Let’s make mentaiko noodles!

What’s mentaiko?

Mentaiko Noodles tl;dr

  • Mentaiko is salted pollock roe which is both savory and sweet
  • Mentaiko is bought within an easily cut thin walled sack (i should have taken pictures)
  • Mentaiko is popularly used in many Japanese dishes

From time to time, Nadia will want a dish that I have no clue about. Fortunately for me, the internet is rife with people who have either written about or videotaped themselves making any dish under the sun made with an equal number of different ways to make said dish.

Making a dish that I’m unfamiliar with, I will scour the net and put together a hodge podge list of ingredients and steps that I think are achievable with what I have on hand and falls in line with my audience’s tastes. That being said, that this mentaiko noodle dish came together relatively simply and quickly.

I always like to prep all my ingredients  so when come time to cook and assemble, it’s fast and easy!

I buy my mentaiko at the Japanese grocery store (your mileage may vary). Here, they come in a package containing 2 sacks. Removing the eggs sounded difficult to me, but it eventually turned out ok.

  • Take the sacks out of their container
  • Place them on the cutting board
  • Using a knife, carefully slide the cutting edge over the sack, just barely cutting the sack skin
  • Then with the skin cut, open the sack flat onto the cutting board
  • Using a spoon, I carefully scrape all the eggs away from the skin

I know that I personally will try to make things first without fully understanding the recipe. Look over my steps real quick before you move forward, just so that you are familiar with it.

Ingredients

  1. 2 Tablespoon Kosher/sea salt  OR 1 Tablespoon table salt
  2. 8 oz Spaghetti noodles
  3. 2 Sacks salted pollack roe or cod roe – I buy them in a container of 2 sacks, spicy if available
  4. 2 Tablespoon Milk
  5. 2 Tablespoon Heavy cream OR 2 Tablespoon Blended silky tofu
  6. 2 Tablespoon Unsalted butter (melted)
  7. 1 Tablespoon Soy sauce
  8. Ground Black pepper – Whatever you have, but freshly ground pepper if you have it

Toppings – I don’t put a number because a little goes a long way, but it’s up to you!

  1. A Few Shiso leaves
  2. A Few Dried seaweed

How to Make It

For the Noodles

  1. Put the salt into a pot of water
  2. Bring the water to a boil
  3. Cook your spaghetti noodles according to the packages instructions
    1. While this is cooking, prep the sauce and toppings* (just below)
  4. Remove the noodles from the water and into your serving bowl of sauce OR set aside till the sauce is ready
    1. Do not rinse in cold water

For the Sauce – *While the noodles are cooking…

  1. Cut the butter into smaller chunks
  2. Remove the roe from their sacks, discard the empty sacks
  3. Combine in your serving bowl the:
    1. 2 Tablespoon Milk
    2. 2 Tablespoon Heavy cream
      1. If you’re using blended silky tofu, be sure to use quickly because it can set up back into a cube
    3. 1 Tablespoon Soy sauce
    4. Ground Black pepper
    5. Roe
    6. And cut butter

For the Toppings – If you want them…

  1. Slice up the Shiso leaves into thin strips
  2. I used a pair of scissors to cut the Dried seaweed into thin strips

Putting It All Together

  1. You have all you ingredients ready
  2. Pull your cooked noodles out of the water
  3. Place the cooked noodles into your serving bowl of sauce
  4. Toss the noodles in the sauce, coating all the noodles

Notes

Lately I’ve been trying to be healthier or I was too lazy to look for ingredients so I made do with alternatives.

As with all our recipes, they are very flexible to your tastes, your available ingredients, to your equipment. It’s your recipe now and you’re going to eat it, so You do You!

 

What changes did you make to the Mentaiko Recipe?

Making Japanese Mentaiko Noodles at Home

by May 4, 2020

Let’s make mentaiko noodles!

What’s mentaiko?

Mentaiko Noodles tl;dr

  • Mentaiko is salted pollock roe which is both savory and sweet
  • Mentaiko is bought within an easily cut thin walled sack (i should have taken pictures)
  • Mentaiko is popularly used in many Japanese dishes

From time to time, Nadia will want a dish that I have no clue about. Fortunately for me, the internet is rife with people who have either written about or videotaped themselves making any dish under the sun made with an equal number of different ways to make said dish.

Making a dish that I’m unfamiliar with, I will scour the net and put together a hodge podge list of ingredients and steps that I think are achievable with what I have on hand and falls in line with my audience’s tastes. That being said, that this mentaiko noodle dish came together relatively simply and quickly.

I always like to prep all my ingredients  so when come time to cook and assemble, it’s fast and easy!

About Mentaiko

I buy my mentaiko at the Japanese grocery store (your mileage may vary). Here, they come in a package containing 2 sacks. Removing the eggs sounded difficult to me, but it eventually turned out ok.

  • Take the sacks out of their container
  • Place them on the cutting board
  • Using a knife, carefully slide the cutting edge over the sack, just barely cutting the sack skin
  • Then with the skin cut, open the sack flat onto the cutting board
  • Using a spoon, I carefully scrape all the eggs away from the skin

About Heavy Cream

I’ve been trying to be more healthy lately, and I’m too lazy to buy expensive heavy cream out here in Asia… So I’ve found that if I blend up silken tofu, or the softest one that you can find, that it can be a suitable texture replacement for heavy cream.

While it won’t whip up into a delightful whipped cream topping, I find that it does well in sauces.

If you do use this alternative, be sure to use quickly because I let it sit for a while before eating and found that the sauce attempted to congeal. When I started to serve it, the sauce looked a little like chunky cottage cheese versus being a smooth sauce.

About This Recipe

I know that I personally will try to make things first without fully understanding the recipe. As with all my recipes, or any recipe for that matter, please look over my steps real quick before moving forward.

This is just so that you are familiar with it and aren’t surprised by anything.

Ingredients

  1. 2 Tablespoon Kosher/sea salt  OR 1 Tablespoon table salt
  2. 8 oz Spaghetti noodles
  3. 2 Sacks salted pollack roe or cod roe – I buy them in a container of 2 sacks, spicy if available
  4. 2 Tablespoon Milk
  5. 2 Tablespoon Heavy cream OR 2 Tablespoon Blended silken tofu
  6. 2 Tablespoon Unsalted butter (melted)
  7. 1 Tablespoon Soy sauce
  8. Ground Black pepper to Taste- Whatever you have, but freshly ground pepper if you have it
    1. I like a lot of pepper, but the amount is up to you

Toppings – I don’t put a number because a little goes a long way, but it’s up to you!

  1. A Few Shiso leaves
  2. A Few Dried seaweed

How to Make It

For the Noodles

  1. Put the salt into a pot of water
  2. Bring the water to a boil
  3. Cook your spaghetti noodles according to the packages instructions
    1. While this is cooking, prep the sauce and toppings* (just below)
  4. Remove the noodles from the water and into your serving bowl of sauce OR set aside till the sauce is ready
    1. Do not rinse in cold water

For the Sauce – *While the noodles are cooking…

  1. Cut the butter into smaller chunks
  2. Remove the roe from their sacks, discard the empty sacks
  3. Combine in your serving bowl the:
    1. 2 Tablespoon Milk
    2. 2 Tablespoon Blended silken tofu OR Heavy cream
      1. If you’re using blended silken tofu, be sure to use quickly because it can congeal if left alone
    3. 1 Tablespoon Soy sauce
    4. Healthy amount Ground Black pepper
    5. Roe
    6. And cut butter

For the Toppings – If you want them…

  1. Slice up the Shiso leaves into thin strips
  2. I used a pair of scissors to cut the Dried seaweed into thin strips

Putting It All Together

  1. You have all you ingredients ready
  2. Pull your cooked noodles out of the water
  3. Place the cooked noodles into your serving bowl of sauce
  4. Toss the noodles in the sauce, coating all the noodles
  5. Put as much of the toppings as you like

Plating

  1. I like to plate a bowl by taking a fork a getting a healthy twist of noodles
  2. Then placing the noodles onto a dish
  3. Followed up by sprinkling a lot of the toppings over it

Notes

Lately I’ve been trying to be healthier or I was too lazy to look for ingredients so I made do with alternatives.

As with all our recipes, they are very flexible to your tastes, your available ingredients, to your equipment. It’s your recipe now and you’re going to eat it, so You do You!

 

What changes did you make to the Mentaiko Recipe?

You're going to eat, you might as well eat something tasty.
 
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