Thursday, October 11, 2012

Loh See Fun From Scratch



This has been my quest, to make loh see fun from scratch.  Many hours have been spent trying to get the right texture - one that is chewy, slippery and firm to the tooth without using any chemicals.  Getting the texture  to what i wanted it to be was not that difficult as i know that with a ratio of 3 : 1,  - 3 of rice flour and 1 of tapioca starch should be correct.  How much of liquid is the difficult part of the whole process as the dough has to be of the correct consistency to be able to press out of the cendol press or a potato riser with ease.  Looking for  the utensil with the correct size holes has been a long search, until today, am not able to find any..  I have tried using a large perforated ladle and even found a perforated flat plate which i thought would be it.  No, they were  not, the holes were too big and a good practice of how to push the dough through these holes was needed.  What a mess i made??????

The final play was the return of the cendol maker and it did make loh see fun with pointed tails.  What actually happened was, i have learned to recognized the consistency of the dough - water should be added in, a little at a time so the the dough turned into whipped cream/ or buttercream like, then it will be pushed out of the cendal maker with ease.

I have tried with 2 types of rice flour,  one is the Erawan 3 elephant rice flour from Thailand and the other is a rough textured rice flour from Vietnam.  Both of them make pretty good textured loh see fun, only the rice flour from thailand needed to be dry steamed for an hour before using while the rice flour from Vietnam, i used it straight from the packet.








Ingredients:

250 gm Rice flour from Vietnam

or

250 gm Rice flour from Thailand (I dry steam for 1 hr - just put rice flour onto a muslin cloth and put it to steam)

85 - 90 gm tapioca starch
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp oil
1 cup water
50 ml water for cooking the dough.
More water to get the dough into a consistency like whipped cream or buttercream.





Method:

Mix 1 cup of water to the 250 gm of rice flour and let it sit to bloom and hydrate - 15 to 30 mins.

Add salt to the 50 ml water and mix until salt has dissolved,

Take 100 gram bloomed rice flour and mix with the salt water.

Microwave on high half min at a time for 2 mins, stirring well after every half  min, the dough should be cooked and hot.

Mix this hot dough with the bloomed dough using the wooden spoon or spatula as the hot dough is very hot and will burn.  Until you feel that the dough is cool enough to handle, knead dough well and add in the tapioca starch and 1 tbsp oil.

Continue to knead into a soft dough.  Using a rubber spatula, mix dough with water, 2 tbsps at a time, to a consistency of whipped cream or buttercream.(you will need about 50 ml water)

Put a large pot of water to the boil.

Put dough into cendol maker and when water comes to the boil.  Position the cendol maker about an inch above the boiling water and press dough out gently, a slight push will do cos the dough is very soft.  Too hard pressing cause the noodles to be long and then it will be 'Lai Fun".  Give the cendol maker a shake with a twisting motion so that the tail will form.

Do not stir the noodles until you see them starting to float to the top.  Cook for a while longer, remove them with a strainer and put them in cold water to stop the cooking.


Loh See Fun is ready



Serve loh see fun with ground pork like in Loh See Fun Seremban Style
Or serve it with soup or curry laksa,  It can also be fried like udon/egg noodle/vermicelli - however you wish.  It can also be a dessert if you serve it with a sweet soup which is a Nyonya Dessert called 'Bee Tai Bak'

Notes:

If you do not have a cendol maker or potato riser, you can make the Silver Needle Noodles - follow the instructions in Homemade Loh See Fun HERE

24 comments:

  1. Hi Lily,
    Can you tell me where did you buy a cendol maker please, Thank you

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  2. priscilia3

    i bought it from Bake with Yen in Kuala lumpur, malaysia

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  3. This is great! It is better to make at home because the commercial ones are a bit risky. Remember many years ago there was some kind of loh see fun poisoning?

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  4. phong hong

    make some, they are really great. No cendol maker, you can make by hand but do not add the extra water. take a very very tiny bit and just rub with the palms of your hands and it will form a noodle with 2 pointed ends.

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  5. I haven't have loh see fun for ages. does the udon noodles taste similar?
    yeou-lee

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  6. yeou-lee

    how are you? long time did not see you here.

    udon is made of wheat flour and tapioca starch and this loh see fun is made with rice flour and tapioca starch, loh see fun is softer.

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  7. Aunt Lily,

    Funny to know that u have made making loh see fun your quest too. I made a batch using a recipe online and it came out great. However, the recipe involved a lot of work and produced very little amount of loh see fun. I will try yours.

    Reese

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  8. reese

    can you share that recipe with me

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  9. Hi Lily
    Thanks for sharing your recipes unreservedly with us. Will bookmark and try it out. I dun have chendol maker though, must go Singapore and buy...

    ReplyDelete
  10. miss b @ everybody eats well in flanders,

    my cendol maker was bought from bake with yen in puchong

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi Aunty Lily
    Do you have any recipes for making hor fun or chinese yellow noodles from scratch?

    thanks in advance :)

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  12. miss b

    here is the link for chinese noodle http://lilyng2000.blogspot.com/2005/07/fresh-homemade-hokkien-mee.html. I have not made hor fun before but will try to tweak the chee cheong fun recipes so that it is 'ump' enough to fry.

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  13. Thank you very much, Aunty Lily. I have learn a lot through your recipe blog. :)

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  14. miss b

    you are most welcome. continue to learn and give me feedback on the recipes you have tried.

    take care and have a good weekend

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  15. Tried this recipe this morning. It tuned out very well. I am making two more batches and fry them for lunch today. I don't have a chendol mould but I used the pot from my deep fryer and it worked out perfectly. The noodle is just a little shorter than I'd like but I am still very happy with the outcome. Thanks for sharing this recipe. Have a Happy New Year

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  16. look like laksa, can i just used the laska for the recipe

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  17. just call me - ms ray

    do you mean the noodles look like laksa noodle?

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  18. yes the noodle look just like laksa, the homemade rice flour laksa

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  19. hm... surely with cendol maker its faster eh, but the only thing similar i have at home is the Knöpfli Sieb...i think the holes are bigger... what's the diameter for the Cendol maker could u please tell me..

    thanks a lot

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  20. cheng wai

    the holes for a knopfli are larger and you would have to get the texture of the dough correct which is soft enough to enable you to press through easily. You would have to practise to get the 2 ends pointed. You can try using the paetzle maker.

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  21. ya.. looks like i got to vary the dough consistency then and try dropping them off from the top of a 10 litre pot so that it can get stretched longer before it hits the water.. fingers crossed ;p

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  22. in the end the noodles turned out great, opted to roll em one by one tho as i discover its not so much trouble at all..

    only problem is while steaming my thai rice flour the flour closest to the muslin cloth got cooked and passed it through a pass vite :p

    am i suppose to stir the flour during steaming or something? what's the purpose of steaming since its gonna be hydrated later with a portion cooked...hm...

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  23. cheng wai

    when steaming the thai rice flour, the steamer has to raised away from the water, the flour will not be cooked if it has not come into contact with moisture.

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  24. Lily,

    I just tried this recipe today, thank you for the careful instructions. I don't have a cendol maker so I opened a can then hammered holes in the bottom with a big nail. I washed it out and put the dough in, and then put the lid back on top to use to push the dough through. It worked really well!

    ReplyDelete