Sour and Spicy Noodle with Stand Mixer (酸辣凉皮)

This is not the typical noodle made from flour directly. It is made out of the starch of flour after removing all the gluten. The result is a quite unique texture of soft and smooth noodle. It is typically served as appetizer dish in Chinese restaurant.  I saw this recipe to use stand mixer to make it and thought it would be easier with modern tool. But it was still a time consuming and messy process. I doubt that I will do this again.

Ingredients

[Noodle]
2 1/2 cup bread flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
More water to "wash" dough
[Sauce]
Mix your favorite sour and spicy sauce that may contain
Red chili oil sauce
Rice vinegar
Sesame oil
Soy sauce
Sugar
Minced garlic
Chopped green onion
Chopped cilantro
Sesame paste

Steps

1. In the stand mixer mixing bowl, add flour, salt and water. Turn it on and knead the dough at speed 2 for 12 to 15 minutes. The dough is becoming smooth and elastic.

2. Cover the dough and allow it to rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.
3. Switch the dough hook to paddle. Add 1 1/2 cups water into the mixing bowl. Turn on the machine and set to speed 2 again. Knead for 4 minutes. Water becomes murky. Drain the water to a big glass bowl.
4. Repeat above step 3-6 more times until the water is pale, which means most starch has been extracted. What we have left in the mixing bowl is wheat gluten.

5. Cover the glass bowl and let it sit for at least 4 hours. You can see that the starch sinks to the bottom.

6. Drain the clear water on top. Please remember to do it very gently; otherwise the starch may be stirred up again. With a whisk, whisk the remaining starchy mixture into smooth batter.
7. Brush an 8" cake pans with a little bit of oil. Add a big spoon of batter to a cake pan. Swirl the pan so that the batter can evenly coated the pan. Place the pan in steamer, covered and steam on high heat for 1 minutes.

 8. Transfer the pan from steamer to an ice water bath. The ice water will cool down the cake pan fast and it would be easier to remove noodle from pan. The noodle piece should be thin and elastic.

9. Repeat the steaming and cooling process until all the batter is used. Cut the noodle sheets into thick strings and place in a big bowl.

10 Add the prepared noodle sauce. There is no rule here how much of what should be added. You can add whatever to create your own flavor.