|
|
|
|
How to Prepare Delicious Noodle
Meal The proper way to prepare
delicious noodle
meal, with the right texture and hardness:
 |
|
Never too long! The longer the merrier.
The prerequisite
of
a delicious noodle dish is:
The correct degree of hardness of
its strands,
and the unbroken strands.
No matter how tasty
is the soup stock, how much and how fresh are the ingredients used;
if the noodle is too
soft or too short, the dish will not be delicious!
|
| |
|
|
|
|
The noodle is too short!
A good cook is one who get the right hardness
and the right texture for different types of
noodle.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Vermicelli or flat rice noodle,
though soft, still unbroken and elastic to the touch.
This white variety is popularly known as
koay
teow.
|
| |
|
|
 |
|
This is the ever popular
fried koay teow. Again,
the length is important, must not be to short.
|
The fresh noodles
These are the 'moist' type. They are
usually cooked
on the day of purchase, or the most, kept for a few days.
Minimal
rinsing is required, otherwise the noodle will become too soft and
inelastic.
No scalding with hot or even warm water is required. Just
rinse it with running tap water and drain dry immediately to
retain the stiffness of strands.
If washing is really needed, then learn a bit of
blanching
skill for noodles.
Strand stiffness is the basic requirement for
noodle to be delicious. In many occasions, for example, the Chinese
rice vermicelli, koay teow, rinsing is not recommended.
The koay teow itself is clean, and too soft to withstand washing.
The dry noodles- thin
type
(Less than 1 mm thick)
Just soak the dry noodle, for
example, beehoon, in water at
room temperature, for about 5 minutes.
Drain dry for later use. The beehoon should still be
in unbroken
strands, capable of withstanding
finger-squeezing and pulling.
Do not soak the noodle till soft, as
subsequent cooking will further soften it. Use the cooking
time, and not the soaking time, to soften the noodle.
For soup preparation, it is less problematic. Just add this to
boiling soup, bring to boil, and switch off fire immediately.
The noodle will soften very soon.
For frying,
fry other ingredients till fragrant, add 2 tbsp of soup
stock or soy sauce (per serving). Add
the noodle,
stir fry over high heat till dry (this takes only about 1 -2
minutes).
For frying cellophane noodle (tung hoon), replace 2 tbsp with
1/2 cup. If you fry tung hoon or cellophane noodle
without water, it will stick to the wok. Food will end up
not presentable!
The
dry noodle or beehoon,
thick type
(More than 2 mm thick)
Soak the noodle in lukewarm
water for about 1 - 3 minutes
Drain dry and
add to boiling
water. Boil for less than 1 minute.
Test the texture,
ensuring that the strands are still elastic, not broken. When
squeezed, one can feel the softness of the strands, but still
elastic, not broken. So, the correct word to describe the required
quality may be 'tensile'!
Certain times, noodle needs to be
blanched
before cooking.
Substitutions - The
Italian pastas make good stand-ins for egg and wheat
flour noodles. Which pasta you choose will depend on the shape
and thickness of the noodle you are replacing. (For example,
thin angel hair pasta can be used to substitute for cellophane
or rice noodles, while fettuccine makes a good replacement for
wheat flour noodles).
In all cases of
substitution, get them ready in
‘al-dente’
state before the actual cooking starts.
|
|
Top |
