February 27, 2008 | Suanne | Comments 8
Hand Made Noodle
Ming shared with us how to make noodle from scratch. She shared with us on how to make dumpling skin earlier. Hand made noodle is fresh and chewy. It does not any ‘gan sui’ taste in it compare with those store bought ones.
A bowl of hand made noodle is comfort food.
Ingredients
- all purpose flour
- cold water
Click on the link below for the instructions.
Instructions
 Ming started off with placing the flour on the counter. She made a well in the center and gradually add cold water into the well while mixing in the flour from outside to the center.Add enough water to form a dough and knead the dough until it’s smooth. Cover the dough with saran wrap and let it rest for 20 to 30 minutes.This is quite similar to making the dumpling skin except that in making the dumpling skin, she used warm water instead of cold water in making noodle. |
 Once the dough has rested, divide the dough into smaller pieces. Flatten the dough and wrap the flatten dough with a rolling pin to roll the the dough into a thin sheet. This is the traditional way of making noodle. |
 This is the thin sheet of dough being rolled out from the rolling pin. Lightly dust some flour on the dough. |
 Fold the sheet into multiple layers. |
 Use a dough cutter or cleaver to cut the multiple layers into thin strips. |
 Loosen the strips and you’ll get nice long strand of noodles. Cook the noodles in boiling water until al-dante. Nothing beats home made noodles which is made out of love.
Ming, thank you for sharing with us again. |
Looks simple enough for me to try. None of that dividing into noodle strips in the air. :) My challenge is to figure out how to adapt this recipe to my pasta machine.
Hey Ben. I lived in Shanghai for several years and used to go eat the “shou la mian” (hand pulled noodles). Does your friend or anyone else know the recipe for that and/or how to make/pull it??
Wow! I never thought that making noodles only need two ingredients! Need to try it.
Hi Suanne, I tired to make my own noodles the other day. Everything seemed all right until I cooked them – the first half of my noodles became horrible so I had to throw them away. When I cooked the second half, I only cooked them for a minute or two and picked them up, rinsed them with cold water. However, they were still sticked together and I had to unstick them before I stir-fry them. I wonder, have I done something not right?
Hi Windy, the fresh made noodle does not need to be cooked too long unlike those dried pasta. Your first batch was likely overcooked. To prevent the noodle from sticking, you have to gently stir while boiling and a large pot of water will help too. Hand made noodle tends to have more starch as you have to dust them with flour while cutting them into strips.
After cooking, perhaps you can rinse them in running cold water to wash off the excess starch (we call this ‘gor larng hor’ in Cantonese). In addition, you can drizzle a little oil on the noodle and toss them after you strain the noodle to prevent them from sticking.
I hope the few pointers above help.
When cooking any type of noodles/pasta whether raw or dry, always use the biggest stock pot you have, with LOTS of water (apparently cold tap water is best, don’t use hot tap water). Then add lots of salt (as if you are making a brine solution) but only AFTER the water comes to full rolling boil.
Darn I forgot to say, go buy one of those Chinese large noodle scooper thingey (T&T, Chinatown, Ming Wo, etc). They help you stir the noodles (or anything delicate you boil) gently in the water and makes it a cinch to scoop and drain the water.
Thanks for the advice. I’ll try again.