I have been wanting to try making my own pasta for a long time now. This week is the 1 year anniversary of the Presto Pasta Nights roundups at Once Upon a Feast and I thought what better time to try? I do not have a pasta maker so I would have to make a pretty simple pasta and luckily I had come across one. Japanese udon noodles which are thick wheat based noodles, fit the bill perfectly. The udon noodles are nice and thick so you do not need a pasta maker to get them thin enough.
The ingredient list for udon noodles is pretty simple, just flour, water and a bit of salt. The recipe is pretty easy to follow though it required a bit of muscle and effort to knead and roll the dough. I used Harumi Kurihara’s suggestion from Harumi’s Japanese Home Cooking to step on the dough. It made making the dough a bit more fun and it was definitely easier to let my weight and gravity do the work of rolling the dough out for me. The dough came together pretty easily. It requires a few hours of resting so it might be best to do this on a weekend. The dough ended up being nice and smooth and chewy.
I decided to use the udon noodles in a soup with a really simple dashi and mentsuyu broth. The udon noodles took a while to cook as they were so thick but they turned out pretty good. The udon noodles had a really great chewy texture. I garnished the udon soup simply with green onions and togarashi. Togarashi is a chili powder condiment commonly used in Japan with a few extras like sesame seeds.
Overall I was pretty pleased with the home made udon noodles. I will be keeping an eye out for a good price on a pasta maker so that I can try making more kinds of pasta at home.
Udon Noodles
ingredients
- 1 tsp salt
- 2/3 cup water
- 2 1/2 cups flour
directions
- Dissolve the salt into the water.
- Mix the water into the flour in a large bowl.
- Knead the dough for 10 minutes.
- Place the dough into a freezer bag and step on it to flatten it with shoes off.
- Remove the dough from the plastic bag and roll it out.
- Fold the dough in half.
- Repeat steps 4-6 a few times.
- Let the dough rest for a few hours.
- Roll the dough out until it is about 1/8 inch thick.
- Fold the dough 2 or three times and slice into thin strips.
- Cook the noodles in boiling water for about 10 minutes.
Great work! They look really good.
This looks so delicious, Kevin. Making my own pasta is on my list of things to do this year, but I also don’t have a pasta maker/roller. I might have to give these a try!
WOW!!! That looks amazing 🙂
Nice job! I bet you will never go back to dried pasta 🙂
oh my fav…udon noodles..
Holy moley, that’s a whole new level of cooking right there! I grew up making egg noodles with my mom… there’s nothing quite like rolling fresh dough over and over is there? =)
I played around with making an egg pasta last weekend and it turned out great. I’ve wanted to try udon and these look so thick and good. I’ll have to try it out this weekend. Thanks for sharing!
wow, i’m so impressed! i would have never thought about making homemade udon noodles! great photo!
my girls love udon! Those look really good; I’ll have to make some soon!
Kevin, this looks fantastic. I love Udon but have never really thought about making it myself. My favourite is tempura udon. You have inspired me as this looks so delish and sounds easy to make.
They look great, Kevin! I’m impressed!
Good job! It looks totally authentic! I hope you get a pasta machine soon, it’s lots of fun 🙂
Good job Kevin! I can’t believe you made your own udon noodles! The stepping on the plastic bag technique is a nice touch. 🙂
You made your own udon noodles?WHOA!
I would have gotten store-bought ones but homemade is always the best. 🙂
Used to like udon when I was younger but now (when I’m older) I prefer soba. :p
More power to you, Kevin! I love udon noodles, but never even thought about making them — just eating them! This sounds simple enough for a newbie like me. And I love the thought of dancing on my noodles! (That’s what I picture when you said “stepping on (the) dough”.
I was going to make the chestnut stracci to go with my oxtail stew, but couldn’t find any chestnut flour. So pasta making is still in my future.
Kevin, I am very impressed…bravo, bravo, bravo!
Pretty impressive – although the ingredient list is short, it’s hard work. WTG
wow after katsudon now udon, you are really spoiling us 🙂 yummmy my favorite is tanuki udon 🙂
Spectacular!!!! Thanks so much for sharing this dish (and so many others) with Presto Pasta Night.
I always think of Udon noodles in a package…the thing I go to when I only have 5 minutes. This one is very impressive indeed.
I’ve made lots of pasta before but never Udon. I don’t know why. It looks easy and delicious. Maybe tomorrow night I will.
Udon Noodles always make me laugh because Roberto works for an illusration group called Udon in Canada…Your noodles look so yummy!
ooh, that looks so simple and yummy and chewy and perfect. making my onw udon is something i’ve been wanting to do for a while, but it’s to easy to order passable takeout versions.
Udon from scratch, that’s really adventurous! I want to try it out. Thanks for your recipe.
I’ve never made my own pasta before, but your successful efforts encourage me to try. I don’t have any room left in my kitchen for a pasta maker, so this is just perfect for me. Thanks Kevin!
That udon looks beautiful. And it’s perfect with a simple broth and garnish. I hope you get your pasta maker soon!
KEVIN! You rock. Your udon recipe was great tonight with my Asian hot pot. Thanks for the inspiration!
http://gregcooks.blogspot.com/2008/03/asian-hot-pot.html
How freakin’ cool that you made it yourself! Where on earth did you get the idea?
wow these look really great, I’m defo gonna try these! Love the photo’s also!
What type of salt did you use? Different types will have different concentrations per volume. I personally use kosher salt for most of my cooking, but wanted to ask.
Marcus: I use kosher salt for cooking as well (including these udon noodles).
Thanks for the clarification. Can’t wait to try these. A friend got me hooked on udon at the local themed place. Stumbled across the blog here while looking info up on them.
Nice one Kevin! I have been wanting to ask about home made udon for quite a while now. I also use Harumi’s book very often (am planning to try Dengaku-style aubergine). I’ll definitely try it!
Hmm– maybe I'm just bad, but I followed this recipe pretty well, and the texture of my noodles were… not so good.
I had a lot of difficulty cutting the noodles– they kept ripping and falling apart.
Did I overwork the dough?
I think I'm going to stick to pre-made noodles in the future xD
green-tea-river: By the time that you are cutting the noodles they should not be very sticky and if it was then you can add a bit more flour. You fold them before cutting them to ensure that you can cut them with a single push of the knife in a downwards direction without sliding so the knife should go down and them come out cleanly.