Binging with Babish: Blue Noodles from Star Wars: Andor

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blue

color found in nature. Things that are liquid, but also solid, but also liquid. And of course

blue

noodles

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Welcome back to Binging with Babish. For this week, we're taking a look at the blue

noodles

of Endor, that is, Andor, in an admittedly very, very quick appearance, but it is one of several canonical blue foods in Star Wars, probably because blue is so rarely found. . in nature. Thus, blue foods acquire a spatial quality. This is one of the rare examples used in food coloring, the blue butterfly pea flowers that the official Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge cookbook calls for to make Gormaanda's Glowblue Noodles. The recipe is as follows, four cups of water, brought to a summer with a packet of blue butterfly flowers.

Now these have a soft and varied floral herbaceous quality, so hopefully they won't interfere with other flavors. Next, the recipe calls for eight ounces of rice noodles, added to the now very, very blue water. We are going to allow them to cook until they are complete. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, add half a cup of heavy cream and unsalted butter and a clove of crushed garlic. We are going to bring this mixture to a simmer. Then once it comes to a simmer, we remove it from the heat and add a cup and a half of grated Parmesan cheese, whisking little by little as we go.

Once the noodles are cooked and the sauce mixed and prepared, whatever it is, we'll just pour it over the blue noodles in a big ol' bowl. And since it's just boiled cream and butter, with a little cheese mixed in, it's pretty loose and splattery. I think they were going for a quick Alfredo vibe here. And then, to enhance the alien look, you need to decorate with quartered tricolor cherry tomatoes and mini mozzarella pearls. And there you have it, Gormaanda's Glowblue Noodles from the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge cookbook, which, while it may look like it's from a galaxy far, far away, I'm not so sure tastes amazing.

So let's put it together a bit and see what we're dealing with here. And as I suspected, it's more or less a trickster Alfredo, although much looser, with chunks of raw garlic for good measure. It's certainly not inedible or terribly bad, it's just not great. Once it cools and the sauce thickens, save a little. But of course, this is just an easy way for families and kids to enjoy some space noodles. For our version, I think the most viable noodle to embellish will be a glass noodle with potato

star

ch. So I'm going to

star

t by soaking some of these blue pea flowers in hot water.

Put that aside. And then in a big bowl, much bigger than this one, we're going to start assembling our noodles. Now, normally the way you do this is to make a slurry with a little bit of potato starch and water and then to that slurry you add a little bit of boiling water. In this case, our blue pea water, which needs to be just boiling because you want the water to gelatinize the starches into the starch, so now as you add more potato starch to adjust it to a dough, hopefully this doesn't happen and you end up with non-Newtonian fluid.

Which, while it's a super fun science project that you can pour like a liquid and then punch like a solid, isn't so great for making noodles. Because without those gelatinized starches the noodles have nothing to hold them together. So when it comes time to put them in boiling water, instead of forming delicious edible worms, they simply disappear. I don't know why you keep going, Andy, this clearly isn't working. You're still going to keep going, huh? Alright, that's your choice. While you're at it, I'll try a more reliable recipe from YouTuber East Meets Kitchen. Combining at first, 50 grams of cold water and potato starch, mix until you obtain a suspension.

And then add 200 to 250 grams of freshly boiling blue butterfly pea flower tea, which when whisked, should form a thick, sticky, gelatinous mixture. This indicates that our starches have been gelatinized and we can add the remaining 400 to 500 grams of potato starch. I say 400 to 500 because you will need to adjust as needed to get the mixture to an extremely thick but pipettable consistency. Add more water or cornstarch as needed to get the right texture. This may require a little labor, but I would say no more than any other pasta dough. Once you've gotten it as thick as possible so it's still pourable, we'll put it in a piping bag, cut off the tip, and pour it straight into some barely simmering water, where hopefully it won't immediately disappear. . and instead, form long, spooky blue noodles that will be ready as soon as they float, about 30 seconds.

They don't stick to each other at all, which is fantastic, so you don't have to worry about overlapping. And after their super quick cooking time, they take them out and place them in a cold water bath. And that's it. It may be a little tricky to get the dough together, but it's as fun as it looks. And not only does it produce a robust blue noodle, but it's also an amazing noodle. It tastes good, there's barely any pea flower flavor, and all that whisking and whisking works into little air bubbles that shine like a '90s toy.

And they're as easy to slurp down as noodles can be. Now, the best recipe I can think of for glass noodles that also won't ruin their color is some kind of Japchae. In a small bowl, I combine one tablespoon of soy sauce, two tablespoons of miren, one teaspoon of white sugar, one tablespoon of sesame oil, and two cloves of minced garlic. We are going to add half of the sauce during cooking and save the other half for plating. Now, on the stove in stages, in a carbon steel skillet, we will heat small amounts of vegetable oil and use it to sauté half a small sliced ​​onion until lightly caramelized and soft, about 3 to 5 minutes.

Followed by four ounces of sliced ​​shiitake mushrooms cooked until golden brown and crispy. We are adding the onions and mushrooms to a large bowl. Then finally, on the stove, we'll sauté our blue noodles in a little bit of oil over high heat, just enough to warm them up and maybe darken them a little, just a little bit. Then we add half of our sauce and let the flame just kiss it. I don't want all that garlic and sugar to burn. Then, after about 20 seconds, it will go straight into the bowl, where it will be mixed with the rest of the sauce, the cooked vegetables, and a tablespoon of toasted sesame seeds.

Give this guy a brisk shake, set out a plate, and get ready to slurp. As you can see, the blue noodles haven't been too negatively affected by the cooking process. They may not look as fantastic as the other noodles, but I have a feeling they will taste much better, especially when garnished with thinly sliced ​​chives and sesame seeds. So let's try it and it's really good. It's japchae, but it's also blue, which is awesome. The only problem I'm running into is that the noodles are too long, so maybe give them a try if you want to try them yourself.

Thanks again to Cash App. That's money, that's Cash App. Download Cash App from the App Store or Google Play Store today to add your cash tag to the 80 million and counting. (upbeat music)