- Boil a pot of water, then turn off the heat.
- Add rice noodles to the pot, or pour the boiling hot water over the noodles in a wide bowl, covering them completely.
- Swish the noodles around briefly to separate.
- Soak the noodles for 6 to 10 minutes, until tender but still chewy.
- Drain the noodles.
Many people have told me they can’t find fresh rice noodles since I posted my Pad See Ew recipe. And the only other logical choice when the dry ones are actually not nearly as good is to make it And youll be glad to know its not that hard!.
The hardest part of this whole process may be picking the right pan to steam the noodles in. The ideal pan should cleanly release the noodles, leaving behind minimal stickiness and smooth noodles on the underside.
The noodles in the pan I used when I first recorded the video released beautifully. But after using different pans, I discovered that some did not release food as well and left a sticky bottom. Still usable for dishes, but more challenging to handle and required more oil in between the sheets.
I discovered that for things to release cleanly, the pan surface needs to be extremely smooth. Stainless steel, glass, porcelaine, or some nonstick surfaces are great. Aluminum and some rougher non-stick pans are not as great.
Additionally, thinner pans are better because they cool down much more quickly, enabling you to quickly switch from one plate to the next.
Many Thai recipes call for mixing the flour and a small amount of water before adding the rest of the water to make the dough into a batter to make fresh rice noodles. Since the starch molecules are essentially forced to absorb water more readily by the kneading, the starch can hydrate more thoroughly. The longer you knead, the better.
I was interested in this phenomenon, and a series of meetings led me to Dr. Food scientist Teeprakorn Kongraksawech from Oregon State University told me:
What is a substitute for Chinese Broccoli / Gai Lan?
Purchasing Chinese broccoli (gai lan) from international / Asian grocery stores is possible. Although it has small broccoli heads, long stalks, and a large number of tender green leaves, it tastes somewhat similar to broccoli. If Chinese broccoli is not available, combine it with baby spinach and finely chopped broccoli florets.
VIETNAMESE FRESH RICE NOODLE RECIPE – FOR PHO AND PHO CUON
Similar to other Asian noodles or, for example, Italian pasta, pho noodles or banh pho are sold fresh every day in Vietnam. While dry noodles can be used in recipes, food lovers would agree that fresh is always preferable. Since fresh noodles are easily accessible in Vietnam and can be made by any respectable pho noodle cook, dry noodles are never used in pho soup.
More than one third of the country’s 93 million people (at the time of writing) live in cities and towns, so if the cook lives in a large city like Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City, each of which has a population of about 8 million, they will likely be purchasing fresh rice noodles that have been produced in a factory.
It’s very dissimilar to here in Cambodia, where there are only 16 million people overall, 80 percent of them reside in rural areas, and the majority of them are living at or below the poverty line. Here, families of noodle makers still produce the majority of the noodles in small, artisanal home workshops.
(By the way, if you love noodles, we take participants on our Cambodia culinary tours, travel, and creative retreats to rustic family workshops in nearby villages to observe how they make rice paper and rice noodles. Additionally, visitors can learn how to make rice paper the Vietnamese way. ).
In cities and towns all over Vietnam, you can still find these fresh noodles for pho and banh pho made by small producers. Similar small cottage industries that we have seen are typically made for a local market or sold directly to street food vendors.
Additionally, we’ve encountered numerous Vietnamese chefs and street food vendors who rise early in the morning to prepare their own fresh rice noodles for their soup or these rice noodle sheets for pho cuon, which they’ll later that morning see from their own stall or shop.
When they do, they will essentially follow the instructions in the Vietnamese fresh flat pho rice noodles recipe below to make the fresh rice noodle sheets and soup noodles as shown in the photos in the gallery.
PREPARING THE STEAMER TO MAKE PHO RICE NOODLES
Even though the Vietnamese fresh rice noodle recipe is simple, it can be challenging to make the noodle sheets over the steamer at first. It requires some practice to get the hang of it because it is fiddly.
You’ll need to set up a steamer using a large pot of boiling water, a piece of cotton or muslin, and string or thick elastic to make the flat pho rice noodle sheets.
Alternatively, if you’re worried about burning yourself, you can secure the cotton with room temperature water before boiling it, as the Vietnamese do. The Vietnamese then carefully cover the pot of boiling water with a thin piece of cotton or muslin.
Another thing you’ll need is a long bamboo stick, which you can find in Southeast Asian markets or Asian supermarkets and grocery stores if you don’t live there. It just looks like a very large wooden cooking chopstick.
Now, kindly don’t panic if your initial attempts don’t turn out well. Our first ever attempts at cooking school were comical. However, it will get simpler as you perfect the water temperature and gain confidence when evenly spooning out the batter. Once you have a good batch going, I find that having your phone with a stopwatch on will help you get the steaming time right.
FAQ
Do you boil fresh noodles before stir-fry?
Noodles used for stir-frying typically need to be presoaked or boiled before using. Noodles for stir-fries should be boiled to the right doneness if you’re using egg noodles, wheat noodles, or buckwheat noodles.
Do you have to soak rice noodles before cooking?
Prior to stir-frying, dried noodles must be soaked in boiling water to soften them. Since they will cook while frying, fresh rice noodles, which are available at Asian grocery stores, don’t need to be soaked before being added to a stir fry.
How long should I boil rice noodles?
Bring three to four quarts of water to a boil in a 6- to 8-quart pan over high heat. Cook rice noodles for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until just barely tender to the bite. Drain. Rinse thoroughly if not using right away to prevent the noodles from sticking together, then drain once more.
How are fresh rice noodles served?
They are offered hot, cold, in salads, soups, and spring rolls. Rice noodles are a welcome change from heavier wheat noodles because of their lightness and chewy texture.
