At our trip to Silk Road in Camberwell, I fell in love with the rustic, rough-and-ready style of their 'belt noodles'. Chewy and elastic, I vowed to make some of my own. This coincided quite nicely with my friend Josh, one of the first online friends I met four years ago, raving about the Tian Shui Mian he'd had in China and subsequently managed to recreate. If you don't follow his blog, you really should.
Making noodles in this style is substantially easier than rolling out pasta. The noodles themselves were simplicity itself, comprising of only four ingredients and I wanted a dressing for them that would enhance them best. Josh's recipe made a sauce that was salty, sweet, spicy and with a hint of roasted sesame. They were addictive, having just the right amount satisfying chew and they carried the sauce well. It was messy business; I maimed myself with a rogue flick of the noodle as I shovelled them in hungrily and an unfortunate spicy globule landed in my eye. I cried into my noodles a bit, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment of them.
Hand-made NoodlesServes 2
100gr plain flour
100gr bread flour
50gr water
A large pinch of salt
Mix the flours together, add the salt and the water. Mix well and leave for 30 minutes. Knead the dough until smooth, oil it and roll out to as thin as you can be bothered. Cut into strips about the width of your index finger. Dust with flour.
Bring a large pan of water to the boil and drop the noodles in. Simmer for a couple of minutes - when they are done they should float to the surface. Drain well and toss through the sauce (mind your eyes...) - recipe here. If you have any leftover, toss with a little oil so that they don't stick and freeze. They cook well from frozen, dropped briefly in boiling water.
12 comments:
I had no idea noodle making was so easy. Or is it that you make it sound so easy. Whatever, i will have to give it a go using the recipe soon. Sounds too good to pass up
Oh gosh, poor you and your eye! I love spicy sauces, this one looks fab with the noodles. I haven't seen Josh's blog but I will now. x s
Great noodles! Chilli in the eye is a killer - I've also suffered this with an accident involving a Nando's take away. I was drunk and it was the 1990's.
I've had a go at the noodles - but came up with disastrous results! The noodles were mushy with minimal bite - how long do I need to knead them?
Glad you like them and thanks for the PR.
OH DEAR I hope you eye was ok! Hehe, and I'm glad you pushed through and enjoyed the noodles nonetheless. Dedication :)
I've had my eye on Cooking the Books' Tian Shui Mian recipe all week - even more tempted to try it now!
Woo, glad you finally made them!
That red soy sauce is mega addictive - I managed to ignore the amount of brown sugar I was melting into it.
These deserve an outing again soon, I think.
The list of recipes from your blog that I want to make grows ever longer, Lizzie...
These sound so easy, who'd have thought it. That dark sauce looks very good too.
I've had two spicy noodle water in the eye incidents this year. My flatmate now keeps her eye wash in the kicthen!
GIVE ME THOSE NOODLES!!! I wanted to make handmade noodles as soon as I saw them on Josh's blog and yeah those ones at Silk Road were blinders n all. it's that dark flavour bomb you've got on top of those though that also makes me want them. I can almost feel them between my teeth!
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