Food 29 Dec 2005 09:00 pm
noodles
I made noodles today for the first time in about fifteen years. I’d lost my old recipe and then gotten confused about the kinds of flour one should use — AP? durum semolina? a mix? — after reading a couple of well-regarded texts that disagreed on this point. So for a while I’d just thrown up my hands and said heck with it, and let my pasta machine sit idle.
Well, three eggs to two cups of all-purpose flour works fine for me. Those are the Cook’s Illustrated proportions. Oddly enough, their recipe includes no salt; I’ll toss in a pinch next time. And it’d be nice to add some whole wheat flour to the mix for health reasons.
The noodles are delicious — sort of silky and a little chewy. They were tasty enough with just butter and cheese, but I think I might like them even better in vegetable chow mein, perhaps rolled just one setting thicker on the pasta machine. I have no idea how to make chow mein, but surely it can’t be that hard, right?
So, that’s one thing I’ve been meaning to do for a while. Next up: making my own tortillas.
on 29 Dec 2005 at 10:26 pm 1.mizducky said …
Ask, and ye shall receive: here’s a lovely and easy-to-follow pictorial demonstration of how to make chow mein.
on 29 Dec 2005 at 10:30 pm 2.Cam Sculpin said …
Hey hey! Thanks! And it involves fire — excellent.
That whole pictorial series is brilliant. What a good find!
on 29 Dec 2005 at 11:13 pm 3.Josh said …
Mmm, those were very good noodles. Excellent texture, nice and long, very tasty. It’s been ages since I’ve had fresh pasta; thank you!
Mmm.
on 30 Dec 2005 at 12:01 am 4.Wim said …
Kylee and I have been making our tortillas for a while now. It’s pretty easy and they’re quite good.
on 30 Dec 2005 at 1:38 pm 5.cissa said …
OK, now I’m going to have to try that recipe! I’ve only made pasta by hand once, and that was before I has a pasta machine so it was, er, less than a resounding success. And way too much work!
I have made tortillas, and it’s pretty easy if you have a press, and can get masa harina.
on 31 Dec 2005 at 5:48 am 6.Rebecca Loudon said …
I’ve never found a good recipe from Cook’s Illustrated. Effecient and unremarkable yes, but never really delicious.
I make my own tortillas too, on occasion, but they’re a lot of work if you don’t have a big grill. So much easier to buy them fresh from a Mexican market (there is one on N. Aurora, it’s pink. If you talk to the owner a bit, she’ll give you her famous recipe for mole.)
You can get masa harina at Albertsons.
on 31 Dec 2005 at 10:59 am 7.Cam Sculpin said …
Hi, Rebecca!
I’ve done pretty well with Cook’s Illustrated, I think. Their vegetable stock recipe is the only one I’ve found that’s any good at all. (Some people put fennel in their stock. Augh!) But, yeah, I’d generally classify their recipes as “dependable” rather than “exceptional”. If there’s a general-purpose cookbook you like better, especially one that leans vegetarian-ward, I’d love to hear about it.
The noodles were delicious, though. I used some fairly fresh King Arthur flour and some very fresh organic eggs, which probably did the trick.
I’ve got masa harina on hand (it’s everywhere now!) so it’s just a matter of getting out the tortilla press. The market down near the Pike Place Market has fresh masa, I hear, which I’ll have to try one of these days.
This tortilla-making scheme does go against the advice I was given when I was married. China, the very glamorous wife of Josh’s godfather, took me aside and told me never to make tortillas. If I did, she said, Josh would always expect them. Hm. Come to think of it, maybe Josh ought to make those tortillas.
on 31 Dec 2005 at 11:49 am 8.Rebecca Loudon said …
Cam I occasionally use the good old fashioned (I’m talking the 1956 version that teaches you how to skin a squirrel) Joy of Cooking for basic sauces and stuff, but I’m not a cookbook kind of cook. I gather recipes from others who love to cook, and experiment and mess around. I made mole last year for the first time and it took me 3 tries to get it perfect. It’s a lot of work but worth it. I taught myself how to make baguettes and brioche. And I’m a real foodie (sounds like you are too.) I put fennel in my minestrone, but I put lemon grass in my basic vegetable stock. It gives the stock a bright flavor that can’t be found in the canned or powdered stuff.
on 31 Dec 2005 at 1:14 pm 9.Cam Sculpin said …
Nah, I’m not really a foodie. I grew up on Lipton soup and I come from a long line of awful cooks. (The old family recipe for vegetables: take one can, boil until gray.) My mother was probably the best cook in her family, if only because she avoided cooked vegetables as much as possible. I flatter myself that I’m a bit better than she is, mostly thanks to the Italian woman who lived next door to me when I was in high school and introduced me to fresh herbs and garlic.
Really, it’s remedial cooking and eating that I’m engaged in.
But I have high hopes of gaining some skill. One of the best cooks I know came from a family whose usual dishes included what he calls “Cream of Wheat with Garlic Pucks”. He sat himself down and figured a bunch of culinary things out; now he makes a flourless chocolate cake that could kill you with pleasure at ten paces.
Perhaps some day I’ll make a double-crust pie that doesn’t look like a model of some kind of geological disaster. Then I will know I’ve arrived.