A Noodle Experience
In this current situation, as scary, sad, devastating and depressing as it is, it has given an opportunity for many to learn and experience different sides of life, to slow down, to change, to re-prioritize.
Personally, I have had the opportunity to experiment in recipes that I have always been curious about but previously had no time, energy or mood to try, until now.
One of the things I have in my bucket list to try making was noodles, flat noodles specifically, which is pretty much similar to pasta making except pasta has more eggs and olive oil which flat noodles don't. I remembered how my grandma used to make them although I couldn't remember exactly her recipe.
I searched around for a recipe and found many. Some had more cups of flour, some had less, some had more eggs, some less, some added oil, some without. The recipes were different but similar. In the end, I decided to give this mix a try:
2 cups of flour
1 tsp of sea salt
1 medium size egg
I mixed the ingredients together into a messy, sticky dough:
and started kneading...
and kneading...
We basically need to knead until the dough is no longer sticky. Once the dough stopped sticking to the fingers, it is about ready.
After about 10 minutes, the dough becomes elastic to touch.
Some sites recommended to throw the dough onto the bowl to make it easier to knead. I tried that and it does work :)
The whole kneading process was quite a workout but the result was satisfying once you get a smooth elastic dough.
Then it was time to rest the dough. I divided it into 2 balls and covered them with cling wrap, leaving them for about an hour or two.
After the dough was well rested, it was time to roll it flat. The dough, after leaving for an hour or two, becomes more elastic.
I dusted flour all over the rolling pin and the board so that the dough doesn't stick to any of the surface. I started rolling the dough flat until it is about 0.5cm thick before folding it and repeated the process.
I read a Gordon Ramsey Masterclass recipe for pasta dough which said to repeat the cranking of the dough process 10 times. I figured since this flat noodle is similar to pasta, we (I got help from the master of the house :) did the same. We repeated the process of rolling out the dough and folding it for 10 times.
Once that was completed, I rolled the dough out one last time to about 0.2-0.3cm, scattered flour all over front and back of the dough:
..and folded the dough like a paper fan:
I took the knife and started slicing the dough...
... about 1cm in width:
At this stage, if the dough is too thin or if it is not floured enough, the noodle folds would stick...
... and we won't be able to pull them out apart into strips like this:
Then, we started to boil our soup broth in a pot (prepared beforehand with any ingredient of our choice - I used anchovies, garlic and ginger stock as my soup base which has been preboiled for an hour) and in another pot, we prepared to boil water to cook the flat noodles before adding them into the soup, pretty much like how we prepare pasta:
I precooked the noodle:
...before transferring them into the soup to cook:
I added some spinach leaves into the soup too:
Once they are cooked, they will sort of float.
Then, serve with condiment such as fried onion and mushrooms:
I like my noodle El-dente, so I didn't boil them that long. If you like your noodles soft, you can boil them longer.
I tried making this twice. The first time, I flattened the dough too much and did not dust enough flour before I folded the dough to cut. Half the noodle cut was a mess and were stuck to each other.
But in the second time, I forgot that the noodles would expand during cooking. It would have been better to cut them maybe to 0.5cm in width and dust more flour so that they don't stick to each other. I have to say that the second time turned out much better but a third time would be better than the second :)
#stayhome #staywell #staysafe #stayhealthy
