Saturday, 21 August 2010

Print

Homemade Spinach Noodles/Hjemmelavet Spinat Nudler/菠菜面条[bō cài miàn tiáo]


Ingredients:
- 4 cups wholewheat flour
- 1 cup white wheat flour
- 4 eggs (best not to use eggs straight from the fridge, but let it warm to room temperature)
- 250g fresh spinach
- 2 TBS olive oil
- 1 pinch salt (optional)

Directions:
1. Wash, rinse and drain spinach.

2. Blend spinach with the eggs and stir with olive oil and salt.

3. Pour the flour into a big mixing bowl and the spinach and egg mixture into the middle of the flour.

4. Mix the mixture and the flour with a fork until they are completely blended.

5. Knead well using hand or hand-mixer (3-5 minutes) until it is homogenous and consistent (a good mixture should not stick to your fingers. If the dough is too soft and sticky, add more flour. If the dough is too dry and hard, add a little water).

6. Place the dough onto a lightly floured table top and cut into smaller portions (approx. 5-6 smaller doughs)

7. Roll the dough out with a rolling pin until desired thickness is achieved. As you roll, flour it, so that it won't stick to the surface*.

8. Fold into 3-4 folds (and as you fold, flour it) and then cut into strips using a knife or scissors.

9. Unfold it and best to leave it to dry for an hour (if you can wait, I can’t!)

10. Bring a pan to boil (add a TBS of olive oil and a pinch of salt in the water if you wish) and add a handful of pasta into it and cook for 2-5 minutes, depending on the thickness.

11. Drain and serve :-)

* If using pasta machine, replace step 7-8 with the following steps (for my own quick reference only):

1. Set the machine regulator to position 1, pulling it outwards and turning it so that the two smooth rollers are completely open (approx. 3mm).

2. Pass one portion of the dough through the machine turning the handle. Repeat this operation 5-6 times, folding the dough over and adding some flour to the middle if necessary.

3. When the dough has taken a regular shape, pass it through the rollers once only with the regulators set on number 2, then once again on number 3, continuing until you obtain the desired thickness (min. thickness at no. 9 is approx. 0.2mm).

4. With a knife, cut the dough crossways in pieces approx. 25cm long.

5. Insert the handle in the hole for the cutting rollers, turn it slowly and pass the dough through.

Note: If the roller won’t “cut”, this means the dough is too soft. In this case, you should pass the dough through the smooth rollers, after adding some flour to the mixture. If the dough is too dry and cannot be “caught” by the cutting roller, add a little water to the mixture and pass it through the smooth rollers once again.

Storage:
Pasta can last a long time (1-2 weeks) if kept in a cool dry place or the fridge. You can freeze them in the freezer up to 2 months in ready-to use portions.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional Comments:
I have to use up the packet of spinach I bought, if not it will go bad. So I decided to make spinach pasta. I haven't decided whether we would eat it with tomato meat sauce or salmon with pesto sauce.

I have decided that I will eat this with meat sauce, since we were out today, and it was easier to take the pre-made meat sauce from the freezer and warm it. I made the meat sauce with home-made tomato sauce.

My Significant Other liked the dinner very much, and J ate 1.5 bowl. I am in doubt how I should classify this post, but for the sake of convenience, I will classify it under Asian food, together with the other posts on home-made noodles.

References:
Instructions from the Marcato Atlas pasta machine

Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron


No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

My Favourite Books

Montessori Materials