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How to Make Fresh Noodles Without Any Flour
You just need eggs
Maybe you can’t find any flour. Maybe, like me, you’ve foolishly decided not to eat any this month. Maybe you’re just really fucking bored.
Whatever the reason, if there comes a time when you want or need to make “noodles” without any flour — rice and grain flours included — make these.
Japanese egg crêpe “noodles” fall somewhere on the spectrum between obvious kitchen hack and total revelation. I’m not sure where. They’re basically super-thin omelets cooked in a nonstick skillet, rolled up, and cut into strips. Those strips are your noodles. Ta-da!
You can use them as a garnish for stir-fries, rice, or actual noodles, or toss them gently with sauce and pretend you’re eating actual noodles (strangely, this works). Last night, I had them with ginger-scallion sauce, but if you omit the soy sauce from the egg mixture, you’re no longer bound to make them Japanese, Chinese, or anything else (fresh tomato sauce and parm would be a good move).
The recipe below is adapted from Mark Bittman’s How to Bake Everything. Four eggs (two large crêpes, if you’re using a 12-inch skillet) will yield a side-dish-sized portion for two people. Needless to say, if you want more noodles, just make more crêpes…
Until the eggs run out.
Japanese Egg Crêpe ‘Noodles’
Makes: 2 side-dish servings
Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- Neutral oil (like grapeseed or corn) for cooking
Instructions
- Vigorously whisk the eggs and soy sauce in a bowl.
- Put a large nonstick pan over medium-low heat and add 1 tablespoon oil. Use a brush or paper towel to spread the oil evenly over the pan. When the oil is hot, pour in half of the egg mixture, tilting the pan so that the egg covers the surface in a thin layer. Cook, undisturbed, until the top is dry, about a minute.
- Since it’s delicate, the easiest way to remove the crêpe is to fold it up (as if you’re rolling a poster) while it’s still in the pan; use your fingers, if they can stand the heat, and/or a rubber spatula. Transfer the first crêpe to a cutting board, and repeat the process once more with the remaining eggs.
- Cut the rolled-up crêpes crosswise into strips. Gently toss them on the cutting board to unravel the strips. You can use these to garnish stir-fries, noodles, or rice, or sauce them as if they’re noodles themselves. Just be gentle.
