Basic Tsuyu Recipe for Somen or Soba

Tsuyu can be used for a dipping sauce for cold soba (zaru-soba) or somen noodles, and as an ingredient in many other Japanese dishes.  For using as a basic dipping sauce for zaru soba or somen, dilute 1 part tsuyu to 3 parts water.

• 1 cup shoyu (Japanese soy sauce)
• 3/4 cup mirin
• 1/3 cup water
• katsuo-bushi (3g-10g, depending on your budget)
• about 3cm of konbu (if you have it. Rinse salt off first)

1. Place mirin, water, katsuo-bushi and konbu in a saucepan and bring to boil.  Gently simmer for 5 min or so to evaporate the alcohol.
2. Add shoyu and simmer 1 more minute.
3. Allow to cool completely.  This time allows the katsuobushi flavour to steep into the tsuyu.
4. Pour through a sieve into a bottle and refrigerate.  Keeps for months.

• The water is to make the concentration similar to shop-bought tsuyu, however you don't really need to add it, if you want to save fridge space.  Just remember when using that it will be more concentrated.  
• Shop-bought tsuyu also contains sugar, so if you prefer sweeter tsuyu, you can add 1 Tbsp sugar to step 1.

Somen