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Lamian

Wheat noodles pulled out by hand rather than rolled and cut, where each rest is what makes the next pull possible.

Vegan.

Ingredients

Method

  1. THESE ARE PULLED, NOT ROLLED, and the difference is not showmanship. A rolled noodle is cut to its width; a pulled one is stretched to it, and the stretching lines the gluten up along the length, which is what gives the noodle its bite in the bowl.
  2. THE DOUGH IS NOT WORKED UNTIL IT IS SMOOTH. It is worked until it is rough, and then left alone. Flour and water need time far more than they need kneading, and the commonest failure here is ten hard minutes at the start followed by a dough as tight as elastic that will not pull at all.
  3. Salt stirred into the warm water until it has gone. Poured into the flour in a thin stream, turned with chopsticks until no dry flour is left and the bowl holds a shaggy uneven mass.
  4. Brought together with one hand for 2 minutes only. It will be lumpy and will tear if pulled. That is correct at this stage.
  5. FIRST REST, 30 minutes, covered. Then knead 3 minutes -- it will have changed completely and comes smooth almost at once.
  6. SECOND REST, 1 hour, covered. This is the one people skip and the one that decides whether the dough pulls.
  7. Divided into 8, each rolled into a rope the thickness of a thumb, coated all over in oil and laid in a dish touching. THIRD REST, 30 minutes under the oil, which stops a skin forming -- and a skin is what makes a rope snap.
  8. Take one rope. Hold both ends, draw your hands apart slowly to about twice the length, bring the ends together, twist, and let it hang and untwist itself. Repeat. It lengthens a little more each time.
  9. IF IT RESISTS, STOP AND WAIT FIVE MINUTES. It is not weak, it is tight. Pulling harder tears it, and no amount of resting afterwards repairs a torn rope.
  10. When it is long enough to be awkward, fold it in half, pinch the ends together and pull the doubled strand -- that is two noodles. Fold and pull again for four, once more for eight. Dust with flour between folds or they weld together.
  11. Boiled in the largest pan of unsalted water you have, 90 seconds to 2 minutes, in batches small enough that the water never stops moving. Lifted straight into bowls.
  12. They do not keep. A pulled noodle left standing goes slack within the hour, which is why they are pulled to order.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

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