I’m a big fan of instant noodles – such a big fan that I started www.ramenrater.com to review different varieties. Of all things ramen, I’ve come up with this homemade noodle recipe, taking ingredients from all over the far east and orient.
First, I needed noodles. These were found in Edmonds at 99 Ranch Market. Not only are they my favorite thickness of noodle and cook up fast, but they’re fat free.
This is sweet soy sauce. I’ve seen it used alot in Indomie brand instant noodles from Indonesia. Thick and sweet soy syrup type of stuff. I got this bottle just because of the brand name. They’re really all the same as far as I can tell, but BANGO is a cool name. Also from 99 Ranch Market.
This is great stuff. It’s a sweet chili sauce that compliments the soy. Also from Indonesia, purchased at 99 Ranch Market.
These eggs are from the exotic climes of Safeway. I recently learned how to boil eggs – yeah I know so STFU… I cook lots of stuff, just not hard boiled eggs alot – until now!
So in a big soup bowl, put some Manis Pedas and sweet soy sauce in the bowl. Awesome – it’s starting to get colorful!
I also put a tiny bit of olive oil in there – Usually, Indomie’s flavor sachets contain chili sauce, sweet soy, and a packet called seasoned oil. So a little bit of this and a shake of Cajun seasoning went in. I think next time perhaps an airplane bottle with a ton of minced garlic in it would be great – let it sit for a while and bam – seasoned oil.
Such beautiful egginess – you would eat these eggs if I asked you to I imagine!
Things are starting to come together, so let’s bring the garnish out of the fridge. This is pickled ginger – and not the sushi stuff, but the kind you’d find on yakisoba. This is your standard Shirakiku brand, which should be available at most major grocery stores. I got mine at Uwajimaya.
So here’s the noodle cake ready to be dropped in the cauldron. Note the strainer! Cook them for three minutes, drain well, then drop em into the bowl and stir like a maniac.
Now drop those sliced eggs on there. don’t mix them in though – that’s kind of silly. Use a little pinch of this egg seasoning on them. Got this at India Sweets & Spices in Shoreline. It’s also time to put on the pickled ginger.
So here’s the final result! Click on the image to see the neato details. The coolness is fun and the taste flavor is excellent! Modify this recipe to your heart’s content! Some ideas could be to add chicken bouillon in there somewhere, as the sauce as flavoring is rather strong. Some kind of bumbu dry seasoning would make it a bit more authentic too.
That looks yummy, I gotta find some sweet soy sauce to experiment with!
As for the garlic in oil idea, don’t do it man!
Incidentally, another danger associated with garlic is potential botulism contamination–in 1989 the FDA banned certain garlic-in-oil mixes for that reason. The problem is that when you chop up fresh produce and cover it in oil, you’re giving anaerobic Clostridium botulinum bacteria a good growing environment. Some claim roasting the garlic first eliminates this danger, but I’ve seen conflicting arguments on that score–better not to risk it.