Last night was girl-bonding with two of my friends — Aila and Arnie. Usually we go out with the rest of our office mates, so this in itself is a rare event. We went shopping for clothes (you know, girl stuff) and then scouted for a place to eat. To cut the story short, I ordered spicy ramen from a Korean food stall (ramen in Korea is called ramyeon), with kimchi on the side. It has a slice of cheese, which in my opinion blends perfectly with the dish and that melts in the mouth. Hmmm. I wish it had more cheese slices.
So anyway, that’s where I got the inspiration for this post: Ramen.
Ramen is a world-famous Japanese noodle soup. There are many regional variations of ramen in Japan, and there are also some varieties outside the country. Generally it’s composed of Chinese-style wheat noodles (which you can make at home), served in a meat- or fish-based broth and topped with pork, dried seaweed, kamaboko (a Japanese processed seafood product), green onions and corn, though you’d find that there are a number of other vegetables you can use as well. Soy sauce or miso is used to flavour the noodles soup.
The one below is a great base recipe for ramen noodle soup. It’s perfect as a quick lunch or dinner, especially if you’re cooking solo. Like other recipes I’ve listed here, I like the fact that you can easily personalise it according to taste or what you have in stock.
Ramen Noodles Soup
Servings: 2
Ingredients:
- 830 ml vegetable broth
- 1 package (100 g) ramen noodles with dried vegetables
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp chilli oil
- 1/2 tsp minced fresh ginger root
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil
- 2 green onions, sliced
- Fill a saucepan with broth and noodles. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to break up the noodles.
- Reduce heat to medium. Add soy sauce, chilli oil and ginger. Simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes.
- Stir in sesame oil. Garnish with green onions.
You can mushroom or some stir-fry vegetables. I had mine with some chopped celery and carrots, and it was perfect. Other “extras” you can put in your ramen noodle soup include boiled or scrambled egg, some leftover chicken, turkey, ham or shrimp. It’s generally advisable to add more stuff to ramen noodle soup, not just for flavour or texture but also to increase nutritional content as well, as ramen is high in carbs but low in vitamins and minerals.
What variation of ramen is your favourite?
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