Sunday, December 11, 2016

Biang Biang Maxwell's Silver Hammer

I'm not even going to continue the pun. I love Gene's Flatbread Cafe, but since they moved from Chelsmford to Woburn they've been out of range.  I found this recipe, which is pretty close to what Gene's makes. Since the recipe is quite vague on the proportions for putting together the final noodles, a few notes:

To make the dough: I ended up needing 3/4 cup water for 2 1/2 cups flour - maybe my math is wrong but 130 ml water seems insanely low. The dough was definitely "tough" to work with.

2 1/2 cups flour makes 12 small 2.5" rolls.  Each roll makes 2 noodles each, for 24 noodles total; an adult portion is about 6 noodles (3 rolls) so this recipe serves four adults if no one wants seconds.

For the prep: I added 1 cup cold water and that seemed to control the water boil rate nicely - the water did come back to a boil and the noodles were not overdone.  I used 3 bok-choy leaves.

For the sauce: an even ratio of 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp black vinegar, 2 tbsp hot oil is well balanced, but more liquid than you need for 6 full noodles - I'm going to look at cutting that by 25%.  I don't have measurements yet for the garlic+scallions or chili powder, but the garlic never overpowered; I eyeballed it. For the chili powder, a nice dusting of the top noodles seems to produce a reasonable (but hot) temperature.  Pouring the hot oil over the dish really works.

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