Going noodle-crazy here at The Hong Kong Cookery! After making homemade udon, and having so much fun, we decided to march right on and try making ramen at home! Turns out that it's not hard to make at all and homemade ramen is sooo good!!
The ramen dough is pretty simple. To make the dough you must have flour, of course, and to that is added salt, starch and baking soda, all of which will help the noodles achieve the signature chewy mouth feel of good ramen.
What exactly do these extra ingredients do? Well, the salt tightens the gluten in the flour, making the noodles firmer. The starch gelatinizes when the noodle cooks, creating more chew and elasticity. The baking soda is alkaline and creates the characteristic yellow tinge and bouncy, chewy texture of proper ramen noodles.
Note that traditional ramen is made using kansui 碱水, also known as lye water or alkaline water. In this homemade version baking soda replaces kansui. The difference between the two is that kansui is a stronger alkaline than baking soda and thus has a stronger firming action on the noodles. Some folks make a stronger alkaline at home by baking the baking soda.
As I'm not fond of kansui taste (it can be quite strong sometimes) so we just used plain baking soda and were quite pleased with the results. The texture of our ramen was plenty chewy and bouncy!
The dough is mixed into a rough ball. As long as it's sticking together as a ball it's fine. The dough ball is covered and left to rest to allow the gluten to relax. R..e..l..a..x.......
This ramen dough at this point is a pretty hard dough. So you must start to slowly but surely to turn this hardish mass of dough into smooth and silky noodles.
The first step is to use your rolling pin to press that rough ball of dough flat. Press, press, press. In old times the Japanese used their very clean feet to press the dough flat!
After working the dough for a while it will soften and you can roll it out. The edges will still be rough though. That's fine.
Fold the flattened out piece of dough in two and then fold it again into fourths. Just like a darn piece of paper, ha, ha!
Repeat the flattening and folding process a total of four times. You will see the dough become smoother and smoother as you go.
Time for another rest to let the gluten relax. This time I just slipped the flattened out dough into a ziplock bag and let it take a nap.
Oh, the dough! After the rest the dough is so soft and relaxed, just lovely. We separate it into four somewhat equal parts.
Now it's finally time to bust out the pasta machine. Man oh man, but I love my shiny pasta machine. Sweet piece of metal! Set the roller on the largest width and roll that dough through. Fold in half and roll again. And repeat another 2-3 times. This is to develop the gluten. The dough will become more and more smooth before your very eyes.
Time to thin out that smooth dough. At this point you will need to spread some powdered starch all over both sides of the dough. The powdered starch is wonderful at preventing the dough from sticking together while not affecting the texture of the noodles (as would flour if used to prevent sticking.)
Roll the dough thru the roller again, each time adjusting the roller setting width smaller, and you'll see the dough become a smooth silky thin dough sheet at just the right thinness to cut out ramen noodles. Neato, amirite? Pasta machine magic! Watch as the dough becomes silkier, smoother and perfectly thin.
When the dough sheet is the desired thickness, in the case of ramen around between 1/16-1/8 inch (2-3mm) thick, it's time for the most spectacular part of this magic show. Switch over from the pasta machine's roller to the cutters (we used the vermicelli cutter attachment) and roll the dough sheet thru and TA-DA! Out come perfect, perfect ramen noodles!
Gather the noodles as they come out and curl into nests. Okay, last wee twist to the noodle-y plot. You know how ramen noodles aren't straight like Italian noodles, but they are rather crinkled up? Well it turns out that this is achieved by crumpling. That's right, simple crumpling! To achieve the signature 'crump' of ramen noodles, sprinkle some starch on the noodle nests, shake the starch thru and then crump them up by squeezing gently in your fist. This will crinkle up your ramen rather nicely.
Homemade ramen noodles ready! After a very brief boil these fresh noodles are ready for the noodle bowl and whatever yummilicious soup and creative toppings you want to top it with. And, dear noodle lovers, stay tuned for our Vegetarian Mushroom Ramen Soup Noodle recipe, coming up soon!
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| Crinkled fresh ramen noodles |
Homemade Ramen Noodles
(adapted from recipe in Simply Japanese by Maori Murota)
(4 servings) Prep: 30 mins Rest: 2 1/2 hrs Cook: 1 min
Ingredients:
- pasta machine
- 1 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 1/3 cups all purpose flour, 350g
- 3 tbsp potato starch (or cornstarch), 45g
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tbsp potato starch, for dusting
Directions:
Make the dough: Stir the salt into the water until the salt melts. Whisk the flour and 3 tbsp starch together in another bowl and then add to the salt water. Use fingers to mix together. It will form a rough dough ball. Leave it in the bowl but cover it and let the dough rest for half an hour.
Rough knead the dough: The dough will be relaxed but still kinda hard. Use a rolling pin to press down/roll the dough as flat as you can get it. Fold into fourths. Repeat pressing/rolling flat and then folding into fourths another three times. As you roll and fold you will see the dough becoming smoother and more easy to handle. Slip the final rolled out dough into a ziplock bag and let it rest for 2 hours.
Roll the dough: Slice the dough into fourths. Don't add any flour or starch to the dough yet. Set up your pasta machine and roll one piece of dough thru the rollers set at the widest setting. Fold in half and roll thru another 2-3 times. The dough will become nice and silky. Repeat for all four pieces of dough.
Now dust starch to both sides of the rolled out dough. Be sure to cover all the dough. This will prevent the dough from sticking to itself. Adjust the roller setting a bit smaller and roll the dough through the machine. Repeat with smaller settings each time until desired thickness for ramen is reached, around 1/16 of an inch (2mm) thick. Repeat this process for all four pieces of dough.
Cut out the ramen: Set up the desired pasta cutter (we used a vermicelli attachment cutter) onto your pasta machine. Roll the dough through the cutter, catching the cut ramen noodles with one hand as they come out. Curl the cut ramen into a nest shape and place onto a starch dusted tray. Repeat for all four pieces of dough.
Crinkle the ramen: Sprinkle a bit more starch on each nest, shake to distribute the starch, then squeeze the noodles gently to form crinkled noodles. It takes quite a bit of gentle squeezing to get the crinkles so don't be afraid. Place crinkled noodles into a nest like bundle on a starch dusted tray. Cover with a plastic bag or place in an air tight container and let sit in the fridge until ready to make noodles.
Cook the ramen: Boil a pot of water big enough for the noodles. Add noodles and cook for 30 secs to 1 min or until cooked all the way through. As these fresh noodles will cook very quickly be sure to be testing them starting from the 30 sec mark. Enjoy the Noodle-liciouness!
Nom Nom Noodles at The Hong Kong Cookery:
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