“No one ever lets you do that. They have a person, so that’s very cool. Hi, I’m Vivian, and I’m a recipe developer. And I’m here at the New York Times’ cooking studio. And today, we’ll be making hand-pulled noodles. I first experienced the hand-pulled noodle dish — it was a little blue shop. I believe the name was called Number One Hand-pulled Noodles. It was very humble. You get a bowl and you just pick your noodle, and then they doused it in this very light broth. And if you were feeling baller, baller, then you can get the meat or the chicken or the pork.” [SLURPING] “The recipe I developed omits the bang-bang option just because it’s very dramatic. I wanted to ease the home cook in, like welcome them. Like, truly this recipe, anyone can do it. This dough was so forgiving. It is three ingredients, and all you need is some time. So it’s the perfect thing that you make it in the morning, you go run your errands, and then you come home, finish it off, 15 minutes. And you get a hot, nice dinner. This recipe has only three ingredients. The most important ingredient is definitely the bread flour. I like to use bread flour for this recipe because it has more gluten, more protein means more elasticity, which means more chew for you. And then we’re going to add a little salt and then some room-temperature water. I like to add half of it and then mix and then add the other half. So this is how it is, right? And then we’re going to add the rest. And in the beginning, I’m just folding it. It’s so dry and shaggy. But I promise, with a little love and a little time, she’s going to get there. Turn it out, and we’re going to start kneading. And this will take some time. So put on a good podcast, soundtrack. First, push it together, and then I push it over it, pull it, and then come back. Make a little pocket. And you’re going to feel that it’s getting stickier. Pick up all the little stragglers. You want to do this for about 10-ish minutes. But it’s actually a really fun process. It’s like playing with Play-doh. So it’s getting tighter and harder to pull because the gluten is fighting back. This is also a workout. You see she is fighting us. The stickiness, you feel like it’s a little sticky, but it’s really not like gloopy. It’s not like paper mache where it’s like coating your hands. It kind of sticks to your hand a little, and oop, give it back to me. It’s like a game of catch. O.K., so we’re almost there. And what I like to do is just tuck it, again, kind of like pizza dough. Oop. See? That’s what you’re looking for. Like, it doesn’t stick. She’s tired. Let’s let her hang out for about 20 minutes. That’s the first rest. And then you can really start shaping. You do need to wrap this up. You don’t want this to dry out because you don’t want a skin to form. 20 minutes about, give or take. So this rested for 20 minutes. We are going to prep our sheet tray before rolling it out. This will prevent it from sticking. So you can already feel it’s very relaxed. It’s not as ‘domey.’ Split this in half. We’re going to wrap this back up. This is to prevent it from drying out. And then from this half, we’re going to make another half. And you’re going to roll this out into an oval. Just fight back a tiny bit. So ideally, it’ll be about a foot long and then 4 inches wide. I feel like the most important thing is about 1/16 of an inch thick. O.K. Then you place this directly onto your oiled, prepared sheet tray. One thing that can also help is just shaping it a little bit into a ball. So when you roll it out, it’s a little more even. This is what you want. Brush this with a little bit of oil and then cover it with plastic wrap. Today’s recipe can lend itself to the wide noodles as well as the thin. It’s really about the base. O.K. And the shape will change a little. It’s trying to tuck back in itself. What we’re going for is something that’s very like, blah. It’s very, very relaxed. Like, imagine you’ve been on an all-inclusive resort for a month. You don’t want any air pockets because any air pockets are going to dry out that dough, creating that crust. So just press in. She can take it. Also feels really nice. You’re trying to relax it, so when you pull it, it’s like massage. It’s just like oh, O.K., I’ll go with you. So that’s how you get those long noodles rather than dense little, like angry noodle pieces. So we have a little bit of an experiment to explain why the resting time is so important. This one was just freshly rolled out. This is at the three-hour mark, which is the minimum, and then this is the six hour, which is a soft maximum. You can go a little bit longer. Let’s focus on the one we just did. So what you want to do is divide each piece into eight even pieces. So the way I like to cut is always half first, and then divide this. I learned this in restaurants because I was responsible for cutting the desserts, and they were not even and I got in a lot of trouble. So this is how I cut stuff. You can use a pizza cutter or you can use a knife, so as even as possible. So what you want to do is pull this a little. And you can see that it’s pulling, but I’m definitely not comfortable pulling it for the full 2 feet because it will rip because it is still pretty tense. This is as max as I’m going to go. So we pulled probably about a little, like a double. So resting is important. Now, let’s do our three hour, which is the minimum. Do need to assist it out. It’s very relaxed. It’s already way more relaxed, so it’s stretching out a bit. But it does still pull away. So this one, we’re going to pull a little. And you can see that it’s definitely pulling easier. We can start seeing those little peaks of light through it. So when you get to this part, you want to be able to support it. You can just pull the sides and jiggle a little. Even with this while I’m jiggling, I’m still not comfortable pulling it to the full 2 feet. Can you cook this? 100 percent. Would it be delicious? 1,000 percent. Since we have the six hour, let’s go. Let’s see how that one hangs out. Six hours — best way to describe it is blah. She is relaxed. Let’s cut. Six hours, and we’re going to pull. And it’s like the least amount of effort. It’s so gentle. It’s so soft. And look. Giving, elastic — that’s why we choose bread flour. O.K., so the ends are getting a little chubbier. What I want to do is lay her down. We can continue to pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, stay. Pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull. O.K. So it is extremely thin. You can see it’s like sheer. This is what we’re going for. This will give you that texture. It’ll cook so quickly. Get another sheet tray oiled, and then we’re going to transfer over. I don’t want people to get afraid that, how am I going to overlap? Is it going to get stuck? Is it going to rip? It’s not. Like, I literally just pick it up and I plop it in. And if it sticks together, it’s O.K. Look. It’s all ribbony. So we’re going to pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull. Whoopsie. If it rips a little, it’s O.K. It’s O.K. Tuck, tuck, tuck. They don’t have to be perfect. Like, in the grand scheme of things, there just going into a bowl and you’re slurping them up, very different than my fine-dining days. See? You did it. So now, we are going to do the thin version because like I said, this dough can be manipulated into many ways. So for the thin one, make little pieces. Just remember, the more you cut, the more you got to pull. These are not going to be as long. They’re a little skinnier, but they’re just as elastic. So you just have to pull them a little. And for this, because the structure is so much thinner, I like to do the inch pull. Pull one part, and I do this. Just let gravity kind of hang out. See? It’s just relaxed and easy. When I was developing this at home, my husband saw me doing this. He goes, ‘what are you doing’? And then I asked him to help me pull noodles, and he had the best time. Woop. Woop. If you want, you can go for thicker pieces, like 1/2 inch. It’s really whatever you’re comfortable with. These little strands can definitely be pulled to at least 2 feet long. There’s so many techniques to do this. There’s so many different ways. It just naturally — like, you just want to bop along. This is just a very like foolproof, safe way. Does it take more time? Yes, but that’s what cooking is. You just enjoy the process. Done! Hand-pulled noodles, thin, and thick. Now, we’re going to eat them, and it’s definitely smelling like a noodle shop in here. We have our noodles. We have water boiling. And you kind of want to do more than one piece at a time because they cook fast. So you can cut them, drop them in. Multitask, multitask. O.K., you just want to take your chopsticks and swoosh it around. And they’re pretty much done. Like, that’s how fast they are. That’s how thin they are. And I would do one batch at a time. O.K., so now it’s floating. And then we’re going to scoop it up with our chopsticks, shake out the excess water. And then transfer directly to the plate that you’re going to enjoy them on. So now we’re going to repeat with the second batch. O.K., and drop them in. Dress her up. I like to add chili oil, the beautiful scallion julienne, some cilantro, and I like to douse it with a little bit of black vinegar. So now, let’s make our thin noodles. And we’re just going to grab and put it. Take the chopstick, swoosh it around. And once they float, which they already floating, and add them to the bowl and repeat. And you just made a bowl of hand-pulled noodles. I always went to Chinatown because it was home. It felt very much like homey, and I understood the language very well. And I miss home. I was homesick because being a line cook, you don’t get to go home every week, even on your day off. Having that simple bowl of noodles felt like I was still at my mom’s kitchen. I always missed my parents cooking, so it was just a little piece of home for me. I love a water noodle when it’s the drier assemble just because it holds on to the sauce, for better or for worse, because this chili oil is rather spicy. So I might regret that. As for the soupier version, which is the thinner, rice similar condiments, but I do have an addition of the yow choy and the [INAUDIBLE]. And those are great because this just brings me back to line cook days. And this was the comfort food that I pretty much grew up on.” [SLURPING] “Mmm. I think food is so special that it takes you right back to the place when you first had it. And it’s just comfort. It’s just comfort. That’s what it is, bowl of comfort. So this one’s definitely a little chewier. It did sit for a tiny bit. The chewiness, you can already see. Texturally, definitely a lot more true, but in a good way, not like it’s fighting you. It’s just giving you a little nudge. The scallion julienne gives it that nice crunch. Black vinegar really cuts on all of that chili oil, that heat. It’s just holding on to that chili oil really, really well. They’re both great. They’re both delicious. I really hope that you feel inspired and get in there and make it and have fun with it. But before we go, Vaughn’s here, so I’m going to have him come in and dig in.” “Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Well, I got to go with the spicy.” “We’re both getting it. Running out here.” “It’s so good. Mmm. You did put a lot of chili oil on that. Woo!” “We’re going to get out of here and get some water.” “No, I love it.” “You can find this recipe and my other recipes on New York Times’ Cooking.” [MUSIC PLAYING]
Hand-Pulled Noodles – The New York Times
