Hello Darlings!
I love making my own pasta. So much so that I actually own a
pasta machine and buy semolina in bulk. So when I saw that this week’s Better With Veggies’ Meatless Mondays A-Z challenge ingredient was udon noodles I,
predictably, was excited. Then, while browsing udon recipes I noticed that
almost every recipe called for some form of stomping on the dough-- I may have giggled. This was going to be
fun.
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| All Organic Ingredients |
The process of creating the noodles is simple, but time
consuming and a bit of an arm workout. I based my recipe for udon on this one from Food.com but substituted half of the white flour for whole-wheat
flour.
You will need:
2 ½ cups of organic whole-wheat flour
2 ½ cups of organic white flour
5 teaspoons of salt (I prefer organic Celtic sea salt)
1 ¼ cups of lukewarm water
Start by mixing both flours in a large bowl and form an
indent in the center. Dissolve the salt in the lukewarm water and slowly
incorporate the water/salt mixture into the flour. The recipe this is based on
calls for a single cup of water, but because wheat flour is heavier than white
flour you may need to use more water to incorporate all of the flour. I ended
up using about a cup and a quarter.
Kneed this dough for about ten minutes and
form into a ball. Place the dough ball in a (very) large plastic bag. I used a
2.5-gallon Hefty bag. Wrap the bag in dishtowels and hop! Tinkerbelle was
very interested in this portion of the recipe and wanted to help.
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| Tinkerbelle Is Confused P.S. like my socks? |
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| Slicing the Noodles |
As you flatten the dough take it out of
the bag, roll it out with a rolling pin, and accordion fold it before you place
it back in the bag to stomp again. Repeat this process three to four times. Let
the dough rest for 3 hours. Stomp the dough one last time, and try to flatten
it as much as possible. Place this flattened dough on a floured surface and
roll out to how thick you would like your noodles to be. Please note that noodle thickness will alter cooking time.
Fold
your rolled out dough in thirds and cut into your noodles, as thin or as thick
as you would like them. These noodles are incredibly filling so I recommend
cutting the noodles rather thin. Place the noodles into boiling water and let
boil about ten minutes. Depending on the thickness of your noodles this might
be longer or shorter. If following the Food.com thickness it should take about
seven minutes. Mine took ten.
Drain and enjoy hot!
Drain and enjoy hot!
I love putting stir-fry over noodles so I whipped up a quick
batch:
Red Onion
Yellow Onion
Green Onion (for garnish)
Carrots (cut on a bias)
Ginger (four thinly sliced medallions)
Shitake Mushrooms
Baby Bok Choy (tip:
separate leaves from stalks, slice stalks on a bias, cut leaves into strips)
Using a preheated pan (a wok is easiest) with some extra
virgin olive oil toss in sliced onion- let these start to brown on medium heat.
When the onions start to become translucent after a few minutes add sliced
carrots, mushrooms, bok choy stalks, and ginger medallions. Let these begin to
soften and add the boy choy leaves and green onion. I like my veggies still a
bit crunchy in a stir-fry, but if you prefer them softer, wait a few extra
minutes before adding the bok choy leaves. Remove the ginger medallions (unless
you like the surprise burst of heat when you accidentally chomp on one) and
serve over the fresh udon!
