Hi, I'm Francis,
the host of this show "Cooking with Dog."
Let's make the salt water to knead into the flour.
Dissolve the measured salt (15g) in the water (130ml) completely.
Sift the wheat flour into the large bowl.
This wheat flour is specially made for udon noodles.
We recommend that you use the flour with protein content 9.0 to 9.5%.
Roughly flatten the flour with your fingers.
Gradually mix in two third of the salt water.
Toss to coat and moisten the flour evenly.
The dough softness depends on the room temperature, humidity and a type of wheat flour,
so gradually add the salt water and adjust as you go.
Mix in the rest of the salt water but leave 1 tsp of it in case you need to adjust the moistness.
Give it a quick mix with your hand.
Scoop the damp flour with your hands and mix until crumbly.
If the dough is too dry and powdery, add the remaining salt water.
Press the crumble flour mixture with your hand and form into a dough.
Put the dough in a food storage bag and fold the bag in the middle.
The dough is not smooth at this stage and it will easily break apart.
Let's knead the dough with a rolling pin.
Use your body weight to press the dough.
Gradually shift the rolling pin and spread the dough until the bag is filled.
Roll up the dough in the bag
and turn it by 90 degrees.
Fold the bag in the middle and spread the dough into a sheet.
Repeat the kneading process around 5 to 6 times.
It will take about 10 minutes to get the smooth even texture.
To see if the texture is even, remove the dough from the bag.
If the dough is not smooth enough, give extra kneading process.
Press the dough into 1 inch thickness and rest it in the bag for 10 minutes.
The dough becomes a bit softer in the resting process and you can easily shape the dough.
Face down the dough on its smooth surface, press it with your palm to even thickness.
Fold the edges of the dough toward the center.
Be careful not to leave the air in the dough.
Rotate and shape the dough into a ball.
Replace the dough in the bag and leave it at room temperature for 2 hours for fermentation.
Let's make the udon noodles.
Spread the corn starch on the pastry board and also dust on top of the dough.
Apply your weight and press the dough ball with the rolling pin.
Flatten the half of the dough away from you
and flatten the other half toward you.
Rotate the dough by 90 degrees and repeat the process.
Next, roll out the half of the dough from you
and roll out the other half toward you.
Rotate it by 90 degrees and repeat the rolling process.
Roll up the dough around the pin
and roll it down on the pastry board.
Rotate the dough sheet by 90 degrees and repeat the process.
Spread the dough evenly in a square and make sure it has less than 1/8 inch thickness.
Apply the corn starch on the dough
and roll it around the rolling pin.
Dust the starch on the cutting board
and spread the dough on the surface.
Put generous amount of starch on the dough,
fold it
and put on the starch again.
Fold the rest of the dough but be careful not to overlap the creases.
The dough easily stick together
so put the corn starch generously for each fold.
Place the baking sheet near the cutting board.
Dust the starch on top of the folded dough.
Position the knife vertically to the creases and cut the dough into noodles.
Shake off the starch and line up the udon noodles on the baking sheet.
The noodles are less than 1/8 inch width now but almost double in size after cooking them.
If the noodles stick together, gently tear the noodles off one by one.
Be careful not to cut your hand.
Let's cook the udon noodles.
Lightly shake off the corn starch and submerge half of the udon noodles in the boiling water.
Gently stir with the chopsticks so that the noodles don't stick to the bottom of the pot.
When the water starts to boil, reduce the heat to low.
Cover with the lid and cook for 13 to 15 minutes.
If the water is boiling hard, remove the lid and lightly stir the noodles.
Use generous amount of water to cook the noodles,
otherwise the water gets starchy and the salt in the noodles doesn’t dissolve into the boiling water.
Pick a noodle with the chopsticks, immerse it in cold water
and see if it has the texture you like.
Take the pot to the sink,
strain and rinse the udon noodles with running water.
Using fresh cold water prevents the udon noodles from getting gooey and improves the texture.
Drain the noodles well
and serve them on a dish.
Please enjoy the udon as soon as possible,
otherwise it will become soggy.
Spring onions, grated ginger and sesame seeds go great with noodle soup.
This homemade udon is absolutely delicious with chewy but nice and refreshing texture.
Good luck in the kitchen!