You may be thinking why would anybody bother with ramen tutorials, all you have to do is boil some water. But no, my friend, the humble ramen can be turned into so much more. It’s a snack eaten around the world and many have found ways to tweak it to fit their styles. Now you may again argue that the whole point of ramen is to be an easy, simple, and quick snack option so why would one bother with elaborate recipes? And we completely agree. It’s just that there are easy, simple, and quick ways to upgrade your ramen. The Week brings you to some popular home recipes.
Quick chicken ramen
What more could we ask for during these cold winter days than a warm bowl of soupy ramen with good old boneless chicken breast and some vegetables. This is bound to become a go-to recipe for many. Here you can use just about any ingredients found in your kitchen and alter the measurements according to your taste. It’s so easy that you are bound to master it within the first or second try.
Required ingredients
• 1 packet of instant noodles
• 1 boneless chicken breast
• Ginger, garlic, spring onion bulbs, green onions, mushrooms, lemon
• Soy sauce
• 1 boiled egg
Methodology
It’s best if you use a wok style dish to prepare this recipe.
We begin by sautéing finely chopped ginger, one tablespoon of chopped garlic and spring onion bulbs for a minute.
Then add chicken breast strips to the mix. While at it, also season it with some salt and let it cook for another minute or two.
Break your ramen noodles and place it the pot. This is also where we add some (note, not all) of the noodles’ seasoning packet. Next, add a tablespoon of soy sauce and mix it well. You can add rest of the ramen’s seasoning now and mix again.
The mushroom is added at the end. Let it all cook for about a minute. Finish off by adding a cup of water to the mix. Cover the dish and cook until the mixture boils.
‘Ramen restaurants’ introduced in Kathmandu
Once your ramen noodles are ready, put them in a bowl. Add a slice of lemon and boiled eggs on top. Garnish with some green onions.
Your chicken ramen is ready to be served.
Cheese ramen
For us here in Nepal, the concept of adding cheese to our ramen sounds peculiar. But trust us here and try it out. Adding cheese to a soupy bowl of regular ramen is particularly very popular in Korea and they have been doing this for ages. It’s the best way to satisfy two cravings at once. You can experiment with any cheese of your choice.
Required ingredients
• 4 cups of water
• 1 packet of ramen (They say spicy ramen is the best option for this recipe as the cheese helps balance out the spiciness.)
• 1 slice of cheese (We shall stick to plain American cheese here)
• 1 egg
• Chopped green onions
Methodology
Bring two cups of water to boil and when ready put in the ramen. Boil until it softens. Then drain the water and rinse the noodles with cold water. This will make the ramen chewy. Set the noodles aside. Take the other two cups of water and boil it. Pour in the seasoning of the ramen.
Next beat your egg. When your soup base has boiled, use a spoon and stir the soup well creating a mini water tornado in the pot. While the water is still swirling, slowly drizzle in your egg into the soup. This will help make your egg fluffy.
Add half of the green onions into the soup as well. After that, add the cooked ramen that you had set aside. Cook for another minute or so and stir occasionally. Put your now cooked ramen with egg into a bowl with its soup.
Put cheese of your choice on top of the piping hot ramen. Sprinkle of more green onions on top for garnish.
A hot bowl of ramen with cheese is now ready for you to enjoy.
Shrimp and veggie noodles
If you love exotic flavors, this is an easy-to-prepare ramen soup. What’s more, you can achieve it with a regular packet of oriental style, preferably chicken-flavored ramen noodles found in just about any supermarket around town. Just make sure you also fetch some shrimps while buying them. Within 20 to 25 minutes at most, you can make an ordinary packet of ramen go from ‘this is good’ to a proper savory dish.
Required ingredients
• A packet of Ramen
• Green onions
• Mushroom
• Regular onions
• Spinach
• Shrimp
Usually one mushroom, two green onions and half an onion does the trick but you can alter the amount as per your taste and serving size.
Methodology
We began by preparing the ingredients.
Start by chopping the green onions. Cut them in fairly big pieces until you get to the white part that you want to make thinner.
Likewise, move on to the mushroom and regular onions. Slice them into medium pieces.
You also want to clean the spinach leaves (about 15 leaves or so) and then wash as well as peel off the shell and the tail of the shrimp.
Now we get to the cooking part.
Take a pan with some oil or sunflower oil and fry the shrimps. Cook them until there are a nice shade of pink and orange. There is no need to add any seasoning just yet.
Use the same pan to sauté all the green onions, mushrooms, and the regular onions until they are nice and tender. Make sure you don’t overcook them. You still want a slight crunch to the vegetables.
Once they have been cooked to your liking, add spinach to the diced veggies and sauté until they wither.
Add half a tablespoon of crushed peppers to kick up the spice.
Once that is done, add the shrimps to the vegetables and mix. Once done, set it aside.
While you are doing this make sure you are boiling water on the side. Add the noodles and cook them.
When you finish, start plating the ramen in a bowl. While plating, it’s best not to drown your noodles in its soup. Just add a little. This dish tastes the best when eaten this way.
After the ramen, add your cooked vegetables and shrimp to the bowl.
Now add the seasoning of the ramen. We use the same seasoning that comes with the packet. Make sure to mix it in well.
And just like that we have shrimp and veggie noodles.
