Hand pulled Noodle/Lamian 手拉面

Lanzhou Lamian （兰州手拉面）

Recently on a business trip to China, I had a little pleasant culinary surprise at Suzhou.  One day I had a busy morning and ended up with a late lunch. I normally did not like to eat rice for lunch, so when I saw a small eatery noodle house nearby, I suggested to my colleague to try out their noodles. It was a small Xinjiang Muslim halal eatery shop tucked away in a little corner not easily noticeable. To our blessings, we ended up tasting a really delicious and authentic Lanzhou hand pulled noodle (lamian) !

While waiting to be served, I even sneaked inside their kitchen to shoot a video of the making of Lanzhou lamian. Inside the kitchen, I noticed the chef was just a young chap; I was so impressed to see him skillfully pull and twist the dough and within seconds a ball of dough was magically transformed into fine smooth noodles!

After some online research, I realized that the word Ramen that I used in this video clip is not the same with the word Lamian, the first referred to Japanese noodle and the later meant for Chinese hand pulled noodle. I had used wrong title in my video clip, it should be Lanzhou Lamian instead.

After I returned to Malaysia, I wanted to challenge myself to hand pull a bowl of noodle/lamian too!  After spending some time researching online for noodle recipes, finally during the Hari Raya Adiladha long weekend I made my 1^st attempt.

For this endeavour, I must admit I didn’t hand pull the noodles entirely.  I opted for the cutting method, where I first rolled the dough out flat and then cut the dough into fine stripes with a dough cutter.  Then I slightly hand pulled the dough into finer longer noodles. This method was recommended for home maker especially for beginners. I didn’t have the magical hands like the young chef I met in Suzhou; however the outcome was still reasonably acceptable.

After some efforts in trying to pull and twist the dough, finally I managed to come up with a bowl of reasonably presentable and springy noodle. I got a “pass” from my hubby and auntie Ah Lan and a “good” from my sweet boy Ray, phew!

Ray showing off his newly learnt skill - eating noodle with chopsticks. 

Stir fried ramen with pork mince and veggie

 

For my next batch of handmade noodle, I would add in slightly more water and salt to the flour to improve the texture of the noodle to make it more elastic and not so easily breakable when pulled.

However, instead of pulling by hand I’m considering to invest in a small pasta/noodle machine! J

HANDMADE RAMEN Stir fried handmade ramen INGREDIENTS: 1  ½  cups high protein flour 100-110 ml water (room temperature) ½  tsp. salt METHOD: 1.       Pour high protein flour in a mixing bowl, add salt to flour. 2.   Slowly add in water, mix into a sticky dough and continue to knead until the dough is smooth, non- sticky, fully developed and elastic for about 20 minutes. 3.       Form into a ball and covered with damp cloth to rest the dough for at least 20 minutes. 4.   Pin rolls dough into a thin layer of square sheet, using dough cutter to cut sheet into long thin stripes. 5.       Take up the stripes and pull slightly into longer noodle stripes. 6.       Boil a pot of water, drop in noodle and cook for about 2 minutes. 7.  Dish out noodle and rinse in cold water and place noodle back into hot water and soak for a while and dish out again. Cooked ramen 8.   Mix 1 tbsp. cooking oil into noodle to prevent the noodle from sticking together. 9.   For serving, cook noodle in soup or stir fry the noodle. 10. I choose to stir fry the lamian this time.  Stir fry lamian with veggie, pork minced and soya sauce  Tips: 4 keys for making noodles: a. Must choose high-gluten flour b. Use the right amount of salt : ·         Too much salt, dough does not stretch, ·         Less salt, dough tends to break when pull. c.  Water temperature: ·         Winter use luke water (light warm water), other seasons use cold water. d.  Rest dough: ·         Let dough rest to allow dough to absorb water and enable protein to build in dough thus improving the quality of gluten. ·         Generally during winter time rest not less than 30 minutes whereas in summer rest the dough for about 20 minutes. 手拉面 材料: A: 1 ½ 杯 筋面粉 100-110 ml水 ½ 茶匙盐 方法： 1． 和面:把A材料混合搅拌,成粘稠的面团边揉面,要揉很久的,揉的越久面就越耐吃。标准是：三光：面光、手光、盆光。 2． 醒面:面和好以后，盖上湿布，放置20分钟左右。然后继续揉几分钟，直到面表面光洁，富有弹性不粘手。 3． 后把面团擀平切成长的粗条，盖上湿布，“醒”上 20 分钟，俗称“醒剂子”。 4． 拉面：现在把面拿出来，拉两端，面就会应力延展，根据自己的喜好，粗细均可，前几次自然会粗些（过细会断），多练习几次就会得心应手。 5． 煮面：拉齐一盘后再下锅煮。用筷子搅一下，以防粘连。煮好后，用凉水过一下，更滑、更具有韧劲。 6． 你可以选择把新鲜出庐的手面条做成汤面或炒面。我用以炒面条。 温馨提示： 1.       和面是拉面制作的基础，是关键。 a.       首先要选高筋面粉。 b.      用适量的盐水和面，盐多了抻不开，盐少了缺乏韧性，拉不长，一拉就断。所以放盐一定要适量。 c.       水的温度，一般要求冬天用温水，其它季节则用凉水。 2.       醒面就是将和好的面团放置一段时间，放置可以使没有充分吸收水分的蛋白质有充分的吸水时间，以提高面筋的生成和质量。一般冬天不能低于30分钟，夏天稍短些20分钟。