This is a blog post on making hand-pulled noodles at home. Hand-pulled noodle is basically making noodle without the use of any equipment at all. It is only done by using your hands. this noodle has it’s origins of Northern China none what so ever that influence me in my childhood das. I found fascination with this noodle after having a holiday in china a few years ago. I just watch from the window how strips of noodles were simply by hand into a pot of boiling water at a street food vendor in Beijing.
Of course, there is on the internet there is plenty of information on how to make hand-pulled noodles. I am just writing what actually works for me. It is nothing to do how experts or home cooks do it at home. Perhaps some would say this technique is naive and amateurish by it works for me. I will stick with it till I find a quicker and effective way of making it.
To make hand-pulled noodles you need some plain flour, water, a bit of salt, and some oil. That’s it. The rest is using the right technique. I have tried a few different attempts. Even with using a rolling pin (a cheat’s way), it didn’t work as well as the table method. So let go into it.
Making hand-pulled noodles
First of all prepare the dough. Mix the plain flour and water into a dough. Add a bit of salt. Then coat the dough with some cooking oil and rest it. The cooking oil and the resting time will help to stretch the gluten. Rest at least 4 hours minimum. The longer the better. It is possible to leave the oil-dough in the fridge overnight. However it will need to be in room temperature before stretching. Otherwise the dough is too cold to stretch.
To make the hand-pulled noodle is to take a bit of the dough and slowly stretch it apart. Bounce it on the table helps. However, the problem is after some stretching it breaks. That is it. It is frustratingly bad. I suppose this is where many people give up. I just simply couldn’t feel the point where the dough has stretch enough, needs to rest then stretch again.
In the end I found the solution is to use the worktop or the surface you are working on. I use the table to rest the stretched dough. If it breaks it become a part of another noodle. I then stretch it again. Then finally it begins to look like noodles. It is time-consuming this way but it works. It works much better than cheats rolling pin method. As that method makes the noodle too thin and it taste stodgy as a result. The table resting method gives it a nice noodle firm texture.
Thank you for reading and dropping by. do have a look at my making pasta at home.
