Ingredient: Noodles
Category: Pasta & Noodles
Season: All
A noodle is made from unleavened dough that has been shaped into thin flat strips or round cylinders and cooked in a boiling liquid.
Depending upon the type, noodles may be dried or refrigerated before cooking.
The word noodle derives from the German Nudel (noodle) and may be related to the Latin word nodus (knot).
In English, noodle is a generic term for unleavened dough made from many different types of ingredients and includes a variety of shapes.
Types of noodles by primary ingredient:
Egg
Egg noodles are usually made of a mixture of egg and wheat flour.
Asian egg noodles: (known as mie telor in Indonesian or ba mee in Thai) are common throughout China and Southeast Asia.
Lochshen: wide egg noodles used in Eastern European Jewish cuisine
Reshteh: Middle Eastern egg noodles
Spätzle: Egg noodle generally associated with the southern German states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria
Tăiţei: Romanian egg noodles
Tagliatelle: Italy Made either fresh with eggs or pasta-like with heavy grain. Eaten boiled and with some sauces on them. Also taste good with a little butter, plus a leaf of salvia.
Wheat
Chūka men: Japanese for "Chinese noodles", used for ramen, chanpon and yakisoba
Lamian: hand pulled Chinese noodles
Mee pok: flat, yellow Chinese noodles, popular in Southeast Asia
Sōmen: very thin Japanese wheat noodles
Udon: thick Japanese wheat noodles
Rice
Flat or thick rice noodles, also known as héfěn or ho fun kway teow or sen yai
Rice vermicelli: thin rice noodles, also known as mǐfěn or bee hoon or sen mee
Mung bean
Cellophane noodles; also known as glass noodles or bean vermicelli. fěnsī in Chinese, harusame in Japanese, soun or suun in Indonesian, wun sen in Thai.
Potato or canna starch
Cellophane noodles: can also be made from potato starch or canna starch or various starches of the same genre.
Buckwheat
Naengmyeon: Korean noodles made of buckwheat and sweet potato starch. Slightly more chewy than soba.
Soba: Japanese buckwheat noodles
Types of noodle dishes:
Basic noodles
These are cooked in water or broth , then drained. Other foods can be added (for example a pasta sauce ) or the noodles are added to other foods (see fried noodles or lasagna) or the noodles can be served plain with a dipping sauce or oil to be added at the table.
In general , noodles are soft and absorb flavors.
Chilled noodles
noodles are sometimes served in a salad . An example is the Thai glass noodle salad yam woon sen.
In Japan , traditional Japanese noodles such as soba and somen are often served chilled with a dipping sauce.
Some western dishes like pasta salads also call for cold noodles.
Fried noodles
Dishes made of noodles stir fried with various meats, seafood or vegetables.
Typical examples: chow mein, lo mein, mee goreng, hokkien mee, some varieties of pancit, yakisoba and pad thai.
Noodle soup
Noodles served in broth.
Typical examples: phở, beef noodle soup, ramen, laksa, saimin and batchoy, and chicken noodle soup.
The word ‘noodles’ had an Oriental tone to most of us! However, tagliatelli, fettucine and linguini are forms of noodles too, being ribbon-, thread- or even worm-shaped (vermicelli means little worms) lengths of pasta.
Egg noodles are made with wheat and should be cooked to retain a bit of a bite, just like their Italian cousins.
Rice noodles were trouble to find in the shops, as they lurked under confusing names like stick noodles and had the cooking instuctions in six languages – all Asian.
Now, thankfully, they have become standard supermarket items: there must be a lot of people cooking Pad Thai at home |