The sound of biang biang noodles is sort of a siren name to me. Positive, the rhythmic thwacking isn’t Beethoven’s Fifth or something, however I do know on the opposite aspect of these slapping notes are delightfully chewy ribbons able to be submerged in scorching soups or wearing chile crisp.
Rising up in Los Angeles’s San Gabriel Valley, hand-ripped noodles have all the time been available to me. Once I lived in New York Metropolis, Xi’an Well-known Meals’ cumin-kissed lamb noodles had been a mere subway journey or stroll away. The abundance of noodles implies that I by no means even thought of making the noodles at house, as enjoyable and musical because it appeared.
However with the rising price of eating out, and my very own need to strengthen my culinary prowess within the kitchen, I made a decision to try making hand-ripped noodles at house.
I enlisted the assistance of sisters Sarah and Kaitlin Leung, who with their dad and mom, Billy and Judy, run the Woks of Life weblog and authored the subsequent cookbook of the identical title. Throughout the Woks of Life weblog, there are dozens of noodle recipes, together with one for biang biang cumin lamb. The household themselves went to Xi’an Well-known Meals to good their method, studying from one other parent-child duo, David and Jason Wang — so I knew they might give me knowledgeable recommendations on making my very own noodles.
To start, it’s essential to differentiate biang biang noodles from hand-pulled noodles. “The hand-pulled noodles take actual coaching and time to grasp that Lanzhou fashion,” Sarah explains. Lanzhou-style noodles require evenly pulling and bringing noodles collectively and pulling once more, like a cat’s cradle that produces infinite strands. Biang biang noodles, by comparability, have an easier strategy. “For biang noodles, you principally take a rectangle of dough and also you type of slap it to stretch it earlier than you rip it in half,” Sarah provides. As an alternative of dozens of threads, biang noodles are one lengthy ribbon, cut up in two. “I’ve additionally heard them described as hand-ripped noodles.”
The ripping of biang noodles makes them much less uniform than their Lanzhou-style counterparts, which is ideal for me, somebody who’s decidedly not a perfectionist and simply desires to eat properly. I additionally love the best way the ripping results in ruffled edges, which chile oil appears to cling to. “The attraction of it’s the irregularity as a result of it offers it a novel mouthfeel,” Kaitlin says. “Additionally, the dough is tremendous easy, so I undoubtedly suppose that is doable at house.”
The dough requires a mere three components: bread flour, salt, and water. All the pieces will be combined by hand; actually, when the Leung sisters went to be taught from David Wang at Xi’an’s Well-known Meals, they observed he did all of the work this fashion. “If you wish to be nearer to your dough, then do it by hand,” Sarah suggests.
If in case you have a stand mixer, nonetheless, the recipe turns into much more easy. I threw my flour, salt, and water in my mixer fitted with a dough hook, turned on the machine, and walked away. The Woks of Life recipe suggests letting the dough knead for 20 minutes so I adopted that recommendation. By the tip of the 20 minutes, my dough ball was clean and elastic sufficient to interrupt off a bit and stretch it barely, an indicator the Leung sisters use to inform that the dough is finished. From there, it’s all about resting.
“The important thing to creating the dough and guaranteeing it’s elastic sufficient to tug is letting it relaxation,” Kaitlin says. The Leungs’ recipe says to permit the dough to relaxation for an hour or two, however after the primary hour, mine nonetheless felt fairly tight and rigid. I wound up letting the dough relaxation for 4 hours till it was pliable and stretchy, the best way it’s alleged to really feel when it’s time to begin thwacking away.
As soon as the dough was prepared, I divided it into 10 comparatively equal components and, utilizing my palm, flattened every right into a small rectangle roughly 5 inches lengthy, two inches large, and a quarter-inch thick. Though this methodology differs barely from the Woks of Life’s, it comes from one other good supply: Jason Wang. I knew I wasn’t going to make use of all of the dough instantly, so I took two rectangles for noodle-pulling and coated the remaining in plastic to sit back within the fridge.
From there, I used a chopstick to indent each rectangles down the middle lengthwise, urgent laborious sufficient {that a} mark remained however not so laborious that the dough grew to become translucent. This guiding line helps when it comes time to tear the noodle in half after stretching.
From there, it was time to make music. In the event you’re fortunate, you’ve a kitchen island or prep desk that’s massive sufficient for banging noodles. I, sadly, don’t, so I attempted creating my very own prep desk by inserting a big sheet pan over my stovetop. For the aim of making imperfect noodles, this labored out simply advantageous.
I started wiggling the noodles and banging them down onto my sheet pan, pulling and stretching in what felt like a clumsy rhythm. Positive sufficient, the noodles started to elongate, however not with out some combat. I saved my fingers pinched on every finish of the noodle and twisted my wrists, swaying the strand this fashion and that, making an attempt to get the dough to stretch even additional. I’ve to confess, it’s loads tougher than it appears to be like! The dough, at occasions, felt resistant, making an attempt to shrink again to its unique rectangular form. When all was stated and carried out, I used to be in a position to stretch my noodle out about three toes. Though I’ve seen hand-ripped noodles pulled far longer than this, I didn’t thoughts a lot as a result of I choose thick and chewy noodles.
After all of the thwacking, I discovered the indentation and pulled my noodle aside, so as a substitute of 1 lengthy strand it grew to become a prolonged, thinner circle of dough. The most effective half about this recipe is that after on a regular basis spent ready for the dough to relaxation, the noodles take a single minute and alter in boiling water to complete cooking.
You are able to do all kinds of issues with the noodles as soon as they’ve been made. “The 2 methods to serve them for me are in soup or in a sauce,” Sarah says. “I’ve by no means really tried to stir fry them; I make the sauce after which simply toss it within the wok.”
A conventional route could be to make a spicy lamb stew layered with the flavors of cumin, like the preferred dish at Xi’an Well-known Meals. You may add the noodles to soups or make a model of you po mian, or scorching chile oil noodles.
I went with the laziest methodology I may conjure (hey, I had simply spent hours ready for these noodles to be stretchable) and topped mine with Chinese language black vinegar, store-bought chile oil, soy sauce, and a few sliced inexperienced onions. Even with such a easy utility, the dish was a revelation. The chewy noodles grew to become a canvas for the tang of vinegar and savory hit of chile oil. I later used the leftover noodle dough for a Lao-inspired rooster noodle soup; in a dish with much less warmth and extra simplicity, the noodles nonetheless remained the star.
The feel of the noodles is one of the best half, so bouncy and toothsome that it’s laborious for me to imagine they price practically nothing to make. The most costly ingredient was time, which, seeing that it was principally inactive, felt properly price it to me.
Would I make these hand-ripped noodles once more? Positively. In actual fact, I believe prepping the noodle dough within the morning to have recent noodles by time for supper is a routine I wish to incorporate into the brand new 12 months. And with Lunar New 12 months developing, and noodles’ symbolism for longevity and luck, I undoubtedly will likely be thwacking my method to chewy, blissful prosperity once more quickly.
Lily Fossett is a contract illustrator primarily based in Bathtub, UK. She has a ardour for portraying narrative in her illustrations and makes use of digital media to discover coloration and texture.
