Hand pulled noodles anyone can make (抻面)

so last week we shared a recipe on how to

make

Lanzhou style lamian like they do in noodle shops in China. Here's the thing, though those kinds of shredded

noodles

are hard, very hard, the kind of hard that

make

s people like special schools. learn it, so if you don't feel like going to the brink of noodle madness, there is another type of

hand

made

noodles

called Chun min, which is the kind of thing that is cooked in the north. At home, your non-alkaline noodles get their extensibility from a long rest and are perhaps surprisingly easy and straightforward, and since there's honestly not much to do here today, we'll also show you how to fry them in a simple, classic Northwest style. suitable for crumbled noodles, in an ideal world you'll want to use finely ground flour here we're using Caputo Chef's Pizza Flour but you can use any double zero flour or honestly even a pea in a pinch so first add 2 grams or 1/2 teaspoon of salt per hundred grams of water, mix until dissolved and then sprinkle in the flour little by little, rubbing the flour between your thumb and the backs of your fingers.

Now astute observers may notice that this type of dough feels just like dough. is used for Byung bang noodles and that is because it is the same as the dough used for bang-bang noodles, the only thing different will be the shape, so once all the water is absorbed and a ball, it will move inward for the next step. knead the dough now knead this is basically like playing La Mian on easy mode, first roll out the dough into a one and a half foot log and then using the bottom of your palm press the dough and then pull it towards up about an inch or two. then repeat, press the curl up and do the same, move the entire dough down, now fold it and give it a medium blow down and continue doing the same motion.

This is the technique of making the abacus string in La Mian, the idea is to align the gluten. Fortunately, compared to LA Mian, you don't have to be as paranoid about flattening things or rolling them tight and it will only take about eight to ten minutes to achieve. to the point you need, what you're going to look for is an evenly smooth surface on the top and bottom of the dough and then once you're at that point, just punch everything down flat, fold the dough in half, punch it down again and fold a second time. Now press and tap it on a rectangular box like object and give it a quick 10 minute break, so after that time take a rolling pin and roll it out, don't go crazy making all this thinner, what we want is a centimeter of thickness and For reference, this here ended up being 7 inches by 4 inches, so just cut it in half, but remember which way the long side was because that's the direction you'll be cutting, that's right, unlike the toss of Pulled style noodles, these are cut.

This is what makes them so simple, cut them into 1 centimeter strips, throw them on a plate and rub them well with oil, this will prevent the noodles from drying out during our long rest, so don't be shy, we used about three tablespoons in total and then take. a bit of plastic wrap, but make sure the plastics that stick to the surface of the noodles rest for at least 3 hours, but we haven't really found an upper limit here in our testing: 8 hours or even overnight. It also works well, so 5 hours later, take out the dough and take a noodle, spread it out and touch it with your

hand

until it doubles in length, then pull it out once you can start to feel the resistance in the noodle stop and then continue to lengthen it. tapping it a few times against the table once more, spread it out with a touch until you feel the resistance, then tap it about 10 times to make it longer and thinner if you want, if it has reached the limit of your wingspan and you want it thinner, you can fold the noodles and continue hitting.

Be careful, although sometimes when folded the ends of the noodles can break, so try not to be too greedy. Here we're looking for a thickness roughly similar to Japanese Ramen or a little thicker than spaghetti and honestly that's it, it just works with the noodles stretching and snapping as you go and with that you have some crumbly noodles so let's go to show you how to fry them now that there are probably so many fried ones. Shredded noodles, is there our fried rice? But no matter what you boil the noodles first, cook them for about 45 seconds or so or until they're 90% cooked, aka al dente, and we take them out here, we shake them in cold water because we're cooking weird in our living room. be, but you can rinse yours under the tap like a normal person and now for frying, you know there are a lot of different directions here today, we chose egg as our protein, but you can also do lamb or whatever, but as always , first.

Yao, heat your wok well, turn off the heat, add the oil here, about two tablespoons, and stir it around to get a nice non-stick surface with the flame on medium heat, now heat the oil until it bubbles about a couple of chopsticks and then go. add two beaten eggs, let it puff up, then remove the cooked bits to the sides letting the raw bits sit in the center, then flip once it's no longer working, turn off the heat, stir it quickly and take it out, so now no the same wok is necessary. to wash with about three tablespoons of oil and give it another rotating flame on medium heat, now immediately add three cloves of crushed garlic, fry it for about thirty seconds until fragrant, then take them out from the sides and turn off the heat, now enter with a 1/2 tablespoon chili bean paste and half a tablespoon tomato paste, the latter is a real thing in northwest cooking, we swear, now lower the heat and fry them on low heat because chili bean paste has this unpleasant propensity to burn. that for about two minutes or until the oil stains the oil nice and red, then turn the heat back up to medium and add a hundred grams of chopped baby bok choy, fry it for 30 seconds and start to wilt and then add the noodles . stir-fry for about 30 seconds or until basically mixed, then stir a tablespoon of soy sauce over the spatula and around the sides of the wok, fry super briefly, and then season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and a quarter teaspoon of five spice sprinkle another quick mix, then add a quarter of onion, half a mild green chili and a mild red chili, fry them for about 15 seconds or so, then add the super short fried egg mixture again, and then mix in 1/2 tablespoon of dark chinois. vinegar on the spatula and around the sides of the wok, quickly remove the heat, drizzle a teaspoon of toasted sesame oil, another quick mix and take out the noodles stir-fry and ready, so when I shape the dough, I cut it along half and then I make blocks.

This is because my arms are quite short and the smaller logs make it easier for me to pull, so if you have long arms, feel free to keep the dough in one piece and then make longer strands and impress all your friends. Really long noodles, okay, check out the pretty long description box for the detailed recipe. Thank you all so much for stopping by using us on Patreon and of course subscribing for more Chinese cooking videos.