Liangpi

Noodles made by washing the gluten out of a dough, steaming what settles, and eating the washed-out gluten alongside.

Vegan.

Ingredients

For the dough

• 500 g strong white flour
• 250 ml water
• 5 g salt

To dress

• 6 tablespoons chilli oil with its sediment
• 4 tablespoons black vinegar
• 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed with 3 tablespoons water
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 cucumber, in matchsticks
• 100 g beansprouts, blanched 30 seconds
• flavourless oil, for the tins

Method

1. THE DOUGH IS WASHED UNTIL THE WATER RUNS CLEAR, and the noodle is made from the water rather than the dough. Kneading under water pulls the starch out and leaves the gluten behind as a grey rubbery lump; the starch settles out of the cloudy water overnight, and THAT is what gets steamed. The lump is steamed too and eaten alongside. Nothing is thrown away and nothing else here is difficult.
2. IT TAKES A NIGHT OF STANDING AND CANNOT BE HURRIED. The starch needs to settle completely and the water above it poured off; rush it and the sheets are thin and tear.
3. Flour, water and salt kneaded to a firm dough, 8 minutes, then rested covered 1 hour.
4. The dough submerged in a large bowl of cold water and squeezed and kneaded under it. The water goes white within a minute.
5. When the water is thick and milky, pour it through a sieve into a second container and start again with fresh water. Four or five changes, until the water stays nearly clear.
6. What is left in your hands is the gluten -- a grey elastic lump about the size of a fist. Set it aside.
7. All the collected starch water left to stand overnight, covered, somewhere cool.
8. Next day the starch will have set to a firm white layer under clear water. POUR THE CLEAR WATER OFF AND THROW IT AWAY, and stir what is left to an even batter the thickness of single cream, adding back a little water if it is stiffer.
9. The gluten lump steamed 25 minutes. It puffs up spongy. Cooled, then torn into bite-sized pieces.
10. A flat metal tin brushed with oil, a ladle of batter poured in and tilted to a thin even layer, floated on boiling water in a covered wok.
11. 2 to 3 minutes, until it bubbles up and goes translucent. The tin lifted into cold water to cool, then the sheet peeled off and brushed with oil so they do not stick. Repeated with the rest.
12. Sheets stacked, rolled and cut into 2 cm ribbons.
13. Tossed with the gluten pieces, the cucumber and beansprouts, and everything in the dressing. Eaten cold the same day.

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.

Filed under China · All recipes