July 14, 2011

The Daring Cooks: Homemade Noodles

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ceci (chickpea flour) sagnarelli with zucchini blossoms, 
baby zucchini, and shaved Parmesan



Steph from Stephfood was our Daring Cooks' July hostess. Steph challenged us to make homemade noodles without the help of a motorized pasta machine. She provided us with recipes for Späzle and Fresh Egg Pasta as well as a few delicious sauces to pair our noodles with!

Click here for the noodle and sauce recipes.

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Making noodles from scratch has always been an enjoyable activity for me. Thanks Steph for choosing homemade noodle for this month's challenge.

The one I made from the recipes given was the basic egg noodles. I made everything by hand because I don't have a pasta roller, and rolled as thin as possible which is surprisingly easy. Then I cut the noodles into thin strands using a pizza cutter. I sprinkled some flour on them, made the strands into nests while rolling the rest of the dough.
 
The noodles were boiled right away for a few minutes and mixed with stir-fried vegetables, grated ginger, rice wine, green onions, prawns, soy sauce, and sesame seed oil for a Chinese-style stir fried noodles. Delicious!

One of the noodle recipes I have wanted to make is the high protein ceci made with chickpea and all-purpose flour, eggs, and olive oil. These noodles are tender, nutritious, and yummy. I like them cut into 2 x ¾- inch strips called sagnarelli and simply served with vegetables sauteed in butter and sea salt then topped with Parmesan cheese; These are also good made into ravioli.

Chickpea Noodles
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup fine chickpea flour
3 eggs
¼ cup olive oil
  • In a bowl, combine flours. Make a well in the center and add eggs and oil. Slowly mix in the flour until combined. Transfer on the counter and knead a few times until smooth. Wrap in plastic film and let rest on the kitchen counter for 1 hour before rolling into desired shapes.
fine chickpea flour, green chickpeas for ravioli filling
    I also love rice noodles specially the rice sticks from the Philippines but it may be impossible to find a recipe on how to make them from scratch. However, there are recipes for Chinese and Thai flat rice noodles which have rice flour, tapioca starch, and corn starch. I used a combination of 50% rice flour and 25% each for the remaining flour for a chewy but soft consistency. The noodles are very good with sauteed Chinese broccoli seasoned with oyster sauce, soy sauce, chopped chive, a little hot chili oil, and sesame seed oil. Most of the recipes I found online cook the noodles by steaming but I find it is a lot quicker to cook the crepes on an oiled non-stick skillet. After the crepe has cooled I sprayed some water to make it less sticky, then rolled and sliced them less than ½ inch thick for the pad Thai. They should be sliced into 1-inch thick pieces for other Chinese recipes.

    Flat Rice Noodles
    1 cup rice flour
    ½ cup tapioca starch
    ½ cup cornstarch
    ¼ teaspoon sea salt
    2½ cups water
    2 tablespoons vegetable oil plus more for oiling the skillet
    • Mix all ingredients in a bowl and let rest for 20 minutes. Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat; brush with vegetable oil. Stir batter and pour about ¾ cup batter, swirling to completely cover the bottom of the skillet. Let cook until transparent. Loosen sides, invert onto a large plate and leave to cool.  Spray top with a little water, roll, and slice into desired thickness. Unroll and use immediately.
     

    What can I say about the buckwheat noodles...they're just okay and not worth the effort to make at home, in my opinion. But check out the pillow-soft Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Chestnuts and Sage and easy as pie Quark Spätzle I made a few years back.

    21 comments:

    Sarah said...

    Considering you cut those egg noodles by hand, they are amazingly uniform. Well done. I think chickpea flour would make a great pasta as well. I tried buckwheat flour in my version of spatzle; why do you like making buckwheat noodles less? Well done on the challenge.

    Unknown said...

    You have out-done yourself! Thats so awesome you tried that many variations! Challenge WELL DONE!
    www.cookinformycaptain.blogspot.com

    The Garlic Press said...

    I can't believe you made so many different types of noodles! Congratulations! I'm going to have to try rice noodles soon.

    shelley c. said...

    I am so impressed with each on of your gorgeous noodle dishes, but to have made all of those this month? Unbelievable. Beautiful, impressive and totally inspiring.

    wok with ray said...

    I always see cooks make noodles made from regular flour, and eggs but not rice noodles. Well done Oggi!

    Anonymous said...

    Wow - I never knew that to make rice noodles you cook the batter in a crepe like fashion and then slice them! Looks awesome -- I will have to try this!

    Jenni said...

    Great job! You did so many great noodles, and they all look fantastic!!

    Jo said...

    All your noodles look fantastic, I especially love the rice noodles. Great job with the challenge!

    Andy said...

    WOW so many different kinds! I'd love to try them all.

    Monkeyshines in the Kitchen said...

    Gorgeous! My hat is off to you for making the rice noodles. I really wanted to try, but just didn't get the nerve (or time). They look scrumptious! All your pastas look great though!

    Ruth H. said...

    Great job on this challenge! I can't believe those egg noodles were done by hand... they are so even! I love the nests... The chick pea pasta is such a great idea. Thank you for sharing with us!

    Oggi said...

    Hi all, thank you so much. I was inspired to make the rice noodles when one of our fellow DCs mentioned it on the forum.:)

    Sarah, I should have included the reason why. I love buckwheat flour but it was difficult to get the right consistency making into noodles. The noodles kept breaking in two, the cooked soba had the taste and texture of commercial ones, though.

    Ruth, I have made gnocchi many times and spaetzle a couple of times before but have never tried egg noodles. It's easier than I thought and tastes better too because of its freshness. I might never go back to store-bought egg noodles again.:)

    blepharisma said...

    I can't believe how many types of noodle you made! I didn't know you could make noodles out of chick pea flour - that sounds incredible! And the rice noodles... so crazy! I totally need to try that! Great job!

    blepharisma said...

    Oh... also... I had the same experience as you making the Soba noodles. Sooo hard to work with the buckwheat flour, and mine broke easily. Also, I managed to ruin the noodles that I made, aside from a small handful. Those tasted great when boiled up, though not really worth the frustration.

    Mary said...

    You made so many great varieties and they all sound delicious! I really want to try the chickpea pasta, so I've bookmarked this post for that recipe. Can't wait to get home and make it!
    :)

    Anna said...

    What a great choice of pasta dishes. So many variations, accompaniments.. This month's challenge was so versatile. Greta job!
    Pozdrawiam. Anula.

    Oggi said...

    Steph, it's good to know I'm not the only one who failed on soba. BTW, thank you again for the great challenge.:)

    Mary, hope you like it too.:)

    Anula, thanks.:)

    Lisa said...

    You really went all out! I wish I had the motivation to make several takes on some of these challenges, but I always commit myself to stuff where it makes it impossible :( I love all of your pastas, and the chickpea reminds me of a show where Maryanne Esposito made everything, from pasta to dessert, using chickpea flour ceci de something lol Your noodles look machine cut, which it makes it all the more impressive that you cut them yourself..so perfectly thin and tender looking! Blown away as always!

    chef_d said...

    Oh wow, next time I will definitely try making noodles with different flours! Great job and delicious looking sauces too!

    Unknown said...

    The noodles look great. I am sad I missed this challenge.

    Oggi said...

    Thanks Lisa, Dahlia, and Joy.:)

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