These come up periodically but I haven’t seen one in a while. Since I’ve added another family favorite (the first being curry chicken salad) to my inventory, I’m going to share and hope others pop in with their ramen noodle enhancements.
Easy-peasy-- Use half the amount of water and half the amount of seasoning packet to boil. Add a quarter teaspoon (or more if you like) of dark sesame oil and a tablespoon (or less or more) of chili oil per ramen packet used. Once it starts boiling, drop an egg in and swirl it around with a fork. When egg is cooked to your liking, add noodles and take off heat. When noodles are the texture you like, eat it!
Since I’m usually making it for 4, I use two flavor packets for 4 ramen packages. Since my son loves salt, he’ll use them in his burgers or soup. I put the other half of the water back up into the faucet.
Ramen is my ultimate comfort food: something I can’t possibly eat every day anymore, or even every week, but is so good when I’m stressed or sick or just say fuggit, let’s have all the sodium and carbs.
For this preparation, I prefer MAMA brand, from Thailand, available at any Asian grocery and not terribly more expensive than the Top Ramen type stuff. (Though in a pinch, those are just fine too.) Any flavor.
1.Cook 3 packages ramen noodles (hey, I said it wasn’t an every week food) al dente.
2. Drain almost completely, leaving maybe 2-3 tbsp cooking water in the pot, then return the noodles to the pot.
3. Add ONE of the seasoning packets - way too salty if you use more than that.
4. Add a generous splash of toasted sesame oil, probably about 1.5 tbsp.
5. Add sambal or Sriracha to taste. Toss to coat.
6. Add protein if you’ve got any; I use this as refrigerator velcro, and have added anything from pulled rotisserie chicken to hard boiled egg to leftover shrimp cocktail shrimp, but usually/often add nothing.
7. Garnish with chopped scallions, sesame seeds, crushed peanuts, or…nothing at all!
8. Pour a very cold beers into a glass. (If you used as much sambal as I did, pour two.) Enjoy!
Was going to mention a different way to use the noodles in a wok. Break up the uncooked ramen into pieces no bigger than a grape, add slowly to the wok including all the littler bits, toss and move out the pieces as they finish puffing and crisping. You can season it with some sugar and other seasonings to get something like Thai Crispy Noodles, or use it as a bed for any dish.
Cook noodles al dente in lychee syrup. (Add water as needed to thin the syrup for cooking, but reduce it again after removing the noodles.)
Place noodles in serving bowl and coat with lychee syrup, enough to puddle a bit in the bottom. (Optional: Add a drop of orange blossom water as well.)
Add sliced bananas and mandarin oranges (or other fresh fruit, depending on your tastes) and toss thoroughly.
Chill for ~30 minutes.
Top with a drizzle of chocolate syrup or caramel sauce. Garnish with vanilla wafers or Pocky.
Dessert ramen.
It’s still a work in progress, but I’m on a diet right now, so the research is stalled.
I thought the big health issue with ramen is the palm oil used to fry the noodles during manufacturing. Palm oil is high in saturated fat. Are there brands which use some other manufacturing process which doesn’t have the palm oil?
Palm oil is terrible for you, at least until/unless it undergoes an image rehabilitation like coconut oil has in the last few years.
What’s less ambiguous is that my recipe as detailed above has like 1300 calories and so much sodium that I have to take my wedding ring off before I eat it.
Yeah, yeah, that Biggirl is a regular Milton Berle, she is.
Pretty much the only special thing I do to ramen is to cook it until nearly done, then crack one or two eggs into the saucepan to poach. Break one yolk to thicken the soup, and let the other get semi-hard. I call this breakfast. Once or twice a month.
boil three packages of ramen (with one flavor packet) and drain
stir fry some mixed vegetables and diced ham in oil of your choice (I like to add sesame oil)
add noodles the last minute or so and soy sauce to taste
I open a package and throw away the seasoning packet. I then break off a half gram of the noodles, put the remainder in a zip-lock bag. Put the half gram of noodles into 1/4 cup of boiling water and wait a few minutes. Drain and serve the noodles to Rocco, our African Grey.
