Ramen – Beyond Umami

Hand-rolling noodles

Beyond Umami — Mon, 04 Apr 2016 02:50:00 +0000

Thanks for all your questions and feedback on my last post on making ramen noodles from scratch.

One of the questions that was asked was: “What if we don’t have a pasta roller, can we still make noodles?”

YES, YOU CAN!

This post is going to be about a hand-rolling technique. I came across this during my attempts at making Soba Noodles (coming in a later post). Soba noodle making involves a series of complicated kneading, folds, and rolling which I won’t be covering in this post.

Instead of a pasta rolling machine you’ll need a rolling pin and a sharp knife (preferably one with a flat edge like a cleaver).

Follow the recipe for creating the dough for ramen (ver. 8) up to dividing your dough into 4 portions. The size of the portion I’m working with is about the size of a closed fist.

Using a rolling pin and starting from the middle of the ball, roll out in both directions (e.g. middle upwards, middle downwards).
Keep going until you can wrap the dough around the rolling pin about 1 1/2 times (it should definitely overlap) and you see a “tongue”.

This dough overlaps but not enough! Keep going!

Roll from middle out until you can wrap around your rolling pin and the dough sticks out like a tongue.
The next step is to roll the rolling pin across while the dough is still wrapped around the rolling pin.
When you reach the edge or end of your surface, don’t roll it back, instead drag the rolling pin back to the starting edge. If you roll back in the other direction your dough will unravel. It’s more efficient to roll only in one direction instead of back and forth.
Keep doing this until you have the desired thinness (keep in mind that the noodle will double in thickness when it’s cooked). Using your hand, roll up the dough.
With your sharpest flattest knife start slicing discs from the rolled up dough.Slightly tilt your knife so that the disc is separated from the roll.
Using your hands, unravel the discs of noodles into a pile.

There you have it, hand-rolled, hand-cut ramen noodles without a pasta roller. Once you get used to the technique, it doesn’t take a significant longer amount of time (about 5-8 minutes more) than using the roller. The pasta roller is definitely more efficient compared to hand rolling but I’ve (secretly) tested this on Lillian and she didn’t notice the difference (in taste or texture) until I confessed.

As mentioned at the beginning, I came across this technique while trying to make soba noodles. I will continue to use this occasionally to practice my rolling technique for our pastas and ramen so that my soba noodle making skills will get better. One of the aspects that I’m working on is to maintain a uniformed rectangular shaped dough throughout the entire rolling process. In other words, the “tongue” should not be a pointed, it should be flat
and as wide as the rest of the dough. This will prevent weird
indentations in your dough.

Keep your questions coming!

Danprime’s Scratch Ramen Noodle Recipe Revisited

Beyond Umami — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 05:58:00 +0000

For my inaugural post I thought I would write about my homemade ramen noodle recipe. My quest to make a ramen noodles from
scratch started several years ago simply because the few Edmonton restaurants
that served ramen (at the time) were not lining up with what I was looking for.

Comparing ramen is difficult because it is extremely subjective. More importantly, ramen is one of those penultimate comfort foods because of memories attached with eating it. Ramen is not just any noodle, it’s the noodle that someone ate when they were hanging out with friends, it’s the noodle bowl from that place your parents took you to when you were young and you didn’t understand the menu but you were able to point to a specific bowl. In addition to dealing with memories there are so many different types, styles, and interpretations to ramen. When I’m testing ramen, I’m not trying to determine which one is better but which one is closer. Closer to the one I’m trying to manifest from a texture, flavour, chewyness I have in my mind rather than replicate a noodle I’ve eaten.

One of my very first memories of ramen-like noodles is this instant noodles from a brand called Mama. At the time, I didn’t know about words like al dente or umami, daily recommended sodium intake, I just knew that it was good! What was the first noodle you ate?

We posted our ramen noodle recipe and writeup a while ago and I have been tweaking the “winning” recipe and adjusting my recipe based on feedback and lots of testing. Since there have been multiple revisions (8 so far!), this post will be about my current (2016) homemade ramen noodle recipe and what I’ve done to get there.

What distinguishes ramen noodles from other noodles (e.g. pasta, rice
noodles, Japanese udon) is that they are alkaline (the opposite of being
acidic) whereas other noodles have no added alkalinity. Increasing alkalinity of the noodle dough makes the noodles
“slippery” and chewy with a slight yellow tint.

Danprime’s ramen noodle version 8

When it comes to testing ramen noodle recipes I spent a lot of time not only researching but also making several batches/recipes. All of the recipes add alkalinity through the use of either baking soda, baked baking soda, or kansui (also known as lye water). Over a year ago, through testing, I found that recipes that used baking soda made inconsistent noodles between successive batches (some batches were ok, some were too soapy, etc). Because the strength of the baking soda varies unpredictably it makes it difficult to adjust your recipe for the desired effect. I wanted my recipe to be repeatable and consistent which led to only testing recipes that called for kansui.

My noodle recipe (revision 8) on the left, a ramen recipe from norecipes.com on the right.

I’m not the only one to make several iterations of ramen noodle recipe, here are two from http://notsoancientchinesecrets.com/

When making ramen here are a few terms that are useful to describe noodles:

Elasticity / Springiness / Chewiness – how quickly the cooked noodle tries to return to it’s shape after it’s been deformed
Tensile Strength – the force required to break a cooked noodle
Flavour – Ramen noodles are characteristically alkaline (opposite of acidic) which imparts what some people describe as a soap-like flavour. If you want a strong example of alkaline noodes, try eating some wonton-noodles.
Liquid Adsorption – how well it carries the soup or broth as you eat the noodle (little adsorption means you don’t get much of the soup when you eat the noodles, high adsorption means you taste a lot more of the soup or broth as you eat/slurp your noodles).

The ramen recipe we posted is a great starting point because it was a very repeatable recipe. However, it was pointed out to me that the alkalinity of the noodles was quite strong, almost over-powering the more subtle flavours of the flour. I had been testing so many iterations to the point that I didn’t notice how alkaline it was until it was pointed out. This resulted in several iterations where I tried to reduce the alkalinity but maintain the chewyness. When you reduce the alkalinity in noodles, you tend to get softer (less elastic / chewy) noodles. So this recipe balances the alkalinity and chewyness that I’m looking for.

Danprime’s Ramen Noodle Version 8

Homemade Ramen Noodle Recipe (version 8)

Ingredients

240g of All Purpose Flour (I used the NoName brand from Loblaws/Superstore/No Frills)
60g of bread flour (not the whole-wheat kind, just regular bread flour)
10g of dried gluten powder (Bulkbarn)
3g of kansui (also known as lye water bought at T&T)
137g of room temperature water (22 C) separated into half-cup (125g) and remainder less than a tablespoon (12g)

Toppings for ramen.

Equipment

KitchenAid Stand Mixer
Mixing bowl
Pasta roller with noodle cutter

Yield

4-6 servings

Time

4 hours

Instructions

Put all dry ingredients in mixing bowl of KitchenAid stand mixer and turn on machine at speed level 4 for a few minutes.
Mix kansui into 125g (half cup) of water
Lower the stand mixer’s speed to second lowest setting
Slowly pour kansui + water solution into mixing bowl while the stand mixer is still mixing.
The flour should start to clump together like wet sand or brown sugar but is still relatively loose.
Add remaining water and the flour should now form little nuggets, if it’s still powdery-sand-like slowly add water in teaspoon increments until the one or two nuggets form.
Stop mixer and start kneading the dough inside the bowl. I find it easier inside the bowl as it keeps everything together
Knead for 15 minutes until a solid mass of dough is formed
Transfer dough to table (note that you shouldn’t really need to use a lot of extra flour at this point), continue to knead for another 5-8 minutes. Dough should really be resistant to kneading at this point.
Wrap in food wrap and place dough ball in the fridge for around 3 hours. I used to leave it overnight but I have found that it didn’t make that much of a difference.
Setup pasta roller to be at the largest setting
Divide into 8 smaller balls (i.e. divide into half, divide each half into halves, and divide those halves into another halve). If you’re doubling the recipe, divide into 16 balls.
Flatten each ball a bit with your hand before you roll through the pasta roller
The first setting may require several passes. You are looking for a smooth sheet of dough to come out of the roller, no jagged edges or shaggy dough.
After the first pass, let the sheet of dough rest on the table for around 5 minutes (you can use this time to work on another ball). This is to let the dough rest a bit. If you are too aggressive in thinning out your dough you will lose some of the elasticity. At this point, you can start using flour to prevent the dough from sticking
After the first pass, decrease the thinness and run it through at least twice each setting, always letting the dough rest for a few minutes between each setting.
Continue to decrease the thinness until you are at level 7 and let the dough rest for a few minutes.
Cut the sheet dough using the pasta cutter (liberally dust the cut noodles with flour).

Cooking the Noodles

With salted water at a vigorous boil, throw two sheets worth of noodles into the water and cook for 100 seconds

Using a wire mesh strainer helps keep the noodles contained.
Take noodles out and lightly rinse the noodles in cold water to shock and stop them from cooking.
Serve with your favourite broth.

Timing is everything with cooking homemade ramen noodles but you’ll want to keep your broth near boiling so that your ramen bowl is nice and hot.
Enjoy!

With this iteration, I managed to reduce the alkalinity without sacrificing the chewyness. This was done by adding extra gluten via both powder form and adding of bread flour. While some homemade ramen noodles call for salt, I find that the salt is used to counter the kansui and with higher kansui, you actually get less broth adsorption. The kansui literally makes the noodles more slippery and makes it harder to carry the flavour of the soup into your mouth.

I don’t believe that this will be the end-all recipe for ramen noodles but I’m quite happy with this version, it balances the flavour, and chewyness I’m looking for.

What’s your favourite noodle memory?

Vancouver Eats – Kintaro Ramen

Beyond Umami — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:25:00 +0000

Here is another delicious place to try out from my short trip to Vancouver. Since Dan needed to beef up on the carbs before his marathon the next day, Kintaro Ramen fit the bill perfectly. Their portions are positively huge! Typically, the wait for Kintaro is often long but we got there right before the rush around 6pm. The only thing about Kintaro is that they don’t seat your party until everyone is present. Luckily all my dinnermates arrived promptly and we didn’t lose out on the only big table available in the restaurant.

Open kitchen with bar seating around.

Miso Ramen – bean sprouts, onion, menma, corn & bbq pork ($7.95)
notes: Very filling! The entire bowl was filled to the brim with noodles and soup stock.

Ramen – blend of soybean paste, 12 spices from 4 different regions.
note: on the spicy side. Again, super filling and filled to the brim.

Shoyu Ramen a – bean sprouts, menma, nori and BBQ pork ($7.25)

Miso Ramen again – but with green onions

Gyoza – $3.75 for 5 pieces

Overall, the food at Kintaro Ramen was great. The noodles were fresh and had a nice firmness to it as you bit into the noodles (not soggy, or undercooked). Clearly, a great way to fill up on carbs. Just remember to go early before the rush, or you’ll be stuck outside staring hungrily at the patrons downing their gigantic bowls of ramen.

Kintaro Ramen

788 Denman St.

Vancouver, BC

(604) 682-7568

Noodle Maker – Satisfying Bowl of Chinese Noodles

Beyond Umami — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 03:26:00 +0000

Update: This place is now sadly closed! We wish Mr. To the best and hopes he opens another restaurant soon! You can still get his montreal style bagels from the same location his restaurant was at.

Noodle Maker recently joined the Edmonton China-town area this March. It is opened by Mr. To who is known, in some circles, for introducing green onion cakes to Edmonton! Mr. To’s new restaurant is located in Chinatown close to the Harbin Gates.

As there was a group of us that day, we had the advantage of ordering a few of their noodle bowls. Now, every time I go to a chinese noodle place with roots towards Shanghai or Taiwain, I always look for their version of the Beef Noodle Soup or ‘niu ro mian’ (牛肉麵), as it is my favorite noodle. I was certainly not disappointed with Noodle Maker’s. The noodles are truly satisfying. The soup base is tasty and the noodles are done just right. They have a chewy, but firm texture. Mr. To also mentioned that all of his noodles are made in Edmonton. Pictured below is the Beef and Beef Tendon with Shanghai Noodle and bonito broth.

We also tried these bowls as well. All were great choices! Just remember, that if you’re ordering the Dan-Dan Mian or the Ja-Jian Mian, you will want to mix up the noodles first before eating. That way, all the flavours of the sauce will be well mixed with the noodles. The broth is pretty consistent in all of the noodles and can be described as flavourful. However, for those that are not used to Goat, the Goat Noodle may be a bit different as it is flavoured in the traditional way, and may have a ‘sour’ taste for some palates.

These were also a great choice on our second visit.

The Terriyaki Chicken Ramen in a red miso broth was very good. It hit the spot! Perfect on those colder days, or even when you have a craving for ramen. The Gyoza (fried Japanese dumplings) were prepared well and remained crispy. The sauce that accompanied them gave them a little extra boost in taste.

So, if you’re craving for a good bowl of noodle stop by Noodle Maker in Chinatown. You can’t go wrong with their combination of noodle, soup and taste. Perhaps, you’ll also have a chance to meet Mr. To!

Noodle Maker

9653 – 102 Ave
(780) 428-0021
Open: Monday to Friday – 11am to 10pm
Calling ahead is recommended especially during the evening.