Shinshu-style steamed tilefish with tea soba, shredded scallion, wasabi, and thickened seasoned dashi sauce

Shinshū-mushi is a dish in which white fish is wrapped in soba and steamed. Named after Shinshū (present-day Nagano), a region famous for soba, it is called 'Shinshū-mushi' or 'Shinano-mushi.' Fresh new-crop soba comes into season from late October to early November, so it's just the right time of year. This time, we varied our use of soba by both using the soba noodles themselves and using soba flour. Also, since soba tastes best with a dashi made with dark soy sauce, we made the sauce using both light soy sauce and dark soy sauce.

Boiling the soba a little firmer than usual is because there's a later process of steaming it to finish. What we're using here is Ikejima Foods' pre-boiled tea soba, which is nice because it doesn't get soggy even after time passes. Ordinary soba would of course be delicious too, but this time we used green tea soba, whose color sets off the red of the tilefish, giving thought to the color scheme as well.

Blanch the tilefish fillet briefly, and rinse it in sake-and-salt water.

Boil the tea soba a little firmer than usual, rinse it in cold water, and drain.

Wrap the tea soba in the tilefish that has been butterflied open, place it in a vessel, and steam it in a steamer.

Pour over the thickened seasoned dashi sauce, and garnish with shredded white scallion and wasabi.