Northern Chinese · Main
Lanzhou Lamian
- Advanced
- 55 min
- roughly 3 of 4 for cost
Leads with aromatics blooming from the first bite, real fire that builds and stays, fading in warm spice.
Ingredients
- 500 g high-gluten wheat flour, 12 to 13 percent protein
- 260 g water at 20C (68F)
- 6 g fine salt
- 4 g penghui alkaline water, or 3 g food-grade sodium carbonate dissolved in 15 g water
- 30 g neutral oil, for coating the dough
- 900 g beef shin, in one piece
- 700 g beef leg bones, rinsed
- 3.5 L cold water
- 40 g ginger, sliced
- 400 g white radish, in half moons
- 6 g caoguo (black cardamom), cracked
- 4 g huajiao (Sichuan pepper)
- 3 g fennel seed
- 2 g cassia bark
- 15 g salt, for the broth
- 30 g coarse dried chilli flakes, for the la you
- 120 g beef tallow or neutral oil, for the la you
- a handful of coriander and garlic greens, chopped, to finish
The skills inside
Hand-pulled noodlesKneading doughThe bare simmer: holding liquid below the boilSalted water & the float testStraining & passing through a sieveThe wobble & the skewer: testing a bake
Allergen screen
Found: gluten
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Dissolve the fine salt in the water, mix it into the flour until no dry flour is left, then knead 8 minutes until the dough is cohesive but still tears with a ragged edge rather than a clean one. Cover and rest 30 minutes. 8 min
- Work the penghui solution in over three additions, slapping the dough flat on the bench between each, until it turns slack, faintly grey and glossy and will stretch to a translucent window without splitting. Oil it, cover, and rest 2 hours. 120 min
- Meanwhile cover bones and shin with cold water, bring to the boil and skim until the scum runs thin and white, then add ginger, radish and spices and hold at a bare tremble for 3 hours, until the shin gives to a skewer with no spring back. 180 min
- Warm the tallow to 140C (285F) and pour it over the chilli flakes in three goes, stirring; it should foam and smell toasted, never acrid, then settle to a deep red oil.
- Roll a piece of dough into a rope, hold both ends, pull it and slap the belly of it against the bench, then twist, fold in half and repeat for 6 to 8 rounds, dusting with flour, until the strands hang even and ring faintly against the wood.
- Drop the noodles into hard boiling water for 40 to 60 seconds, until they float and the chalky core is gone, then lift into bowls, ladle over broth strained clear, and spoon the la you on so it beads red across the surface.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Kneading dough 57 recipes
- The work changed it: what began shaggy and rough is one smooth, cohesive mass, with nothing raggy hanging off it.
- The surface has gone satin and barely tacky, releasing cleanly from hands and board instead of leaving a trail.
- Worked to the point this dough asks for and no further: springy and elastic where structure is wanted, just brought together where tenderness is.
- Torn or cut open, the inside is uniform: no dry streaks, no unmixed pockets, no core of flour that never met the water.
- After its rest it rolls and shapes without snapping back. A dough that fights the pin needed more rest, not more force.
Where it goes wrong Sticking was fought with flour instead of technique or patience, stroke after stroke, until the dough had taken in far more than the formula asked; it turns tight and dry under the hands, and bakes dense however well everything else goes.
The wobble & the skewer: testing a bake 135 recipes
- Tested at the true centre and the thickest point, not at the convenient edge: the edge is done long before the answer is.
- The skewer comes out as the recipe describes, clean and dry or carrying the stated moist crumb, and it does the same on a second test in a different spot.
- The wobble is read in motion: nudged, the centre moves as one set mass with a faint tremble, rather than a liquid ripple travelling across the surface.
- The other signs agree with the test: risen and just shrinking from the sides, the top set and dry to a light touch with no wet gloss on it.
- Pressed lightly at the middle it springs back and leaves no lasting dent.
Where it goes wrong It was judged on the clock and on how the edges looked, so a centre still liquid went to the rack and sank as it cooled, a dense wet seam under a perfectly browned top.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Off-dry Riesling (Mosel Kabinett)
- Also Right
- Gewürztraminer or off-dry Chenin
- From the Taps
- Crisp lager or pilsner
- Zero-Proof
- Agua fresca or iced jasmine tea
Sugar, cold, and low alcohol are the fire code: sweetness tames capsaicin while acid resets the palate; tannin would fan the flames.
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