Every time we go to the library I always end up with a pile of food books to take home and devour. Recently I picked up a Japanese cookbook about simple Japanese home cooking and, while idly flipping through it, discovered a recipe for homemade udon. YUMMY...we love udon noodles! Hummm...but wouldn't making udon noodles be the opposite of 'simple'?
Turns out that it is really simple to make homemade udon! Who knew, amiright? And not only is it easy to make, but this homemade udon tastes SO GOOD: thick, firm and chewy, so slurp-able and freshly noodle-licious!!
Truth: I'm a wee bit addicted to these fabulous and fresh noodles...
For some reason I had always assumed that udon noodles used a special type of flour. No idea where that notion came from. Actually udon noodles only uses regular all purpose flour with a bit of starch added. And instead of water, udon noodles uses salt water! The salt is what develops the characteristic structure and chewiness of the udon.
So, easy peasy. Toss flour, starch, and salted water together and rub with fingers until all mixed up. It will be a raggedy dryish mess, just perfect.
Press that raggedy mess into a ball as best you can and then let the dough rest. The gluten in the dough will start to relax as it rests.
This next part of the recipe cracked me up! It instructs, in all seriousness, to 'knead the dough with your feet"! Ha, ha...crazy, right? Well, I looked it up and traditionally the udon is actually kneaded with the feet! Basically by stepping on the covered dough with, hopefully, very clean feet.
You can try this if you like but we decided against it. A bit too weird. I think the reason for kneading with feet is due to the fact that this a very dry dough that is rather hard, in the beginning, to knead.
So, instead of using feet, we used our hands and a rolling pin to press the dough down to form a sheet. As you can see in the photo, the dough still looks quite rough at this point.
Fold that dough sheet in four. Feels like arts and crafts time!
Again the dough must be flattened to a sheet. In the photo above you can see the method of using a rolling pin to press the dough down. It's pretty effective, as good as feet if you ask me. This folding in fours and flattening is done twice in total. You will see the texture of the dough smooth out as you proceed.
Then, the now smooth dough is gathered up a a ball, covered and allowed to rest again. Relax, gluten, relax.
After this second rest the dough is going to much easier to roll out in preparation for cutting out the noodles. And there's this special trick to rolling the dough out thin and even which is SO COOL. Like blow my mind cool!
Make sure that you dust the board and the dough with starch. Starch prevents the dough from sticking to itself or the board. Then, as you roll the dough sheet bigger and bigger, start rolling the dough onto itself, i.e. wrapped around the rolling pin, as in the photo. The starch prevents sticking and you'll see the dough roll out thinner and thinner but in a wonderfully even way. Pure magic!
Once your dough is around 1/8 inch thickness you're ready to cut the noodles. Fold the dough into thirds and use a knife to slice the noodles out. Omgosh, don't these udon noodles look sexy!
Toss cut noodles into a bowl with some starch to prevent them sticking to each other. Your homemade udon noodles are done!
At this point you can cook your freshly homemade udon noodles right away or you could portion out and store the noodles in either fridge or freezer for later use.
To cook the udon noodles just boil up a big pot of water and add the noodles. No need to add salt to the water cuz the udon is salted already. When the noodles are al dente (take a bite and check if translucent all the way through) remove from water and it's ready to serve.
You're now ready to add your homemade udon noodles to whatever dish you have decided to make. For example, to celebrate our homemade udon noodles, we made a most yummilicious bowl of seafood udon! Shrimp, clams, tofu, soft boiled soy infused eggs over chewy and comforting udon noodles, what a total noodle-y feast! We'll write up that recipe soon, but, heck, you don't need to get that fancy. Udon noodles go with everything, that's their charm! You can even stir fry with udon, check out our Stir Fry Beef Udon Noodles. Enjoy the noodle-liciousness!
Homemade Udon Noodles Recipe
(adapted from recipe in Simply Japanese) (4 servings)
Prep time: 30 mins Rest time: 2 1/2 hrs Cook time: 12 mins
Ingredients:
- 4 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 1/3 cup all purpose flour, 350g
- 1/3 cup corn starch (or potato starch), 50g
- extra corn starch for rolling
Directions:
Prepare dough: Add salt to water and stir to dissolve. Add flour and starch to bowl and whisk to mix. Add the water bit by bit while mixing with your fingers until a raggedly dough is formed. Press the dough into a ball, cover and let rest for 1/2 hour.
Knead dough: Put dough on working surface. Use hands and rolling pin to press the dough into a sheet. Fold into fours. Press into sheet again, fold in fours and press out into a sheet one last time.
Fold sheet of dough towards center to form a smooth ball, cover and let rest for 2 hours.
Roll out noodles: Lightly dust working surface and surface of dough with cornstarch. Roll the dough out into a rectangle, dusting the dough as needed if sticky. As the size of the dough sheet gets bigger start rolling the dough onto itself, i.e. wrap the dough around the rolling pin as you roll. This method will allow for thin and even rolling. Just remember to dust the dough with starch as you roll if needed. Keep rolling until the dough is 1/8 inch thick.
Cut the noodles: Fold dough into thirds. Slice out noodles approx 1/8 inch thick. To prevent noodles from sticking together add cut noodles into a bowl with some starch and toss to coat.
Cook noodles: Boil a large pot of water. When the water boils add udon and cook for approx 12 mins or until al dente. Test by biting a noodle to check if center is translucent. Remove from water and rinse to remove starch. Add cooked noodles to noodle bowl for soup noodles or to a hot wok if stir frying.
Storage: Store the noodles in air tight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. For longer storage, portion the noodles into serving sizes and then freeze until hard. When hard put into ziplock to keep for up to 2 months. Enjoy!
Noodle-licious at The Hong Kong Cookery:
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