Soak rice noodles, don't boil
Dried rice noodles are rice starch that was cooked once, then dried. Warm water softens them gently. A hard boil overcooks the surface and the strands slump. A soak leaves them bendy but firm, ready to finish in a hot wok.
The wok finishes the job
In a hot wok the noodles soak up sauce and steam until tender. Drain them well first, because extra water thins the sauce and cools the pan. A quick rinse washes off the loose starch that glues strands together.
Test yourself
Questions from the interactive lesson, with the answer and the why.
Your noodles will finish cooking in the wok with the sauce. How soft should they be after the soak?
Bendy but still firm in the center. They finish softening in the hot wok and stay chewy.
True or false: Soaked rice noodles should still feel firm in the center, because the wok finishes cooking them.
True. Noodles that are already fully cooked keep cooking in the wok and turn mushy, so they should leave the soak firm.
What went wrong? You boil dry rice noodles for ten minutes, then stir-fry them. They end up a mushy clump.
They were fully cooked first, then cooked again in the wok. Cooking them twice overshoots the texture and leaves mush.
Fill the blank: Soaked noodles should be drained well, because extra ___ on them thins the sauce and cools the wok.
Soaked noodles should be drained well, because extra water on them thins the sauce and cools the wok. Extra water dilutes the sauce and lowers the pan temperature.
Your soaked noodles are stuck together in one block. What helps?
Rinse them briefly to wash off loose starch. Rinsing removes the surface starch that glues strands together.