Udon
A very stiff salted dough kneaded underfoot, rested twice and cut thick.
Vegan.
Ingredients
- 500 g strong plain flour
- 25 g salt, for the dough -- most of it boils out
- 220 ml water
- potato starch, for dusting
Method
- KNEADED WITH THE FEET, and that is not a flourish. This dough is far too stiff to work by hand -- 44% hydration, which is drier than bread and barely comes together. Seal it in a bag, put it on the floor on a towel, and walk on it steadily.
- THE SALT IS STRUCTURAL, NOT SEASONING. 5% of the flour weight, which looks alarming. It tightens the gluten and is the entire reason udon is springy rather than soft, and almost all of it leaves in the cooking water.
- Dissolve the salt in the water completely before it touches the flour.
- Mix to a shaggy, crumbly mass. It will look far too dry and will not form a ball. Press it together into a rough disc.
- Bag it and tread it flat, 5 minutes. Fold it in three, bag it, tread again. Repeat four times.
- FIRST REST, 2 hours at room temperature in the bag. The dough relaxes from unworkable to pliable without any further kneading, and skipping this makes the rolling impossible.
- Tread it out once more, fold, then SECOND REST, 1 hour.
- Roll out to an even 3 mm, dusting with potato starch, then fold the sheet in three and cut across into 3 mm strips with a heavy knife.
- Shake the cut noodles loose in plenty of starch.
- BOIL IN A LARGE PAN, 10 to 12 minutes, which is far longer than it looks like they need. Then rinse hard under cold water, rubbing them -- that washes the surface starch and the salt off and is what gives the finished noodle its snap.
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 Japan · All recipes