Chewy Udon Noodles - Flour, Water & 2% Salt (Round 101)

 

Round 101 based on 11% wheat flour

Ingredients:

1. 400g Organic wheat flour (11% protein) from Føtex Supermarket

2. 160ml distilled water (40% of flour)

3. 8g sea salt (2% of flour weight)

4. 1 litre of boiling water for cooking each 100g of noodles

Short Instructions:

1. Run the mixing cycle of 3 mins each for 3 times. Dough should look small lumpy and compact like rice grains. Not too hard, not too small.

2. Rest for 20 mins.

3. Mix 1 cycle and extrude straight with udon disc. 

4. Bring to rolling boil a pot of water. 

5. Cook for 3 - 6 mins, drain and serve as dry noodles or in soup. Cook 3 - 4 minutes if you like it more al dente and springy, 5 - 6 mins if you like it soft and chewy.

6. Drain and bath in cold tap water, rub away excess starch.

7. Drain away the cold water bath and serve :-)

Long Instructions:

1. Mix 3 times without extruding (After mixing is completed, pause the machine and unplug it before it proceeds to extrude. Then on it again to mix). Repeat this twice so that you mix a total of 3 times without extruding.

2. Let the dough rest in the pasta maker’s chamber for 20 mins.

3. Mix once and extrude. 

Initially your noodles will fray a little. That’s alright, it will straighten out itself during cooking. After that the noodles will come out nicely. It will look a little “thread-like,” but it’s normal when you use a pasta maker. When you cook the udon, you won’t see it. It will be smooth like industrial udon.

4. Dust with corn starch as it will be elastic and a bit sticky.

5. Roll into a nest to portion it and store in an airtight container. It keeps in the fridge for 5 days and the freezer for 6 months

6. To cook the udon, bring to boil a generous pot of water. 

7. Gently add in the udon, and don’t stir it. Otherwise it will beak as udon is made with quite an amount of salt. 

8. After 30 seconds or so, gently stir it to separate any strand sticking together. 

9. Cover and bring to boil again. Let it boil for a total of 3 to 6 mins from the moment you dropped in the udon, 3 - 4 mins if you like them al dente; 5 - 6 mins if you like them soft and chewy. 

10. Stirring as you go along after it starts boiling again. Get ready a glass of water on the side. If it looks like the water is boiling over, add some water to bring down the temperature.

11. Test for doneness after 3 mins. Pick up a strand of noodles with a pair of chopsticks, dip it in a glass of water so it won’t burn your lips before you taste it. 

12. Once done, drain and wash it under a pot of cold tap water. 

13. Rub gently under the water to remove any excess starch.

14. Serve immediately. If you need to wait a little before serving, coat it with some oil so that it doesn’t stick together after some time.

15. If you wish to re-warm it after the cold bath, dip a portion into the warm udon water that you use to cook the udon with.

16. You can also eat it cold with a soy sauce and sesame oil dressing dip

17. You can also add hot soup to your udon and it will give you a warm satisfying hearty bowl of noodles soup🙂

18. You can use the udon for a fried noodle dish (yakiudon)

Additional Information:

Normally flour and water uses 75ml of water. But because adding salt makes the dough hard, I have increased the water to 80ml. This is a perfect water amount for 2% salt. It didn't fray, come out nice and almost perfect after the initial fray. Fray a little at the end. Didn't break during boiling. Tasted chewy.

The udon noodles might fray a tiny bit in the beginning for a very short few seconds, but came out beautifully very soon after that. Thus, there is no need to add any olive oil to the liquid when making this noodles.

I have found that there is very little difference between using 2% salt and using 4% salt. If you use 4% salt (16g) instead of 2% salt (8g), use 170ml of water instead of 160ml of water. Perhaps 4% salt produces a bit more chewy udon. But since the difference is so little, I have included this recipe with 2% salt. The more salt you use, the easier the noodles will fray during extrusion. 

If you would like "good-looking" udon, then use 2% salt (Round 101). If you don't mind the look, like chewy noodles and prefer the ease, use 2% salt (Round 105)

Ingredients: Organic wheat flour 11% protein, sea salt and distilled water (boiled cooled water)

This is the organic wheat flour I use from Føtex Supermarket.

In a large bowl, add 400g of wheat flour 11% protein.

Add 16g of sea salt and mix well.

Mix all the dry ingredients (wheat flour, wholewheat flour and salt) together and add them into the pasta maker's chamber.

Add distilled water to 170ml mark (distilled water is basically boiled water that is cooled down)

Start the mixing and slowly pour in the water and run the machine for 3 cycles of mixing (each cycle is 3 minutes). 

You will need to pause, off the machine, unplug and plug in the machine after each mixing cycle to prevent it from proceeding to the extrusion stage.

After one cycle of mixing, the dough should look like the above.

After the second cycle of mixing, the dough should look like the above.

After the third cycle of mixing, the mixture should look lumpy like the above. Do not be tempted to add more liquid. It will be compact and hold its shape when pressed, but it doesn't stick to your hand.

Let it rest for 20 minutes in the chamber.

After resting for 20 minutes, the dough looked like the above.

Run another mixing cycle (4th cycle of mixing) and extrude straight away using the udon disc. The dough looked like the above after the 4th cycle of mixing. 

Close-up

In the beginning of the extrusion, the noodles might fray a little, but it won't affect the taste or look after they are cooked. And very soon, it will come out straight.

To prevent the udon noodles from sticking together, coat it with a little corn starch or potato starch.

Here they come :-)

Close-up

It is no longer fraying :-) The noodles looked a bit thread-like, but this is normal using the Philips pasta maker. It won't look like that after cooking, but it will look just like udon noodles.

If it starts to fray again, pause and open the lid. If the heat of running the machine causes water vapour to form on the inside of the lid or the walls of the chamber, wipe it away with a kitchen towel. Close the lid and press start again to continue the extrusion.

It's done :-) Don't they look beautiful :-)

Place them in an airtight container dusted with some corn starch, especially if you wish to store it for a few days.

Sift away excess corn starch before cooking the noodles.

Don't throw away the corn starch collected. Re-use it for the next batch of noodles :-)

Bring to a rolling boil a pot of water (1 litre for every 100g of noodles), gently add in the udon noodles.

Quickly cover the pot so that it will come to boil again faster.

After about 30 seconds, gently stir to prevent them from sticking together.

Stir as you go along after it starts boiling again.

Let it boil for a total of 3 to 6 mins from the moment you dropped in the udon, 3 - 4 mins if you like them al dente; 5 - 6 mins if you like them soft and chewy. Test for doneness after 3 minutes. Test for doneness after 3 minutes. Pick up a strand of noodles with a pair of chopsticks, dip it in a glass of water so it won’t burn your lips before you taste it. 

Watch that it doesn't boil over. Get ready a glass of cold water ready on the side. If it looks like the water is boiling over, add some water to bring down the temperature and let it come to boil again. 

Once done, drain with a sieve and 

Drop it gently into a bowl of cold tap water. The shock from the cold water will make the udon noodles firm up and it will taste even chewier. 

Gently rub with your hands under the water to remove any excess starch.

 Wash and rinse and replace with a few rounds of cold tap water. 

Until the water becomes clear.

Drain off the cold tap water.

If you wish to re-warm the udon noodles after the cold bath, dip a portion into the warm pot of water that you used to cook the udon for 10 seconds or so.

Drain and serve it immediately. If you need to wait a little before serving, coat it with some sesame oil or olive oil so that it doesn’t stick together after some time.

Prepare a serving bowl with a teaspoon of garlic oil or sesame oil and a teaspoon of soy sauce.

Add the udon noodles and

mix well.

You can eat them cold or warm on its own with the bit of soy sauce. 

You can eat it with a bowl of soup on the side :-)

You can also add soup and eat them as noodle soup :-)

You can sprinkle some shredded nori (roasted seaweed) on top of your udon noodle soup :-)

You can use them for fried noodles (yakiudon).

You can use them for fried noodles (yakiudon).

7 September 2026: Today, our Little FECS, who is now 17 years old and starting high school this year, enjoyed a bowl of udon noodle soup as his after school snack. He loved the homemade udon noodles, and that made me very happy :-)