It’s a wonderful day when I wake up and low and behold, one of my fav chef’s (Angela Dimayuga) is hosting an Instagram live session, demonstrating how to make hand made noodles. If you don’t know Angela, you should as she’s a badass food critic for the NYT times and also used to run Mission Chinese Food in NYC/SF.
In her live stream, Angela was making Biang Biang noodles and the noodle monster in me was VERY PLEASED. I watched like a good little student, took notes, rabbit holed in google and emerged with a partial understanding of and piqued interest in the dish. Turns out it’s a popular dish in the Shaanxi province in China, with a bit of influence from Sichuan but also has its own distinct cooking style.
Before you jump into the recipe below, I highly suggest watching these two videos to get an idea of how to stretch the noodles out.
*Ixta Belfrage’s method of making Biang Biang noodles
*Xi'an Famous Foods method
SERVES: 2-4 (2 if you’re a noodle monster and 4 if you’re eating it with other things)
COOKS IN: 2 hours (but only active cooking 1 hr)
INGREDIENTS
300 g all-purpose flour
2 g salt
140ml water
Couple glugs of vegetable oil
SAUCE OPTIONS
Toss those noodles in whatever you have at home, even just soy sauce but here are some other options if you wanna get crazy with it.
* Traditional recipes call for cabbage, chives, garlic, cumin and hot chilli oil on top.
* Angela Dimayuga & Ixta Belfrage toss their noodles in a mixture of tahini, soy, mirin, rice vinegar and cucumber.
*My sauce was equal parts soy, sesame seeds, homemade chilli garlic vinegar, tahini, mirin, chilli crisp and then I added cucumber, spinach, and a splash of fish sauce, and honey.
INSTRUCTIONS
Combine all the ingredients for your sauce in a bowl and mix. Set aside until noodles are done.
In a separate large bowl or mixer, add the flour and salt and then slowly mix in the water bit by bit. Knead together until a smooth ball of dough forms. Cover this with plastic wrap and let this rest on the counter for 20 min.
After 20 min, knead the dough again until your dough is soft and very smooth. Cover again in plastic wrap and rest on the counter for another 20 min.
Take the dough out of the plastic, and cut into 8 equal pieces. Roll these pieces into little logs, brush with oil and set aside on a plate that has also been oiled lightly. Cover these logs with plastic again and let rest for an hour.
Fill a pot with salted water and bring to a boil.
Now it’s time to make the noodles. Take each dough log, roll out into a rectangle and place a chopstick across lengthwise. Press down on the chopstick gently. This will later make it easier for the noodle to rip in half.
Now hold onto each end of the dough rectangle and start to bang it on the counter. Slap slap that naughty dough until it slowly starts to lengthen. All the while slowly stretching the dough while you slap it. Take your time, as you don’t want to break it. Once your arms are as wide as your shoulders or wider, rip the noodles along the chopstick indentation.
Drop each noodle into the water. Cook for a minute or so, and remove the noodles with tongs once they start to float. Set aside in a bowl. Repeat until all noodles are cooked.
Transfer noodles to the bowl with all of your sauce and toss, adjust to taste and eat right away.
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