Xi'an Cold Skinned Noodles (凉皮)

By Chinese Cooking Demystified · 120 min

Ingredients

Instructions

1. Mix the flour, salt and water into a basic dough and rest for 20 minutes.
2. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes to develop some gluten, then rest for 20 minutes.
3. Wash the dough by kneading it under water, adding about ½ cup water at a time, until the water is no longer very milky (about 60% of the original cloudiness). Strain, add back any gluten bits, and repeat. The dough needed about 4 cups of water in total.
4. Let the batter settle for 3 to 4 hours, and no longer than 4 hours.
5. Knead the yeast into the gluten, let it rest for a similar time, then steam over high heat for 8 minutes.
6. Drain the yellowish water from the top of the settled batter and stir well.
7. Generously oil a steaming sheet, spread about two ladles of batter thinly over it, and place it on simmering water. Turn the heat to high, cover and steam for about 1.5 minutes, until large bubbles form on the sheet.
8. Put the sheet in a tray of cool water, brush the top with oil, loosen the sides, and peel the liangpi onto a board. Repeat with the rest of the batter.
9. Make the chili oil: heat the oil until it lightly bubbles around chopsticks, add the onion, ginger and garlic and cook over medium heat for about 3 minutes, then add the star anise and fennel seed and cook until the onion is golden brown. Strain the oil, reheat it to about 180°C, pour it over the chili powder, mix quickly, then stir in the vinegar.
10. Make the sesame sauce: mix water into the sesame paste 1 teaspoon at a time until it reaches the desired thickness (about 5 teaspoons total).
11. Make the garlic water: pound the garlic with the salt, add the hot boiled water and mix well.
12. Slice the liangpi into ½ cm noodles and the steamed gluten into ½ inch chunks. Divide between two bowls, then add the garlic water, sesame sauce, cucumber, salt, MSG, chili oil, vinegar and cilantro.

Summarized from Chinese Cooking Demystified's video. Watch it for the details.

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