Water Pulled Noodles （水扯面）

This may sound daunting but have you considered making homemade noodles at home? If you have seen any type of noodle making videos, you would see them pulling, wrapping and splitting the dough to make these long strands. It looks complicated. What if I said that you can make noodles by soaking dough in water and making water pulled noodles, would you do it?

I’m going to share how you can make water pulled noodles with regular dough and also what I cook with these noodles. If you are doubtful, please give it a try. I promise it will be good!

What is water pulled noodles?

When wheat noodles are made traditionally, it’s kneaded, rested and then stretched. The idea of resting is to allow the dough to hydrate fully. This enhances the elasticity. The elasticity will help to pull the noodles into long strands. Water pulled noodles simplifies it by soaking the dough in water. The dough is relaxed, soaks up the water. It becomes more elastic. This means that we can stretch and boil directly. It means that we can eat homemade noodles without the extra work!

Ingredients

For the dough, combine 1 1/2 cups of flour and 1/2 cup of water.

For the rest of the ingredients, I used some boneless pork loins, tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, scallions and some garlic.

I also made a sauce with soy sauce, salt, oyster sauce, water, 5 spice powder and salt.

How to make it

Making the dough

The dough can be made ahead of time. I usually do it the night before and let it rest in the fridge. Then I let it come to room temperature before I use it.

Prepare a bowl of cold water or room temperature water. Knead the dough and roll the dough into a long log. Cut the dough into 2-2.5 inch thickness and flatten them.

Put the dough into the water and soak for 30 minutes

Prep the other veggies and protein

Cut all the veggies into bite size pieces. Julienne the pork loin into 1/2 x 2inch in length. Marinate the pork with soy sauce, ginger, cornstarch.

Prepare the sauce by combining soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, 5 spice powder, salt and water.

Cooking the noodles

Boil some water and take the dough from the water and start to pull the dough into 3×5 inches and put into the boiling water. Do this in batches as the noodles cook very quickly (about 30s to 1 minute). Put the cooked noodles into cold water. Repeat until it’s all done. Set aside

Making the water pulled noodles

In a wok, put some oil and stir fry the meat until there are no pink left on the pork, Add in the garlic, onions and tomatoes. Stir fry for a few minutes. Add in the peppers. Then add sauce and noodles. Coat the noodles with the sauce and let it stew for a few minutes.

Once the sauce is reduced down, then it’s all done. Sprinkle on some scallions and serve.

Pro-tip

• You can boil the noodles in batches so you don’t overcook the noodles.
• Use cold or room temperature water to soak the dough.
• Make sure the wok is hot before you put in the pork loins or else you are just steaming the meat.
• Don’t cut the dough too thin or else it will stick together.