Hi ALL!
Let’s make Ramen Noodle today.
What do I need to make Ramen noodles at home?
First, I need KANSUI but it is hard to get in Australia. Kansui is made from Sodium carbonate, Potassium carbonate and Trisodium phosphate and is a food additive used in Asian cooking. It’s known as Lye Water in Australia but the concentrations can be much higher than found in Japanese products.
What kansui does to flour? Kansu changes the flavour and texture of dough, if I said chewy it sounds kind of negative but if I said al dente it’s more of a common understanding. If you compare Udon and Ramen noodles you will see very different noodles and that’s the difference Kansui makes.
I’ve made ramen noodle a lot times and experimented using semolina flour, bicarb, baking powder etc, and they are all good but I thought it would be easier using self-rising flour as its already got baking powder in it. It’s easy and cheap but using only self-rising flour isn’t enough. To get that Al-dente (or chewy) texture in your mouth you need to use bread (strong) flour and self-rising flour together.
When you kneed the dough you will use your foot make sure to wrap the dough with plastic before stepping on 😂 otherwise your dough will be dirty. Why use your foot for kneading the dough? The dough is quite hard and you want your noodles to have a combination of toughness and elasticity. Sounds funny using your foot but in Japan when making Udon they are use their foot to make the noodles KOSHI, firm and chewy instead of soggy and weak. It’s also good exercise before eating ramen hahaha😂.
Sometimes you see ramen noodle recipes, saying let noodles sit for 3-4 days so the taste is better. Yes, if you use KANSUI the is the case but this way you can use the noodles the day you made them. When the noodle is fresh I cooked them for 1 min 40 second, it was too much, so then I cooked them for 1 mins 30 seconds but still got too soft. I then tried 1 mins 15-20 seconds and it was perfect for me. I don’t like soft noodles, I like them al dente. Using this recipe you can make 5-6 serves. If you have leftovers you can freeze them for using later. Wrap in portions and keep in the freezer for 2 weeks. When you want noodles boil them from frozen. Just put noodle in boiling hot water for 1mins 30second.
Making ramen noodles on a daily basis for customers is very time consuming especially if you have a very busy shop. Some ramen shops buy noodles from companies that will make them especially to go with their style of soup. Different thickness of noodles, firm they want them when cooked, straight noodle or curly noodles all this is available from the many Japanese noodle companies. Still, many small traditional shops make their own noodles because that’s the way it’s been done for a long time and they want to preserve the old ways. Chinese noodles came to Japan and about 600 years ago but over time they changed to be what we know as Japanese Ramen today.
After WW2, there were lots of ramen stands. These can still be found today on some older train platforms in Tokyo complete with three stools and a line-up of suited salarymen waiting their turn to eat. You don’t see many anymore but they still remind us of the charm of old Japan. There is still ramen stand so if you are going to Japan you can research and try it. You will like old style Japan.
I remember when I was kid watching tv with my family and hearing music from and instrument called a CHARAMERA, in English a Suona. This was from the Ramen version of the Ice-cream man and OJI-SAN (old men) would be selling ramen from a cart or van. Even if we’d had dinner we’d hear that music and suddenly want to eat ramen hahaha.
Ramen noodles
Equipment
- Pasta machine
Ingredients
- 250 g Bread flour (High gluten flour)
- 250 g Self-raising flour
- 1 Each Egg
- 5 g Salt
- 200 g Water
- Starch (corn or Potato) For dust
Instructions
- Weigh bread flour and self-rising flour and put into a bowl.
- Sieve your flour into another bowl.
- Crack egg into a third bowl.
- Add Salt into the bowl with the egg.
- Add the water into the bowl with the egg and salt.
- Mix egg, salt and water well.
- Make a hole in middle of the flour with a fork.
- Add ⅔ of the wet mix into the hole and mix with the fork.
- if not too wet add the rest of the wet mix and continue mixing.
- Put down the fork and mix with your hand. ( You will think there's not enough water as you mix with you hand it will come together.)
- Once the dough starts coming together make it in to a ball then put it into a plastic bag. You'll need to double bag it as you're going to step on it with your foot.
- Put the bag of the dough on your floor and knead it with your foot.
- Remove the dough from the bags and reform the ball again. Put the dough into the plastic bags again.
- Knead the dough with your foot. Repeat 2-3 times. Its very Kneady process! Ramen noodles are high maintenance.
- Once the dough surface in nice and smooth your dough will be done.
- Make 4-6 balls.My video says 4 balls but if find smaller balls easier to work with you can make 6.
- Set your pasta machine on your bench.
- Flatten the dough with your hand, set your pasta machine dial to 7 and start rolling. Dust the dough with starch if it gets sticky when using your pasta machine.
- Set dial to 6 and roll the dough.
- Set dial to 5 and roll the dough.
- Set dial to 4 and roll the dough.
- Fold the dough in half. set dial back to 5, and roll the dough.
- Set dial to 4 and roll the dough.
- Set dial to 3 and roll the dough.
- Place the flattened dough on your bench. You will need space.
- Repeat with all the balls of dough.
- Dust the surface the dough with starch potato or corn.
- Turn over the dough and dust the other side
- Set your past machine to make spaghetti.
- Roll your dough through the spaghetti roller, be careful and gently pull on the noodles as they come through the roller.
- When finished lay your noodles out on the bench.
- Place your noodles in to an airtight container.
- if you do not use all your noodles straight away, you can freeze them, but wrap them in portion.
