How to Make Japanese Ramen Noodles

Gather your ingredients: 2 cups flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 4 eggs, 1 tablespoon water and oil for frying.

Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl and make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients.

Mix the eggs and water together in a small bowl.

Pour the egg and water mixture into the well of the dry ingredients and combine with a large spoon until the mixture forms a dough.

Knead the dough with your hands for 10 to 15 minutes until it begins to feel elastic.

Cover the bowl of dough with a kitchen towel and let the dough rest for 30 minutes.

Flour a space on your counter top. Roll the dough on the floured counter top until it is very thin---about 1 mm. Use as much flour as you need to keep the dough from sticking. If the dough keeps pulling back and getting thicker, let it rest for about 5 more minutes and then roll it out again.

Cut the rolled dough into small strips---about 6 inches long by an 1/8 of an inch wide. If you have a pasta machine, you can use it to make the dough into strips.

Twirl the strips together into little bundles of noodles. Lay the bundles out on the counter for 2 hours to dry somewhat.

Coat the bottom of a frying pan with oil. Fry the bundles of noodles quickly so they don't get too greasy. The noodles should puff up and be a white to light gold color. Place the noodle bundles on a paper towel to cool.

Boil the fried noodles in a chicken, miso, or ramen broth until tender---about 6 to 8 minutes. Refrigerate any unboiled noodles. See the recipe for ramen broth in the Additional Resources below.