Hand-Pulled Noodles — matcha-angelatte

Making my own noodles was actually much easier than I thought it would be. A little over two months into quarantine, and I had begun to crave noodles. Too lazy to make the beef broth required for Beef Noodle Soup 牛肉麵, I scoured the internet looking for the easiest noodle recipe. This one just requires three ingredients and some elbow grease. Not only do they taste fresh and homemade, but they’re super fun to make! Today is only my second time making this, but I’ve already seen improvement in the texture of the noodles by how thin and stretchy I shape them to be.

Since it’s summer, I didn’t want to put them in a soup base, so I just threw together some of my favorite aromatic ingredients to make a sauce base to toss and mix the noodles in!

Ingredients (for the sauce base):

Vegetable oil
Sesame oil
Soy Sauce
Sugar
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. ginger (about 3 slices of fresh ginger, finely julienned)
2 stalks scallions/green onion
5 stalks cilantro

Ingredients (for the noodles): approximately 2-3 servings

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup water
1/2 tsp. salt

Instructions:

Gather together all the ingredients. Chop up the scallions and cilantro. Be sure to have extra vegetable oil, sesame oil, flour, and sugar on hand - to be used liberally.
In a large bowl, sift together flour and salt. Make a crater in the middle and slowly pour in water. Do not pour in all the water at once. Using chopsticks, mix together the flour and water until a dough forms. You may need to add more or less water depending on your type of flour.
Once a dough forms, begin using your hands to make sure the flour and water are mixed together. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and let rest for 15 minutes.
Uncover the bowl, and knead into the dough again. If it’s too hard at this point, you may need to add a dash of water. If it is too sticky at this point, you may need to add a dash of flour. The dough should be pliable, elastic, and silky to the touch, but have a dusting of flour on the outside so that it’s not sticking to your hands.
Press down on the dough with your hands. It should bounce back a little bit. Flatten the dough a bit, and lightly coat both sides with vegetable oil. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and let rest for 1-2 hours to let the the gluten form further.
While you are waiting for the dough to rest, you may begin preparing the oil sauce base. In a sauté pan, heat up 1 tsp. of cooking oil. Add minced garlic and ginger. Once the garlic starts to brown, turn down to low heat, and toss in 2/3 of the chopped scallions and cilantro you had chopped up. After about 30 seconds of cooking, turn off the heat. Add 1 tsp. of sesame oil, add 2 tsp. of soy sauce and mix. (These measurements are approximate. I don’t measure ingredients out to make sauce, and neither should you!) Transfer your sauce to empty bowls, and mix in sesame oil, soy sauce, and sugar (trust me!) according to your preferred taste. The sauce should go up maybe 1-2 cm. from the bottom of a rounded bowl. Think of this almost as a dipping sauce. This is not meant to be a soup - and you can always add more afterwards.
After the dough has had enough time to rest, uncover the bowl and take out the dough on a flat surface lightly dusted with flour. Knead the dough for a minute or so, just to ensure that the gluten has had time to strengthen. The dough at this point should be stretchy and elastic. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into 6 pieces. (First in half, and then into thirds from each half.)
Using a wooden rolling pin, roll out the dough pieces. The dough should bounce back a little so you will need to roll multiple times. Roll and flatten until the dough is about 2-3 mm. thick. Using a knife, cut out strips about an inch wide. Dust with flour (hold each end and gently pull to stretch just a little bit) and set aside.
When you are ready to cook the noodles, boil a large pot of water. Once the water is boiling, take your dough strands, use your hands to gently and slowly stretch the noodle and drop into the water. You may need to separate the dough into 2 or 3 batches to cook. Add a dash of salt. (You may also freeze any dough you do not want to immediately use and store up to 1 week.)
Once the noodles are cooked, use tongs to transfer into the bowls on top of the sauce. Using the tongs, gently toss and turn the noodles until evenly coated with sauce. Garnish with the rest of the chopped scallions and cilantro.

Rolling and shaping out the noodles! At this step, the dough is soft and silky!