Homemade Thick Rice Noodles aka Laksa Noodles

 

I have been wanting to learn how to make Thick Rice Noodles from scratch but have been procrastinating for a while. This is one of my favourite noodles especially eaten with curry soup or laksa soup. Finally , I managed to get it done when the Potato Riser I ordered arrived a few weeks ago. I do not have a Muruku maker at home to press out the dough but the recipe stated that I could use a potato riser instead. I thought it would be a great idea to get a potato riser instead of a Muruku maker. A Potato Ricer  is a tool used to rice boiled potato making them more light and fluffier in texture, great for making Gnocchi. That  helps me decide to get a potato ricer. Killing two birds with one stone :)

This morning I decided to try my hands at making Thick Rice Noodles and I was glad that noodles turned out great, where texture is concerned. Light and springy and not starchy at all. I used Angie's recipe from her You tube channel. Her easy step by step tutuorial video is a great help and thus I was able to get it done well. I greased the inside of the Potato Ricer with vegetable oil so that the dough will slide out easier when extruded out from the tool into the boiling water. I had so much fun making them and this recipe is a keeper.

 

 

note: once cooked and taken out from the boiling water, the noodles has to be

placed in cold water

it is best to get a food grade stainless steel potato ricer 

for making this Thck Rice Noodle

 

the dough should be soft yet not too sticky

 Thick Rice Noodles aka Laksa Noodles Dough

 

Ingredients

1 cup Rice Flour  - pan fried for a few minutes

2 tbsp Potato Starch

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 cup boiling water

Step by Step Tutorial on how to make the noodle, click video link

Aromatic And Easy Three Cup (San Bei ) Tofu

This is one awesome  tofu dish that I had eaten this year.  It is a Taiwanese dish that is packed with Thai Basil and coated aromatic sauce. It is called Three Cups Tofu because it is made of three main ingredients namely  : Soy Sauce , Toasted Sesame Oil and Chinese Cooking Wine.  According to Woon Heng whose recipe I used , wrote saying that it is not necessarily to use 1 cup each of the main ingredients. It would be too much. Thus I used equal parts or as close as possible to the portion of tofu used. It turned out so aromatic and delicious. The sauteed garlic, ginger and Thai basil gives this dish its aromatic flavour. Of course together with the sauce ingredients of Soy Sauce, Toasted Sesame Oil and Chinese Cooking Oil , this dish is a WOW and a keeper too. A vegetarian dish that is not bland at all.  You can use the same sauce recipe with Chicken meat too .  Check out the recipe link I have provided at the bottom of the page. A word of thanks to Woon Heng for sharing a great delicious and flavours packed tofu dish with us. It brings this Tofu dish up a level.

 

Click  link for Three Cup (San Bei ) Tofu

 

Taro Puff

This is my first time making Taro Puff aka Woo Kok in Cantonese. I fried the first piece and it turned out great. It has the crispy flakiness appearance,  but the second and third pieces doesn't have the flaky  appearance as the first one. Then it dawned on me that maybe the oil was not hot enough. I should have waited for the oil to heat up again before adding the second batch. I am happy with this stayhome project . It looks legit though :)  I replaced shortening with lard since I have lard in the fridge and I know there are many recipes out that uses shortening.  I prefer lard to shortening though it has artery clogging factor. It is okay since we don't eat this often.

I kept some of the taro pastry overnight in the fridge to see if it gives the same result the next day. Wrapping done an hour before deep frying. Yes, the taro puffs has the same crispy flakiness to it. So it is confirmed that the oil must be very hot before putting in the puffs  and that the pastry can be kept overnight in the fridge .  This enable me to have crispy taro puffs at any one time instead of frying all and have to endure eating soft and soggy ones later.

 they remained crispy for the next two hours or so

 

the yam pastry is pliable and make wrapping easy

Taro Puff / Woo Kok

Ingredients for Taro Pastry - this recipe can make 11 pieces

300 gm taro ( weight of taro without peel )-  steamed and mashed

(A)

35gm wheat starch

45 ml boiling water

 (B)

1/2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

 1/8 tsp  pepper

1/8 tsp five spice pepper

1/2 tsp sesame oil 

30g lard

Oil for deep frying

Preparation of taro pastry:

1.  Mix (A) together in a bowl till they form a crusty starchy texture.

2. In a mixing bowl, put in mashed taro,  (A)  and (B) and using the hand , mix all the ingredients together and gently knead till a soft and pliable pastry is form. Cover and keep aside until required.

Filling:

200 gm chicken / minced pork

half carrot - diced

1/4 cup sweet corns

4 dried shiitake mushrooms - soaked and diced

1 med. red onions - diced

1 stalk spring onions

1 clove garlic -chopped fine

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp sugar

1/8 cup water

 2 tbsp thickening  

2 tbsp of cooking oil

Preparation for the filling :

Heat up oil in a wok and saute garlic till fragrant, add in diced onions, shiitake mushrooms , the chicken /pork and continue to stir fry till cooked,  add in oyster sauce and sugar and water .Add in the carrots, sweet corns and spring onions last. Continue to stir fry until the carrots and sweet corns has softened. Add in the thickening and continue to stir fry for a minute. The fillings is ready to be dish up once the gravy has thicken. Cool down completely before use.

Wrapping

Divide the taro pastry into 10 or 11 pieces , roll into round ball.  Flatten the ball into a disc of about 2.5 to 3 inches . Put a heaped tablespoon of filling in the center and fold over in half and seal the edges like making a curry puff except you don't need to pleat the edges. Repeat the process until all the balls are used up.

Heat up enough oil in a pot and once the oil is hot ( to test if the oil is ready, use a wooden chopstick to dip into the oil. if you see bubbles at the bottom of the chopstick , the oil is ready ) Put in the puff , one to two at a time so as not to overcrowd and too many pieces at one time will lower the oil temperature. Once the puffs have turned golden brown and  have the flaky appearance, they can be taken out and drain off excess oil on paper towel.