Category: Basics
Yields:
1 Serving
Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 30 Mins
Cook Time:
5 Mins
Total Time:
35 Mins
What’s worse than mushy rice noodles? Mushy rice noodles that ruined all the expectations of your meal even though you followed all the package instructions. Do you know why? It’s because the package instructions on how to cook dried rice noodles are shit.
It’s actually not that complicated to prepare dried rice noodles for frying or soup. My method is tried and tested and you should end up with a texture perfectly described in the Chinese vernacular as Q, or even QQ. Never let dried rice noodles cause you despair again.
If you have any difficulties, leave a comment and I’ll try to help!
Instructions
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Soak your noodles in a nice roomy bowl of warm (not hot, not boiling!) water. Make sure the noodles are fully covered.
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Assign your cat to watch over the bowl. Separate the noodles with funky outspread fingers every once in a while.
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After 30 minutes, the noodles are as soft as they are going to get from soaking. If you are preparing noodles for another day, this is where you put them away in the fridge.
- Heat a pot of water until boiling, then turn the fire down to low so it stays at a constant temperature but is not on a rolling boil. If there's bubbles coming up, your stove is up too high.
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Put the soaked rice noodles in and let them stew uncovered. Check out my pot of water—it's boiling but calm and contained—like vegans at the supermarket meat section. For a 10mm thick noodle, it takes about 5 minutes on the stove to be done. For a thin 3mm noodle, it will probably only take 2-3 minutes. Check the noodles with your chopsticks. They should be going slightly translucent but still firm and slightly rubbery. Try it to the teeth, it should be al dente or 90% done.
- Drain immediately, rinse with cool water, and drain again. If it is going to be a while before you use the noodles, add some oil and massage it into the noodles to prevent sticking. Otherwise, your noodles are ready for adding to stir fries or soup. When you've added them to your final dish, they should be cooked about another 2 minutes and they will be done.
What ingredients do you use to make the vermicelli not break easily when cooked?
Hello! Don’t add too much water / liquid when you are cooking so the vermicelli does not boil. This will prevent it from breaking into small pieces. Make sure you soak it first so it softens before cooking.