The Daring Cooks July, 2011 Challenge - My Noodle Hands!

Steph from Stephfood was our Daring Cooks' July hostess. Steph challenged us to make homemade noodles without the help of a motorized pasta machine. She provided us with recipes for Spatzle and Fresh Egg Pasta as well as a few delicious sauces to pair our noodles with!

I really appreciated this challenge because although this isn't the first time I made fresh handmade noodles, Steph allowed us to make our own sauces. I followed the Fresh Egg Pasta recipe but the sauces I used were my own recipes. I wanted to make sauces that were Filipino so I tried to think of ingredients that are readily available here in Manila and I came up with Tuyo (Dried Herring) and Taba ng Talangka (Pure Crabfat). Both of which are very popular and almost every Filipino I know likes.

Handmade Egg Fettuccine:

2 cups (480 ml) (280 gm) (10 oz) all-purpose (plain) flour

3 large eggs, beaten

water, as needed
Directions:
Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl. Push the flour out of the very center of the bowl, to make a 'well'. Pour the beaten egg into the 'well'. Slowly incorporate the flour into the egg by mixing a small amount of flour into the "well" at a time and mixing until incorporated. Start by mixing in flour around the perimeter of the egg, and gradually widening the mixing to include more and more flour. Mix until all of the egg is mixed into the flour.

At this stage, use your hands to try to form a rough ball. If the dough is too dry, add a few drops of water and incorporate. Be careful to not add too much liquid – it's better to slowly add water as needed, as opposed to trying to add more flour to a sticky dough. My trick is to wet my fingers, instead of pouring water directly into the dough. This ensures a minimal amount of water is added, and is more evenly distributed.
Knead the dough for a few minutes, until it is smooth.
Roll the dough into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and set aside to rest. It should be allowed to rest for at least 15 minutes, at most 2 hours. Take this time to set up your pasta roller, and/or to prepare the sauce.
Divide dough into 6 equal pieces. Take one piece to start and put the remaining back into the plastic wrap so they don't dry out.

Form the piece of dough into a ball, and then flatten using the palm of your hand.
If using pasta rollers: Run this through the pasta roller at its widest setting If using a rolling pin: Use a rolling pin to create a thin elongated oval.
Place the dough horizontally on your work surface, and fold the long ends into the center, so that they meet. Press down on the edges to seal them. At this stage, you should have a rectangular shape. Run the dough through the pasta roller, open-side first, again at the widest setting. Now run the dough through the roller two more times, again on the widest setting, without folding first. This will help to make the dough very smooth and elastic, for stretching.
Now stretch the dough by running through the rollers, each time switching to a narrower setting. After the final setting, you should be able to see the outline of your hand through the dough. Run the stretched dough through the fettuccine-sized cutters. Gently lay or hang your freshly cut pasta, and cover with a clean cloth so that it doesn't dry out while you roll and cut the rest of your dough. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, gently drop in the freshly cut pasta, and cook for about 5 minutes. Drain and toss with sauce and enjoy immediately!

This is how half of my noodles looked like after I hung them to dry for about 2 hours. The other half I cooked straightaway, because I can't wait to try my sauce recipe!

GARLIC TUYO (HERRING)

Bottled Tuyo in Olive Oil
Garlic, peeled, crushed and minced finely 3 cloves
Siling Labuyo (Bird's Eye Chili) finely sliced 1 piece
Calamansi (local Lime)

Preheat pan over medium heat, pour about 1/4 cup of the olive oil from the bottle of tuyo. Saute the garlic until golden and fragrant. Add the tuyo (you can keep them whole or shred them into smaller pieces). Add the chili and cook for about 3 minutes and pour the cooked noodles. Toss until noodles are coated with the sauce. Season with pepper and a little bit of salt (although the herring is already salty.)
Enjoy while hot. Add calamansi juice as desired (to get rid of the strong taste of the tuyo).

After 2 days, I was really glad it was time to cook the other half of the pasta. I've been wanting to duplicate this sauce which I tasted from a classmate a few years ago. It is made of Taba ng Talangka (Crab Fat) and Shrimps....mmmmm!

SHRIMP IN CRABFAT PASTA

Bottled Taba ng Talangka (Pure Crabfat) 1/4 cup
Olive Oil
Garlic, peeled, crushed and minced finely 4 cloves
Shrimps, shelled and deveined 1/4 kilo
Juice of 1 Lemon
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat pan over medium heat with about a tablespoon of olive oil, saute the garlic until golden and fragrant. Add the shrimps and cook until they turn pink, remove to a plate. In the same pan pour the crabfat and cook for about 5 minutes. Add back the shrimps and the cooked noodles. Pour the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.
Enjoy while still hot!


Thank you Steph for this month's Daring Cooks' challenge. I had so much fun experimenting with my sauces! For other Daring Cooks recipes, click here. So which one of my sauce recipes did I like more? The Shrimp in Crabfat of course!