Rice-Flour Noodles is a category of white noodles made from rice flour throughout south-east Asia. They turn translucent when cooked.
The category includes rice vermicelli and rice stick noodles; some people include rice flour spring roll wrappers under the category as well.
Producers prefer starting with rice with a high amylose content . The rice is soaked overnight, then ground right in its soaking water. The mixture is allowed to settle and some water is drained off, then it is given an initial steam to partially gelatinize the starch. The dough is passed through an extruder machine to form the noodles, then the noodles are cooked by steam a second time, anywhere from 60 to 120 minutes, then allowed to cool naturally, then rinsed with water.
They are then bundled, dried with fan air at 140 F (60 C) for 1 to 1 ½ hours, then packaged for shipping.
Sometimes cornstarch is added to the mix.
Some producers make them a more old-fashioned way. They make a sheet of the ground rice and water mixture. The sheet is then cooked by steam, then cooled a bit, then cut into noodles and hung to dry.
Rice-Flour Noodles will vary in widths of course based on the exact noodle being made. They are all usually sold dried.
Cooking Tips
Unless the noodle is quite thick, a Rice-Flour Noodle just need to be blanched or briefly soaked in boiling water.
When fried, Rice-Flour Noodles become crunchy almost instantly.