Udon noodles, thick wheat noodles, are known to have pleasant chewy texture. Home made udon presents the best of its characteristic. Prepared udon can be refrigerated for 2 days, but in order to enjoy the very fresh taste and texture, consume it on the day of the making.
Unlike bread or pizza dough udon dough contains significantly less water, so it requires patience and strength for kneading. The dough is twice rested between the kneading. This helps gluten relax and stretch, which develops the desired very chewy texture of the noodles.
The udon noodles can be served hot or cold – hot noodles in a mildly flavored dashi broth and cold noodles with strongly flavored dashi sauce in a cup on the side as a dipping sauce.
Ingredients
200g (7 ounce) Japanese soft flour or all purpose flour, shifted
10g (0.357 ounce) sea salt
96 cc or 84 cc, precisely measured, lukewarm water, the former in winter and the latter in summer as related to typical humidity at those times of year
Potato starch for dusting
Directions
In a cup mix the water and the sea salt. Stir the mixture until the salt dissolved. In a large bowl add the sifted flour and add the salted water. Rub and blend flour and water between your palms. After confirming that the water is evenly dispersed into the flour, make it into a rough round ball, and knead it two hundred times. Wrap the dough tightly in a plastic wrap and rest it at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Remove the dough from the wrap and knead it about 5 minutes. Wrap the dough in the plastic bag again and let it stand at room temperature for 1 hour in summer and 3 hours in winter, or you can rest the dough in the refrigerator overnight.
Unwrap the dough and divide it into 2 portions. Adjust the pasta machine to the number 1 setting. With your hand gently press the dough to make it thinner, so that the dough can pass through the machine. Let the dough pass through the machine once. Fold the dough into half and let it pass through the machine once more. Change the setting to 2 and let the dough pass through it twice.
Transfer the udon sheet onto a cutting board and dredge on both sides with plenty of potato starch. Fold the udon sheet into thirds. With a broad, sharp knife, cut the dough into 1/8th wide strips.
Serves 2