The cooking secret they don't want you to know!

Italian and Chinese chefs hate him! Make your own fresh noodles with this one weird trick!

A few weeks ago a took a class on handmade pasta. We made ravioli with goat cheese and edamame, ravioli with squash, and fettucini carbonara with shiitake mushrooms instead of bacon. What I took away from the class is that making pasta by hand is simpler than I had imagined.

This recipe was my first attempt since then to make some on my own, without adult supervision. In the class, we had pasta machines to roll the dough uniformly flat and slice it into noodle shapes (for the ravioli, we used stencils). I don't have a pasta machine at home, so this time I rolled it and cut it by hand.

Instead of sauce, I fried some vegetables and tomatoes, and then added the noodles to that. Sort of like the sauce I used to have with Lanzhou noodles (蘭州拉麵) in Chengdu. 

NOODLES

1. Put two cups of flour in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle of the flour, and add two eggs.

Actually I forgot the proportions, so in the picture below I had only added one cup of flour -- hence the egg overflow. But the texture wasn't right until I added a full second cup. 

Two eggs' worth is just about enough for one very hungry person. I'm sure you can adjust the amount according to how much you actually want to make.

2. Beat the eggs inside the well.

As you mix, the flour should start to get pulled into the egg mixture, making it thicker.

Keep mixing this way until most of the flour is absorbed, and it starts to look like dough, i.e. it's too thick to mix with a fork. Then switch to using your hands. 

3. Knead the dough.

Use a floured surface, and press the dough until it has a uniform consistency, and isn't too dry or too sticky. Then knead some more.

Here's how you can tell if it's done: Form the dough into a ball. Make an indentation with your finger. If it returns to its original shape, you're good.

4. Wrap the dough in plastic or parchment, and let it sit for about half an hour. 

Apparently, this lets the proteins and starches bind together better. You might be able to get away with a shorter wait time.

5. Roll the dough flat.

Also on a floured surface. I don't have a rolling pin, so I used a pint glass. A bottle would also work.

Try to make it as flat as you can, ideally in a rectangular shape.

6. Slice the noodles.

7. Bring water to a roiling burl. Add noodles. Burl for three minutes.

SAUCE

1. Slice four cloves of garlic, half a red bell pepper, two Roma tomatoes, a couple stalks of king oyster mushroom, and a few scallion sprigs.

2. Add olive oil to a heated pan. Add chili flakes, then the garlic, then the mushrooms. Cook for a minute on medium heat.

3. Add the tomatoes and peppers. Continue cooking for a few minutes.

4. Add a tablespoon or two of oyster sauce (I used a vegetarian, mushroom-based version), and a small splash of soy sauce.

6. Turn heat to low and wait until the noodles are done. Then add the scallions.

7. Now add the noodles. You can strain them first, or just pick them out of the pot with chopsticks or your hands. Just kidding about the hands.

8. Stir-fry for about 10 seconds, until the sauce and pasta are well combined. I fried them for about a minute, but I think this made the noodles too soft, since they had already been boiled long enough.

I actually used only half the noodles for this, so the other half I dipped in flour to keep from sticking, and put in a plastic container in the fridge. That was a couple days ago, and I haven't looked at them again since, so if there are any problems with this storage method I'll update this.

BPLJ

Lemon juice and black pepper. Am I right? Few things are better, especially when it comes to finding ways of using the rigatoni left over from the recipe two weeks ago.

I initially didn't have very high hopes for this dish, because I didn't have any onions, spinach, or seitan. But this just shows again that lemon juice and black pepper will always triumph. It was a win.

Here's what I did have:

- 2 cloves of garlic

- a handful of scallion bulbs

- some tempeh (a few ounces, maybe?)

- a few fresh basil leaves

- a pinch of herbes de provence

- a dash of chili flakes

- some parmesan-like cheese

- the aforementioned BP&LJ (amounting to one lemonsworth)

1. Heat the pan on low heat and add a little olive oil.
2. Add the tempeh, sliced thin. Fry on low heat until the bottoms start to darken, then flip. Add chili flakes and BP.
3. Wait a minute, then add the garlic, but don't stir it so much the tempeh is disturbed.

4. When the garlic starts to cook, but before it browns, add the chopped scallion bulbs, the herbes, and some salt.

5. Turn up to medium-high heat. Add the pasta. Stir-fry until the pasta is well heated, then add about 2/3 of the lemon juice. Keep stirring.

6. Cook this for another few minutes, then add the basil and turn off the heat. Add the rest of the LJ.

7. Put the pasta in a bowl. Grate cheese on top. Add more BP.

8. Goes with white wine of course.

Addendum: Cooking Challenges

The basil I bought last week, put in one of those supposedly biodegradable green bags, then tucked in the back of the fridge was almost completely dried out and dead when I found it again today. There were a few leaves that still seemed edible, but they were severely wilted. The first thing I did before I started chopping was to pick them off the stems and put them in a cup of water. By the time I needed them, they had revived significantly.

Keeping any kind of greens fresh for a long time is a challenge. Now I remember I have had some success with keeping them in the fridge in a bowl of water. But I don't remember if that always worked. I'll try it next time and report back.

Egg pancake

Egg pancake (蛋餅) is one of my favorite foods in Taipei.

Pictured here is my novice's adaptation.

UPDATE: new photo, slightly better than the last attempt

note that scallions have been replaced by cilantro

First, make the batter. Beat an egg, then add a cup of water, and mix vigorously with a fork. Add two tablespoons of corn starch, and mix again. Add half a cup of flour, and mix again. The texture should be very watery; if it's thick at all, add more water. Let this sit in the fridge for at least half an hour while the chemical reactions happen.

I think the one shown here was too thick. You want the batter to fill the whole pan when you pour it, and be very thin. If it's not thin enough, the middle will be thicker than the edges, and the pancake texture will be doughy, when it should be light and crispy (but not brittle).

Chop some scallions and beat an egg. To the egg, you can add salt and pepper.

Usually they're cooked on a big, flat grilling surface, but a frying pan works too. Heat the pan on medium/high heat, add a generous amount of oil, and put in the scallions. Try to spread them out in the pan -- otherwise they might make the pancake too weak where they're clustered together. 

Fry the scallions for a few seconds, then add the batter. Tilt the pan in a circle so the edges and the middle have the same thickness. If there are any holes, fill them with more batter. 

Fry this until it starts to get crispy on the bottom, and doesn't stick to the pan (having a cast iron or nonstick pan helps). Slide the pancake onto a plate. 

the egg is underneath this dubiously textured pancake

Add the egg, also tilting the pan to spread it out. Immediately turn down the heat so it doesn't get overcooked, and put the pancake on top of the egg, crispy side up. The egg should be only partially cooked, so the top will stick to the pancake.

right after the flip

Now flip the whole thing over, so the egg side is up, and turn off the heat. Here, you can add whatever else you want in your pancake. The usual thing is 醬油膏, a thick, sweet soy sauce paste. You can also add that on top at the end.

ver. 2 - cilantro instead of scallions

Finally, roll it up, put it on a plate, and slice it. Serve with a cup of sugar soaked in black tea.

Variations

I had some batter left, so I made another one. This time I added more water and I think the texture came out a little better.

This time, instead of putting an egg inside, I added tempeh (which I fried first) and kimchi.

I also made one with kimchi and arugula: