Diary of an Inconsistent Cook #40: Semi-Homemade #Ramen

As the daylight has gotten shorter and the weather colder, I find myself desiring to hibernate. I suffer in the cold and I am convinced I was born much too far from the equator. I try to make the best of winter by embracing a portable heater, wool socks, hot beverages, hot cereal, and soup! My husband hates soup. No matter.

The other day I had a craving for ramen. For a time I couldn’t eat it because of the psychological trauma of having to eat ramen in college because of a tight budget issues. American ramen sucks, but it is cheap. When you have only five bucks to spend on food, ramen and it’s cousins are on the menu. I picked up a package of no-msg ramen the other day for about two dollars. It took the edge off the craving, and adding an egg helped, but it’s not budget friendly and not something I would serve to my spawn.

Sorry, the egg was a beautiful golden puddle, but I had a few bites before I took the photo.

I bought two packages of super low shelf ramen packages for a twenty-five cents each, tossed the packet, dug through the dusty bottles in my cabinet, and set my cooking dial to Frankenstein. I tossed in a little of this, and a little of that, tasted and added more until the broth tasted good. I will have to set time aside to do shoyu ramen proper, but that will take planning. For now, I just work with what I have. I used: garlic, shoyu, oyster sauce, sesame oil, shallots, mirin, dash of sugar, egg, carrots, and celery. I forgot where I put my kombu and I was out of fresh ginger. I was also out of homemade chicken stock so I used a dried veggie base powder (no msg, no salt).

I made the veggie base with water then sauteed the shallots with garlic,sesame oil, carrot and onion before adding it to that broth. I then added oyster sauce, mirin, soy sauce, and a bit of sugar until I was satisfied with the flavor. I put in the noodles and set in eggs to poach to soft yolks right in the pot. I topped mine with chives from my garden and sriracha. Not top shelf, but tasty enough to satisfy myself and the kids.

Follow this link for a nice starter recipe close to authentic and far more precise that my fumbles.

Do you do ramen?