Well, have you ever heard of 'Dubai Chocolate'? Ever tasted the creamy, crunchy pistachio filling in a Dubai Chocolate? Well, you need these fine kadayif noodles if you're going to get that exquisite crunch! My little girl introduced me to Dubai Chocolate and we quickly became hooked onto that incredibly nutty, creamy, crunchy pistachio filling inside the chocolate. We wanted to try making it at home!
We soon realized that, while pistachio is fairly easy to obtain, pre-made kadayif noodles are 1) hard to obtain and 2) kinda expensive. Luckily, after some research, we realized that these delicate kadayif noodles can be made at home with a wee bit of effort and time!
The batter itself is a simple one. Flour, cornstarch, some salt, some oil and water to mix it all up.
Make sure that you mix the batter thoroughly and that there are no lumps left at all. If you have lumps it will plug up the piping later. The batter should be loose enough to drizzle down in a thin stream like in the photo above. If it's too goopy add water, just a little bit at a time, to adjust.
Use the smallest piping tip you've got. The smaller, the thinner your kadyif noodle! We used a No. 1 size piping tip. As you can see from the photo on the left it's a pretty small hole. That tiny hole is why you've got to be sure to get all the lumps out of the batter cuz it can quickly become stuck.
Place your piping tip snuggly into the inside end of the piping bag and then pour all the batter into the piping bag. A good tip for pouring batter into a piping bag is to find a tall thin container of some sort (we used a tall glass container usually used for storing pasta), arrange the empty piping bag in it with the top end of the bag draped over the lip of the container (see photo top right). That way you'll have a sturdy holder for the bag/batter as you pour.
This was the fun part. Longish, but fun. And easier to do than I thought it would be. Twist close the piping bag and pipe directly into a pan heated over a medium low heat. You can pipe up and down as I did, or in concentric circles or whatever, as long as the noodle lines don't cross each other.
Because the lines are so thin the noodle will cook quite quickly. You will see them slowly curl up, so cute! No need to take on any color at all, once the noodles are curled up they are done and ready to be removed. Check out our video below to see the process!
You can just grab all the cooked noodles in one go and place to one side in a bowl while you finish the rest of the batter. It does take a while, so bring a novel to read as you babysit your kadayif noodles. Soon enough you'll see the results of your endeavors, a small mountain of thin white curled up kadayif noodles, ready to incorporate into the making of some magnificent pistachio kadayif cream filling for some Dubai chocolate inspired treats.
Stay tuned as we'll post next on the Dubai Chocolate Pistachio Cake that we made with these homemade kadayif noodles and our homemade pistachio kadayif cream filling! OMgoshdarnit, it was so nom-nom-ilicious!
Homemade Kadayif Noodles Recipe
(Adapted from recipe here) (makes approx 145g or 5 oz)
Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 30 mins
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour, 95g
- 5 tbsp cornstarch
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp oil
- 3/4 cup -1 cup water
- No 1 size piping tip
- piping bag
Directions:
Mix the batter: Add flour, cornstarch, salt and oil to a bowl. Add in 3/4 cups water and whisk. The batter should lump free, smooth and thin enough to drizzle down when you lift the whisk. If needed add more water, one tbsp at a time, whisking after each addition until the desired consistency is reached. Pass the batter through a sieve to remove any remaining lumps.
Prepare piping bag: Add piping tip to inside tip of piping bag. Pour batter into piping bag. See tips in blog above for easy batter pour in method.
Drizzle the noodles: Heat up a wide non stick pan over a medium low heat. Twist the end of piping bag closed and hold that end in your hand. Holding the piping bag directly over the hot pan, drizzle batter into the pan in a circular or zigzag pattern, making sure that the noodle lines don't intersect. Note that the batter is going to flow out fast cuz it's quite thin, so be quick as you work and use a finger to stopper the batter flow when you go back and forth from the pan.
Cook the noodles: Leave the noodles to cook. Once the noodles curl up one themselves, around a minute, they are done. The color should be white. If the noodles start turning brown lower the heat. Remove noodles and place into a bowl or strainer to cool. Drizzle on more batter and repeat until all the batter is used up.
Use the kadayif noodles: Once they are cooled to room temp they are ready use. One way to use these noodles is as we did: fry them up golden and crispy to use in a pistachio kadayif cream filling (the filling used for Dubai chocolate!)
Store the noodles: If not using right away store the noodles in a zip lock bag in the fridge for up to a week. Any longer keep in the freezer.
Nom Nom Treats at The Hong Kong Cookery:
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