April 2022 Cookbook of the Month - Announcement

Cooking Discussions Cooking, Cookbooks, Ingredients
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Your April reporting thread is here:

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I love fresh rice noodles in pad ki mao, although I find it kind of a PITA to painstakingly peel the noodles apart, one by one. Also, I recently had to throw a pack out. I meant to use them the same day I bought them, but something came up, so I put them in the fridge - huge mistake. The next day, they were too hard and brittle to separate. I tried a brief soak in warm water to no avail.

Do you have any tips for working with fresh, store-bought rice noodles? Any advice on storing them, like could I refrigerate them on a baking sheet after I’ve separated them? Can they stay out of the fridge for more than a day? TIA

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Here’s a mound of noodles I hand-separated.

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I would cook them right away then rinse them in cold water to remove the starch. Drain in a colander then toss with some oil before storing in the fridge.

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From Hot Thai Kitchen (scroll down to her recipe notes):

“If you buy fresh rice noodles from the store and they’re cold, hard and stuck together into a big block, you’ll need to heat them (I do this in the microwave) until they’re hot and softened, and you will be able to separate them then.”

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Do you mean cooking by stir-frying them?

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Thanks, that makes sense. I’ve microwaved fresh yakisoba noodles to loosen them, so this could work.

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Good luck!

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I was referring to the Bon Appétit technique:

Another source as Amanda mentioned:

Under tips:

"* If your fresh rice noodles come compressed together, take some time to separate them. It’s best not to perfectly separate them. Leaving them clumped into 2 or 3 noodles will mean less breakage.

  • Also, it helps to leave the fresh rice noodles out of the refrigerator for a few hours beforehand or to open the packet and microwave them a few seconds. Getting a helper to assist you with this task makes it much faster and easier."

I plan to try this hack also:

Please report back and let us know what works for you.

P.S.
The risk with microwaving them is that it is easy to overcook them.
I find that I have more contol submerging them in either room temperature or warm water.

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Thank you for the links. The YouTube and the Bon App article give a wealth of information on dried rice noodles. The Spruce article has some good advice on fresh rice noodles, which I will bear in mind.

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The Bon Appétite method also works on Fresh stuck together rice noodles.

There are 3 ways to separate clumped together rice noodles.

No one way is better than the other it’s just a matter of finding out which method works best for you.

P.S.
As I mentioned my concern would be overcooking the noodles in the microwave.
That’s why I prefer to soak mine because I have more control that way.