**The Art of Making Basil Noodles with Garlic Water**

As we embark on this culinary journey, let's start by making the foundation of our dish: fresh homemade noodles. In Henanese cuisine, noodle-making is an everyday occurrence, as culturally automatic as tortilla making in Mexico or baking bread in North America. For us today, we'll be whipping up some fresh noodles, and I'm excited to share my favorite method with you.

To start, you can use dried noodles if you prefer, but for this recipe, we're going to make our own from scratch. Begin by mixing together 200 grams of flour and two grams of salt in a bowl. Slowly drizzle in 90 grams of cool water while mixing until the dough comes together in shaggy little bits. Then, smush it all into a ball and let it rest for 45 minutes. This is an important step, as it allows the gluten to relax, making the dough easier to work with.

After the resting period, we'll knead our noodles using a technique borrowed from Japanese udon-making. To do this, place the dough in a sturdy plastic bag and step on it until it forms into a sheet. Fold it in one direction, then the other to get it into a square shape, and repeat this process several times. I find that doing this 8 times is perfect for developing the gluten in our noodles. Once you've completed the kneading process, fold the dough back into a rectangle and let it rest for another 30 minutes.

Now it's time to roll out our noodles. Take out the dough, wrap one side around your rolling pin, and start rolling it around your pin. Dust the dough with flour between wrappings to prevent sticking, and once you've reached a width of about two millimeters, dust it again. Fold the noodle into layers to make it easier to cut, and slice it into about one centimeter wide noodles.

**Preparing the Garlic Water**

While our noodles are resting, let's prepare the star of our dish: garlic water. This is where things get really interesting! The traditional recipe calls for a teaspoon each of soy sauce and dark Chinese vinegar, which gives the water a rich, savory flavor. To make it, simply mix together these ingredients in a bowl until well combined.

For an added depth of flavor, you can also add some toasted sesame oil to your garlic water. This is where things get really interesting! Take about a half tablespoon of toasted sesame oil and mix it into the soy sauce and vinegar mixture. It may seem like a lot, but trust me, it makes all the difference.

Now that we have our noodles and garlic water ready, let's talk about how to serve them. To make your basil noodles truly special, you'll want to add some finishing touches. For starters, toss in half or about a cup of stewed tomato and eggs. This will give your noodles a burst of juicy flavor.

Next, add a similar amount of garlic water – about three tablespoons should do the trick. You can adjust this to your taste, but trust me, it's essential for bringing all the flavors together. A small handful of sliced cucumber adds a nice crunch and freshness to the dish, while toasted, roasted, or fried peanuts provide a satisfying texture.

**The Final Touch**

And finally, the pièce de résistance: fresh basil leaves. Take a generous handful of your favorite basil variety – I like to use Thai basil for its slightly spicy flavor – and chop it up finely. Add this to your noodles, tossing everything together with a flourish.

So there you have it! Your very own basil noodles with garlic water are ready to be devoured. Whether you're an experienced Henanese auntie or just starting out on your culinary journey, I hope this recipe has inspired you to get creative in the kitchen. Don't forget to check out the recipe in the description box below, and if you'd like to support us on Patreon or subscribe for more Chinese cooking videos, please do so.

**General Approaches to Garlic Water**

One of the most interesting aspects of garlic water is the various approaches people take when making it. Some prefer a classic combination of soy sauce and vinegar, while others opt for a simpler recipe using just salt, MSG, and toasted sesame oil. However, there's another approach that's gaining popularity: pounding some spearmint into your garlic water.

Pounding spearmint is a unique technique that adds a fresh, herbaceous flavor to the dish. It may sound unusual, but trust me, it works! Simply take a handful of spearmint leaves and pound them with a mortar and pestle until they release their oils and flavors. Then, mix this into your garlic water and enjoy.

Whether you choose to make garlic water with soy sauce and vinegar or try one of the more adventurous approaches, remember that the key is to taste as you go and adjust the seasoning to your liking. With a little practice and patience, you'll be making delicious basil noodles with garlic water like a pro!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enCertain combinations of flavors just… work. When it comes to Chinese food,  you might usually think about something like soy sauce, ginger,  and scallion. Or maybe if you’re a Sichuan food enthusiast, your mind might go to chili,  huajiao, and MSG. But what much of the world knows about the flavors of China is really  just barely scratching the surface, so here we also like sharing less internationally  famous combos such as Guangxi’s addictive mix of fermented soybean, fermented bamboo shoots,  pickled chilis and garlic. And so today, we similarly wanted to share another lesser known  profile from the Henan province – a homestyle classic of Tomato, Garlic, and… uh… Basil.Okay. I know what you’re thinking, this isn’t one of our ‘western food in China’ videos,  this is totally a case of culinary convergent evolution. Because these noodles are smothered  with stewed tomato and eggs, a classic Northern Chinese noodle topping; garlic water, something  that you see again and again in Chinese mixed noodle dishes, and – interestingly – lemon basil,  an ingredient that, in China, is very local to the Henan province. It will not be available in your  local general Chinese supermarket, if you can find it probably it’d be at a Southeast Asian grocer – it’s sometimes called Lao basil, in Thai it’s maenglak, in Indonesian kemangi. That said,  we did also try testing this recipe using Thai basil as well,  which was also delicious, and I’m sure sweet basil would also taste great too.Either way, the core ‘thing’ in this recipe are those stewed tomato and eggs. They’re super easy,  to make them, first core two tomatoes, then dice them into about half inch chunks,  and reserve them into a bowl. Then - separate bowl - crack two eggs,  season them with an eighth teaspoon each salt and white pepper, and then thoroughly whisk those  until foamy and no stray strands of egg white remain, a bit like this, and set them aside.Then, to fry those, first just toss 2-3 tablespoons of oil to a hot wok and give  it a good swirl. With your flame on maximum now, add in the now-beaten eggs, and let those  quickly puff and set. Pull the cooked bits to the side of the wok to let the egg cook evenly,  and once there’s no more liquid remaining, give that a quick scramble, and then… take it out.Then same wok, no need to wash, now toss in another tablespoon of oil and this time over  a medium low flame toss in a clove’s worth of minced garlic and a half inch worth of minced  ginger. Fry those until fragrant, about 30 seconds, then toss in your tomato chunks and  start to fry. We’ll be looking for our tomato to begin to break down, and we like expediting  that process a bit by going at it with a spatula, and after about three minutes you  should be looking at something a bit like this. Swirl in a teaspoon of liaojiu aka Shaoxing wine,  give it a mix, then another teaspoon of soy sauce in the same manner. Then go in with  one cup of water, bring that to a light boil, cover with a loose lid and let it bubble away.And… about ten minutes later, our liquid’s evaporated by about  one third, so then now… just season with a quarter teaspoon  each salt and MSG, and add back in the egg. Give that a good final mix, and… reserve.Then, thing to prepare number two – the garlic water. To make it to a mortar just toss in three  cloves of garlic together with a quarter teaspoon of salt and then pound that until  pasty. Then toss in six tablespoons of water, and with that just scrape and pour it into a bowl.Then we’ll further season that with a ¼ tsp of five spice powder, a quarter teaspoon MSG,  a teaspoon each of soy sauce and dark Chinese vinegar… and then mix those well. Finish with  a half tablespoon of toasted sesame oil… and then your garlic water is also ready.And then… finally, the last bit then is, of course… some noodles. Now, for this,  if you were an experienced Henanese auntie you would probably already know how to pump out  fresh homemade noodles in no time flat – noodle making in the North is an everyday occurrence,  as culturally automatic as tortilla making in Mexico or maybe baking in North America. For you,  you can use some dried noodles here if you wanted, totally tastes good as well,  so do feel free to use your favorite noodle. That said, for us today we’ll be whipping up  some fresh noodles, and this is how Steph’s found that she likes to pump hers out.So, 200 grams of flour, two grams of salt, give that a mix, and then  slowly drizzle in 90 grams of cool water. Mix that into shaggy little bits like so,  then smush it all into a ball, and let it rest for 45 minutes.And, after that time, the kind of weird totally-not-Henan thing that Steph likes  to do is then knead this with her feet. To do so, just toss that into a sturdy plastic bag,  step on it until it forms into a sheet, fold it in one direction  then the other to get it into a square, then toss that in again and repeat. This is actually  a Japanese technique sometimes employed in Udon making, but we’ve found that it’s actually the  easiest way for us at home to knead a dry noodle dough. So just repeat that process 8 times,  fold it back into a rectangle, and rest it for another 30 minutes.And then… after that time, take out the dough, roll it out into a large rectangle,  large enough it’s starting to exceed your work surface. Then take one side,  wrap it around your rolling pin, and start rolling it around your pin. The idea here is  to allow us to evenly apply pressure to the entire dough to thin the whole thing out,  a bit like rolling through a pasta maker. Just dust the dough in between wrappings,  and once it’s reached a width of about two millimeters, dust it again,  fold it into layers to make it easier to cut, and slice into about one centimeter wide noodles.And then to boil those, just toss them in to a wok of bubbling water,  and once the water’s reached a boil once again, toss in about a half cup of cool water. Then once  we’ve returned to a boil, remove, and dip into ice water until you’re ready to serve.And then… to serve, to one serving of noodles, just toss in half or about a cup of your stewed  tomato and eggs, a similar half, or about three tablespoons of your garlic water,  a small handful of sliced cucumber, a tablespoon of toasted, roasted,  or fried peanuts, and a generous handful of your basil of choice. And then with that,  your basil noodles are done, just mix well, and devour immediately.So! There are a couple general approaches to the garlic water… we add soy sauce and  vinegar to ours, so people skip that and just do salt and MSG and toasted sesame  oil. But! There’s another approach that’s very interesting, which’s that people’ll pound some  spearmint into their garlic water, and that’s pretty tasty as well. So right! Check out the  recipe in the description box, a big thank you for everyone that’s supporting us on Patreon,  and of course, subscribe for more Chinese cooking videos.\n"