine with shichimi togarishi.

all in all, an edible creation but i think it was a bit too salty because i didn't measure the broth-concentrate-to-water ratio correctly (yes, i cheated by using bottled mentsuyu). also, there's only so many squid meatballs you can eat before you get all squidded out. maybe i'll make this again, and maybe not. i'm kinda thinking that in warmer weather i could make cold soba and deep-fry the squid meatballs. that would by tasty, i imagine.