My Cumin Lamb Noodles are an excellent recipe to make for Lunar New Year. I make everything from scratch in this recipe, including the hand-pulled noodles. This allows me to stretch the noodles as long as I can so that when they are served on Lunar New Year, I can be assured that my friends and family will have a long life!
Check out this incredible recipe down below and watch me make everything from scratch on YouTube!
Making Homemade Hand-Pulled Noodles
Hand-pulled noodles require a bit of work, but they are so fun to make! The dough starts out really simple, with bread flour, water and salt. Once it’s mixed together, kneaded and rests, it makes the most stretchy and tender noodles.
From my recipe trials, I found that bread flour works the best since it has more gluten than all-purpose flour. The extra gluten helps make the noodles stretch much longer–which is half the fun of making these noodles!
To stretch to noodles, pull the dough to stretch it out and as you pull, slap the dough against an oiled countertop to prevent it from sticking. The slapping motion helps to stretch the dough much longer and leads to less breakage than if you were to simply pull the dough by hand. This is super fun to do so make sure you get your friends and family involved!
The Most Flavourful Cumin Lamb Noodles
These hand-pulled noodles pair perfectly with cumin lamb. I add both ground cumin and whole cumin seeds to my recipe to get a really powerful cumin flavour.
I begin by marinating the lamb shoulder in a mixture of ground cumin, dry chili flakes, black pepper, garlic, soy sauce and Shaoxing cooking wine. You only need to marinade the lamb for 30 minutes to an hour as the marinade is super flavourful and penetrates the meat relatively quickly.
Once marinated, I fry off the lamb in a hot pan with some sliced onions, chili oil, and a few sliced scallions. A sprinkling of whole cumin seed as an extra layer of flavour and lots of nuttiness to the noodles. It is a match made in heaven!
Get the Recipe!
Cumin Lamb Noodles (with Homemade Hand-Pulled Noodles)
Ingredients
For the Hand-Pulled Noodles:
- 300 grams bread flour
- 2 grams sea salt
- 160 mL lukewarm water
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
For the Cumin Lamb:
- 250 grams lamb shoulder sliced 1-cm thick
- 2 tablespoons garlic finely chopped
- 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons dried chili flakes
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons Shaoxing cooking wine
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup yellow onion sliced into half-moons
- 2 teaspoons whole cumin seeds
- 1 tablespoon chili oil
- 2 scallions sliced on a diagonal
- Water for boiling
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
For the Hand-Pulled Noodles:
- Combine the bread flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Slowly add the water to the flour and mix until a scraggly dough forms.
- Turn the dough out onto a silicone mat (or lightly floured work surface) and knead the dough for 5-8 minutes, or until it is nice and smooth. The dough should be slightly sticky, but it should not stick to your work surface. If it is sticking, add 1 teaspoon of flour at a time until you reach the ideal consistency. Alternatively, if the dough is not coming together, add 1 teaspoon of water at a time until the dough comes together.
- Once the dough is smooth after kneading, cover the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, divide the dough into eighths by cutting the dough in half, then into quarters, then into eighths.
- Press each ball of dough down using the palm of your hand to flatten it, then roll it out into an oval shape using a rolling pin. Repeat for the rest of the dough. The ovals should be 8-10 cm long and 1/2 cm thick.
- Place 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil onto the silicone baking mat and spread it out over an area large enough to fit all the dough ovals on in a single layer. Take another tablespoon of vegetable oil and rub the top of each dough oval to fully coat. Cover the dough again with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 2 hours.
- After 2 hours, the dough will be relaxed enough to be stretched into noodles. To make the noodles, take an oval of dough and lay it in front of you on the silicone baking mat. Take a chopstick and lay it horizontally across the centre of the dough and gently press it down to make an indent.
- Pick up the dough and gently pull it apart, stretching the dough so that the indentation made with the chopstick becomes longer as you pull. As you pull the dough apart, slap it down onto the counter to allow it to stretch more. You should be able to stretch the dough to almost a full arms length.
- Tear the noodle in half along the indent that was made with the chopstick earlier. This gives the noodles their hand-pulled look. Be sure to not tear it all the way through so that you have a big circle of dough. Continue to slap and pull the dough to make the noodle even longer. At this point, you should be able to stretch it a full arms length.
- To finish, simply rip open the circle of dough to form one long noodle. If the noodle feels thick in a certain place, stretch out the dough in the area to help the noodle cook more evenly.
- Lay the noodle in a single layer to avoid sticking, and continue the process for the rest of the dough.
- To cook the noodles, bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Add the noodles in, one at a time, ensuring that they do not stick. Once all the noodles are added, stir using a wooden spoon and cook for 3-4 minutes. Serve with the Cumin Lamb (recipe below) or your favourite meats, vegetables and sauces.
For the Cumin Lamb:
- Place the lamb in a small mixing bowl along with the ground cumin, chili flakes, ground black pepper, garlic, soy sauce and Shaoxing wine. Mix everything to combine and set aside to marinate for at least 30 minutes.
- Heat a large frying pan over high heat. Once hot, add 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil to the pan, followed by the marinated lamb. Fry for 3 minutes on the first side, then flip the lamb over and add the whole cumin seeds and sliced onions. Fry for another 3-4 minutes, or until the lamb is cooked through.
- Carefully transfer to cooked noodles into the pan with the cumin lamb and add the chili oil and half the chopped scallions. Toss everything to combine.
- Serve these noodles immediately with a garnish of the remaining chopped scallions and enjoy!
