UDON NOODLES
Start with a high-gluten bread flour, and mix 700 g of flour, 295 ml of water
and 50 g of salt. Knead it for about 15 minutes. Place the dough in a thick
unused garbage bag, and place the bag on the floor. Stomp on the bag with your
feet until the dough is really flat, which will take about 3-4 minutes. Pick up
the bag, take out the dough, roll it up by hand, put it back in the bag, put the
bag back on the floor, and repeat the process until you have stomped 10 times.
Let it sit in the bag for about an hour, or place it in the refrigerator for up
to 24 hours, letting it sit out for 30 minutes if you refrigerated it
Do "the stomp" process five more times. Take the dough out of the bag and place
it on a fairly wide flat floured surface. Using a 1-2" dowel (though a rolling
pin will do), roll out the dough until it is a rectangle about 1/10" thick. Fold
over the far side of the rectangle, then the near side over the far side, until
the lengthwise view of the rectangle has been folded until thirds. Using a VERY
sharp knife (there is a knife specifically designed for this purpose, but
getting one is a real bear and I don't have one myself), slice the dough into
pasta strips about 1/8" thick, and toss the pasta with cornstarch. Let the pasta
sit in a bowl for about 20 minutes, then boil it in salted water about 12
minutes; drain and rinse. Place it in bowls with heated *tsuyu* (see below), add
some cut scallions and serve.
# Tsuyu* (stock for noodles)
For each serving of noodles, combine 300 ml of boiling water, soy sauce to taste
(about 100 ml more or less) and boil with kombu leaves; remove the leaves, pour
into a bowl, add the noodles and cut scallions.