A great many people like instant ramen. I like instant ramen, but not the North American varieties in general as I don't like the texture of the noodles or the flavour packets. I prefer noodles from Hong Kong or Japan. When I make it at home, I like to throw in some extra ingredients to jazz it up and not just eat noodles a soup.
Here are some of the types I like from Hong Kong from Nissin. They aren't your typical beef or chicken or oriental flavour. Lots of soy / pork flavours here. Like most instant ramen, you boil these for 3 minutes and they are ready.
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| From top to bottom Black Garlic Oil, Shoyu Tonkotsu, and Tonkotsu flavour Nissin Ramen. |
To add some vegetables and other items to the ramen, I keep frozen corn, and packages of frozen vegetables around to add to the ramen. To cook these properly, add the frozen vegetables (just a small handful of corn, green beans, yellow beans, carrots) to the cold water, put on high heat, and then add the noodles to cook when the water boils. The vegetables are nicely cooked by the time the noodles are done. You can then garnish with some meat (like sliced roast beef, turkey breast, ham, etc.) or a soft boiled egg or a fried egg. In Hong Kong you add like some luncheon meat (SPAM or some other brand like Holiday) and a fried egg to top it off. You now have a more savory and satisfying meal. Some examples of at home ramen next.
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| SPAM, egg, veggie ramen |
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| Ramen with fried egg, veggies, turkey and a piece of cold fried chicken |
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| Just a ramen with a boiled egg, green onion, carrot. |
Everyone has stuff they like to add and that is one of the wonderful things about instant ramen. You can personalize it any way you like. I'm more of a traditional type so I don't deviate much, but it tastes pretty good. Later!
BTW, this soft boiled egg recipe works like a charm if you're trying to boil eggs without having the yolks turn chalky. Put the eggs in their own pot of cold water, make sure the water covers the eggs for at least a 1/2 inch or so. Boil the water with the eggs in it. Once the water is at a rolling boil, then take the pot off the heat. Keep the eggs in the hot water. Set a timer for 7 or 8 minutes for a nice firm yolk, but not overdone. Once the timer goes off, dump the hot water and immerse the eggs in cold water to stop the cooking. All done now. If the shells don't come off easily this is often because the eggs are fresh. The shells separate easier on old eggs.
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