Foolproof Hand pulled noodles in red braised beef soup 牛肉手拉面

Name: Foolproof Hand pulled noodles in red braised beef soup 牛肉手拉面
Prep time: 3 h
Cook time: 2 min
Total time: 3 h 2 min
Yield: 3
Ingredients: 430 g All purpose flour; ¼ tsp Salt; 255 ml Water

AuthorYun Zhang JohnCategoryMeat, NoodlesDifficultyBeginnerRating

Yields3 Servings

Prep Time3 hrsCook Time2 minsTotal Time3 hrs 2 mins

Foolproof Hand pulled noodles in red braised beef soup 牛肉手拉面

Making hand pulled noodles seems highly technical and best left to the noodle masters who does it everyday for years, right? After all, those videos of chefs pulling multiple strands of fresh wheat noodles out of a block of dough with ease look so impressive and totally intimidating to attempt.

But I’m here to tell you that you CAN actually make a delicious bowl of hand pulled noodles or Lā Miàn/拉面 at home! Yes, it’s true!

Naturally, there are some techniques to this, but they are easy to follow and adapted for the home cook. It won’t take lots of practice either, if you follow the steps right, you will end up with bowls of springy, hearty and chewy hand pulled noodles each and every time.

Home version hand pulled noodles require:

1. FLOUR, WATER + SALT. - Note: All purpose flours works best here because of its middle-of-the range protein content of about 10-11% per 100g. Which means that it has enough gluten to be elastic but won’t spring back as much like in a higher gluten bread flour.

2. OIL. You will need enough oil to coat the rolled out dough thoroughly. This does 3 things:
- prevent the dough from drying out as it rests
- separated each of the noodle once they've been cut
- give the noodles a smooth finish

3. TIME. Time is of crucial importance because the dough needs ample time (at least 2 hours) to develop gluten that makes stretching possible. Without proper resting, the strips of dough will simply break when pulled.

Cooking and eating

Once you are ready to cook and eat, bring a pot of water to a boil and pull one portion at a time. For beginners, I would suggest to pull all the noodles for one portion first and put them on a plate instead of dropping each strand into the boiling water as you pull. This way is less stressful and more manageable. And the noodles will not stick together in the water if you give it a little stir.

Finally, do not overcook! These fresh noodles have more moisture than dry noodles and will only take 1-2 minutes, so fish them out of the water as soon as they are done.

How to eat them is up to you! Quickly stir fried in sauce? Tossed in spicy dressing? Or as in this version, eaten with my Sichuan style red braised beef.

Now you can enjoy a hand pulled beef noodle soup 牛肉手拉面 made entirely from scratch at home!

You Will Need

430 g All purpose flour

¼ tsp Salt

255 ml Water

Instructions

Combine flour and salt in medium mixing bowl.

Gradually add in the water as you bring the dough together with your hands. Each flour absorbs water differently so adjust as you see fit, you may need a little bit more or a little bit less. The dough should be fairly hard.

Knead the dough for a few minutes, then rest it covered for 10min. After 10min, knead it until you have a smooth dough ball. Cover and rest again for 10min.

After the second rest. Roll the dough ball into a sheet that is approx. 1/2 in thickness. Thoroughly coat both sides of the sheet of dough with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and leave it to rest for at least 2 hours.

After resting, unwrap and cut the sheets into strips. For regular size noodles, cut into 1/2 cm widths and 1cm widths for wider noodles.

Take one strip of dough and pull it out between your hands. Tapping gently on the table as you pull will help elongate and even out the noodle thickness. Repeat this process until you have enough for 1 portion.

Han-pulled Beef Noodles | Yun's Family Table

Drop the noodles in boiling water and quickly stir to make sure they don't stick together. Cook for 1-2 minutes and fish them out into a bowl.

Spoon over the red braised beef and soup base. Top with blanched green leafy veggies and some chopped green onions. Optionally, adjust seasoning to taste with soy sauce, vinegar and/or chilli oil and eat immediately.

Ingredients

430 g All purpose flour

¼ tsp Salt

255 ml Water

Directions

Combine flour and salt in medium mixing bowl.

Knead the dough for a few minutes, then rest it covered for 10min. After 10min, knead it until you have a smooth dough ball. Cover and rest again for 10min.

After resting, unwrap and cut the sheets into strips. For regular size noodles, cut into 1/2 cm widths and 1cm widths for wider noodles.

Han-pulled Beef Noodles | Yun's Family Table

Drop the noodles in boiling water and quickly stir to make sure they don't stick together. Cook for 1-2 minutes and fish them out into a bowl.

Foolproof Hand pulled noodles in red braised beef soup 牛肉手拉面

Ingredients Directions