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Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Bún Tươi (Fresh Noodle)


It was a late morning on Saturday when I got a text message from a friend who requested a pot of bún bò Huế (Spicy Beef Noodle Soup) to satisfy her craving.  Bún bò Huế is also my older daughter's favorite Vietnamese dish of all time.  She was thrilled to hear that we were going to cook up her dish, so she went right into the kitchen to help me wash the dishes while the little one helped prepare the dough for the noodle before we headed out to store to gather the ingredients for spicy beef noodle soup.


I had made this Bún Tươi (Fresh Noodle) a number of times before but haven't had the motivation to blog about it since I was not satisfied with how the photos of the noodle turned out.  Also I needed to experiment with different ratio of ingredients just to see if I can achieve a better recipe before I post it.

Quiet a few of my Facebook page followers have been waiting patiently and reminding me to post the recipe.  I do not want you to wait any longer. So here  it is . . . until I can come up with a better one.

You can produce this wonderful fresh noodle  from scratch within 30 minutes.  The noodle is a little softer than the dried noodle that you buy from the supermarket.  The dried noodle taste better partly because we have been conditioned to its texture, but these days, it's hard to trust what goes into making these noodle. To be safe, I have been making fresh noodle for my family to enjoy since we do eat noodle quite often.  

The tool I use to make the noodle is a Trudeau potato ricer.  You can find one on Amazon.  If you look to the right side of my blog, you will see a picture of this potato ricer under 'My Picks'. Click on the picture to purchase it.  For your convenience, you can also click here to purchase it.  The one I own comes with two dishes: one with small holes which I use to make thin noodle and the other one with bigger holes which produce thicker noodle to be used in bún bò Huế.

I had great result on my first try; I hope you will too. If you happen to discover a better recipe for fresh noodle, do share . . . to save me time and misery : -).  
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RECIPE:  Bún Tươi

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Ingredients


1 bag rice flour
2 1/2 cups tapioca
2 teaspoons salt
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 1/2-2 2/3 cups boiling hot-water
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Tool

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Directions

Mixing Dough


Bring a tall pot of water to a rolling boil (when water is boiled rapidly with lots of bubbling).  In the meantime, mix well all the ingredients together except water.


When the water is at a full, rolling boil, add 2 1/2 cups of  boiling water to the flour. Use a spatula to mix it up.  The flour mixture is very hot so be careful.  Knead until dough forms a soft, nice smooth ball. Dough that is relatively dry will be too thick and too difficult to press through the plate. If the dough is dried, add a little bit more of boiling hot-water to soften the dough so it can be easy to press through the plate. Add some extra flour if the dough is too tacky.


Divided dough into 5 portions.  Set aside.
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Making Noodle


Place one portion of the dough at a time into the potato ricer. Leave the other covered to prevent drying.


Bring the potato ricer above the boiling pot of water and press the dough down.

thin noodle (bún tươi nhỏ)
Let it drop into a pot of boiling water.  Work on the remaining dough until done.

thick noodle (bún tươi lớn)

After a couple of minutes, noodle will float on top of the water as it cooks.

Drain and rinse it a few times with cold water until water it becomes clear.  Let it drain.

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Presentation



Small size noodle is a good size for bún chả cá (fish patty noodle soup) and larger noodle goes well with bún bò Huế.



Enjoy!

14 comments:

  1. Look so good and easy! How long are the noodles good for?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Chi Loan, where did you get your noodle press tool?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Stephanie, I mentioned about where to get the noodle press tool in the post. For your convenience I also added a direct link. Click on it and it will take you to the website where you can purchase it.

      Delete
  3. chi oi , cho co cong thuc lam banh beo tu co*m xay ra lam thanh bot banh beo chua chi , khi nao co chi up len cho em voi nha , cam on chi nhieu lam :*

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Loan đang write up the recipe. Sắp xong rồi. Đợi nhen.

      Delete
  4. Chi loan oi, hom nay em lam theo ct bun tuoi, sao ma cong bun khong co duoc chewing do chi, em phai them 1/4 cup hot water , luc minh luoc bun, thi khoang bao nhieu lau vay chi. lam on chi cho em voi, luc dau theo ct va pha nuoc thi luc em ep bun rat kho em ra, nen em phai lay cuc bot nhoi them mot it nuoc nong nua moi ep duoc . cam on chi da post cong thuc len

    ReplyDelete
  5. Bún chewy chứ. Không biết là do Minh luộc lâu quá bún mềm hay là tại vì cộng thêm nước lúc nhồi bột làm bún mềm. Loan cũng thấy ép bột hơi khó và mỗi lần ép xong 5 lần bột là Loan toát mồ hôi luôn nhưng vì ép bột cũng rất là nhanh nên L không thấy vất vã gì hết. Hehe...
    Thường L ép xong hết bột rồi để khoảng 1 phút, tắc lửa rồi xả nước lạnh là xong. Tổng cộng thời gian luộc bún khoảng trong vòng 5 phút là xong à.

    ReplyDelete
  6. da de em lam lai nua, dung nhu chi noi, luc ep xong em cung toat mo hoi luon. nhung em thay ep cong banh canh de hon do chi. chac tai em de bun soi hoi lau, nen bun bi bo, khong co chewing, . voii lai em het tapioca starch, em use tapioca flour, nen khong duoc ngon lam, de em di mua tapioca starch, cam on chi da chi cho em cai tip.

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  7. Fantastic results, very chewy texture. I hate to use my hand to knead as it can burn so I use my thermomix machine mixing it, while the dried ingredients spinning in the bowl, I pull in boiling water slowly until all mixed up, it is took me less than 5 mins to put together the dough. Thanks for sharing

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  8. Hi Chị Loan,
    I just made the noodles for the Bánh Canh! Awesome result!
    Like Yvonne, I used the standing mixer with the dough hook to mix the dough, rested it in Saran wrap for 30 minutes, the dough then became softer, so easy to press thru the potatoes ricer.
    Thanks so much for sharing chị!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Helen,
      I am glad it turned out great for you.
      Which Banh canh recipe did you use? I posts 2 recipes - one with more rice flour, and the other one with more tapioca flour. Thanks Helen.

      Delete
  9. Hi chị, I used the recipe that called for 2 cup tapioca starch, 1 1/2 cup rice flour. My family seemed to like it so much, thanks chị!

    ReplyDelete