Kasahara-Style Tempura Soba (New Year's Toshikoshi Soba)

Put the water, dashi kombu, thick-shaved katsuobushi, and the niboshi with heads and bellies removed into a pot, and heat everything together from cold water. If you have time, soaking the kombu and niboshi in water overnight draws out even more dashi.

Once it comes to a boil, lower the heat and simmer gently for about 15 minutes, leaving the kombu in.

While the dashi simmers, prepare the garnishes. Cut the naganegi, remove the core, julienne only the white part, briefly rinse it in water while rubbing, then drain in a colander and squeeze out the moisture to make sarashi negi.

Roughly cut the mitsuba into about 2cm lengths. Leaving the leaf parts intact looks nicer. Remove the kamaboko from its board using the back of the knife and slice as much as you want to eat. Have the yuzu peel ready as well.

Peel the shrimp, cut the tip of the tail at an angle, and squeeze out the water inside. Cut into the back at an angle to butterfly it, and remove the vein.

Sprinkle the shrimp with 2 pinches of potato starch, 1 pinch of salt, and a little sake, rub and wash, then rinse thoroughly with water. Pat completely dry.

Make about 5 cuts into the belly side of the shrimp, about halfway deep, then press with your hands to snap and break the fibers, straightening the shrimp out.

Make the batter. Add refrigerator-chilled ice water to the egg yolk and mix well, then add the chilled cake flour. Stirring in circles develops gluten, so use a chopping motion and stop while a little floury texture remains. Lightly dust the shrimp with cake flour as an undercoat.

Strain the dashi after simmering for 15 minutes. Squeeze firmly enough to extract all the essence.

Put 900cc of the strained dashi into a pot, add the mirin, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, and sugar, and bring to a boil. Once the alcohol from the mirin has cooked off, the kake broth is done.

Fry the shrimp in oil at 170°C. Don't touch it right after it goes in—wait until the outside firms up. Partway through, add more batter by hand and let it cling, making a soba-shop-style tempura with plenty of batter. Scoop out the tenkasu frequently and set it aside. At the same time, boil the soba in plenty of water.

Place the boiled soba in a bowl, pour over the hot kake broth, and top with the kamaboko, sarashi negi, mitsuba, and shrimp tempura. Finish by scattering the yuzu peel on top.