December 10, 2011

Turning Spaghetti into Ramen Noodles 3/スパゲティーをラーメンの麺に変える3

This is the third attempt.
For the second attempt, I used 100 g udon, and had it for lunch. It wasn't bad, so today, I told my family that I would like them to try udon-turned ramen noodles for supper and see if they liked them.
これで三度目です。
二度目は、うどんを100 g使い、昼食に食べました。悪くはなかったので、今日、家族にうどんで作ったラーメンを気に入るかどうか夕飯に試してもらうことにしました。

Quick noodle soup, made with 1 thicken thigh, 1,500 ml water, 125 ml soy sauce (water-to-say sauce ratio = 12:1), 2 tbsp instant dashi, and the upper green parts of naga negi. I added four eggs to make poached eggs.
簡単なスープを、鶏の腿肉一つ、水1,500 ml、しょう油125 ml(水としょう油の割合12:1)、出汁の素大さじ2、長ねぎの青い部分で作りました。卵を四つ入れて、ポーチドエッグを作りました。
I put 3 liters of water in a large pot, and added 3 tbsp baking soda. I wanted to put 4 liters of water because I would boil 400 g udon, but I thought I shouldn't put any more water.
大きな鍋に水を3リットル入れ、重曹を大さじ3入れました。うどんを400 g茹でるので、水を4リットル入れたかったのですが、もうこれ以上入れないほうがいいと思いました。
Udon with a cooking time of 8 min.
茹で時間8分のうどん。
You can never leave the pot unattended!
鍋から目を離さないで!
I rinsed the udon two times with hot water.
お湯で二回洗いました。
My bowl:
私の丼:

My family's comment: It's not udon, but it's not ramen, either. It's a new type of noodle.
My son said that it was "radon" (ramen + udon), and I should have used hiyamugi (thinner than udon) instead.
家族のコメント: うどんではないけど、ラーメンでもない。新しいタイプの麺だ。
息子はこれは「ラードン」だと言い、(うどんより細い)冷麦を使ったほうがいいとも言いました。

Note: Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. At 65 to 70C or higher, sodium bicarbonate decomposes into sodium carbonate, water, and carbon dioxide. Sodium carbonate is the main component of "kansui", which is essential to the production of ramen noodles. So, it's no wonder that boiling udon or other wheat flour noodles with baking soda will make them taste like ramen noodles.
注: 重曹は炭酸水素ナトリウムです。65~70C以上になると、炭酸水素ナトリウムは分解して、炭酸ナトリウム、水、二酸化炭素になります。炭酸ナトリウムは、ラーメンの麺の製造に欠かせない「かん水」の主な成分です。ですから、うどんや他の小麦粉でできた麺を重曹で茹でると、ラーメンの麺のような味になるのは不思議ではありません。

Edited to add:
Udon, hiyamugi, somen, and ramen noodles contain salt, so I didn't add any salt to the water. If you use spaghetti, I think you should add some salt.
追記:
うどん、冷麦、素麺、ラーメンの麺には塩が含まれているので、お湯に塩を足しませんでしたが、スパゲティーを使う場合は、塩を少し入れるべきだと思います。

6 comments:

Fräulein Trude said...

Hiroyuki: Quite foaming isn't it? Would you add baking soda to the noodle dough flour to make the noodles taste more "ramen"? I never made ramen noodles, only common egg dough noodles or italian pasta but I would like to.

muskratbyte said...

Here's a recipe for ramen noodles from scratch.

I used baking soda with somen to make ramen noodles today.I accidentally overcooked the noodles, but they were still pretty tasty!

muskratbyte said...

Sorry, I forgot to add the link:

http://norecipes.com/blog/2010/11/30/homemade-ramen-noodle-recipe/

Hiroyuki said...

Kiki: Baking soda is an adequate substitute for kansui. There are actually some sites explaining how to make ramen noodles using baking soda.
One such site
http://eos.777slot.net/index.php?e=411
says:

Dissolve 16 g baking soda in 490 g hot water to make 2% sodium carbonate solution.

Use the solution in your favorite ramen noodle recipe, instead of kansui.

muskrat: Glad you liked the noodles! And, thank you for the link. Anyone wishing to make ramen noodles from scratch should appreciate it.

Fräulein Trude said...

Muskrat/Hiroyuki: Thanks for the links. So it is made with a potassium carbonate and baking soda solution. This is a nice food chemistry lesson. Interesting. After a little research about the potassium carbonate content I found this advice:

Basic Ramen dough:

bread flour (a more glutenious flour) 100 g
Sodium carbonate 0.5g
Potassium carbonate 0.5g
Water approximately 35g

"You want to be fairly accurate with the weight of the carbonates.
If you don't have a scale that reads in 0.1g increments, you should make a dilute solution of the carbonates first. For instance, weigh 5g of each carbonate and add them both to 90g of water. Then use 10g of the solution in the dough to yield 0.5g of each carbonate. Of course, you will have to adjust for the added water."

I am going to try this because I have both in storage: potassium carbonate (in use for ginger bread baking) and baking soda. And now I have to learn about stretching and pulling the dough by hand.

Hiroyuki said...

Kiki: Commercially available kansui may contain other substances.

As the site linked to above says, 16 g baking soda is required for 10 g sodium carbonate.

I wonder if salt is mentioned in your recipe.

You can always use your feet instead of your hands, but use caution because stepping on the dough too much will make it as firm as udon noodles.

And, you can also always replace some of the bread flour with cake flour.

Hope you make tasty ramen noodles!