Homemade Udon Noodles
I have been so obsessed with these Japanese noodles lately. I can’t seem to get enough of them, I find myself craving them all the time. They are very easy to make just takes a little bit of time, and just three ingredients; flour, water and salt.
Living in St. Paul it’s very easy to go and buy these noodles, but I’m telling you making them from scratch are a totally different experience of delicious. If you’ve bought udon from the grocery store they always end up being to floury, falling apart, or too elastic. With just three ingredients you will never go back to buying udon from the store again.  The texture of these is just perfectly chewy. The texture is just perfectly chewy.  These noodles are also so versatile you can eat them by themselves with a little soy sauce or sesame oil, cold with veggies or stir fried, anyway is amazing!
Ingredients
- 1 lb. All-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp. salt
- 1 cup water
Special tools
- Plastic 5 gallon bag
- Sharp knife
- Time
- Your feet (yes you’re feet! I’ll explain below)
Add any veggies or protein you wish, I made it into a shrimp stir fry with peppers, broccoli, leeks, scallions, mushrooms, carrots, cilantro and jalapenos, with a little soy ginger sauce.
Directions
Start by adding the flour and salt together into a large bowl Mix together by hand. Add the water in the center. Using a little muscle, start to knead the dough together in the center of the bowl. When it forms a rough ball turn it out onto a lightly floured (or you can use corn starch) surface; knead until it forms a smooth ball, place in plastic bag and let rest for ½ hour.
Leaving it in the plastic bag, loosely wrap a kitchen towel around it. Place it on the ground. Now comes the fun part… Step on it. This is a tradition used in Japan for years. It will take too long to get the right consistency with your hands; and the weight of your body will help speed up the process.
Using your heels working from the inside out knead until it’s completely flat. Take it out of the bag, fold into a ball, and back into plastic bag and let rest for 10 minutes.
Repeat this step three times. It’s important.  Knead, fold, rest 10 minutes. Make sure it stays in the bag while resting.
After the third resting time, roll the dough out onto a floured surface to a large rectangle about 8×10 inches. Brush with olive oil and wrap the dough in plastic wrap. Let rest for 1 hour.
Unwrap and fold into and accordion or envelope and using a really sharp knife, cut into 1/8 inch pieces. If you’d like longer noodles; in my case the longer noodle the better, grab each end of the noodle and just start tapping it onto the surface and gently stretching it too desired length and set aside.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook noodles for about 1-2 minutes, just until firm. Combine with your other favorite ingredients and enjoy immediately!!