Simple adjustments to ramen.

[0jack]

This is a bowl of spicy seafood ramen (neo guri, actually, a thicker noodle), but it looks pretty substantial when it's ready.

Ramen isn't my first choice to make my partner on a regular basis, but he loves it. I found some spicy ramen & neoguri at both Wal*Mart and the same brand at my local grocery in the Asian food section. It's called Nong Shim and it runs about $5 for 6 packages of noodles and each package is THEORETICALLY two servings.  My partner eats a package at a time. I know this isn't cheap for ramen, but it's a lot of food.

Note, this is a SPICY product, if you are looking for it. The neo guri is seafood and the ramen is simply spicy. In addition to the seafood in the neo guri, there are mushrooms in both products.

For this, I put in a fillet of tilapia, which is around $1.25 for the kind I buy, if you are keeping track of those things. You can buy vacuum-packed, frozen "slabs" that are basically a bunch of fillets side-by-side and just pull one out when you need it.  Handy. 

I toss the fish in while the water is coming to a boil.  For the seafood neoguri, I also add whatever I have in the fridge and some extra seaweed I keep on hand.  In this case, there's a cooked, mashed sweet potato and a yellow pepper in there.  I added two crushed cloves of fresh garlic and a crushed chunk of fresh ginger to it as well.

Other things I've added have been various cooked meats (including ham in the spicy ramen), grated carrot, spinach, kale, frozen vegetables, and all kinds of peppers. Tofu would be fantastic in this if I kept much soy around. troisroyaumes  pointed out that I'd forgotten egg. I think my favourite thing about this is how this seems to take on any kinds of vegetables and meats I throw into it.  I've also used leftovers of stuff like ribs or rotisserie chicken.  

But, basically, this is boiling water plus some bits and pieces and then following the package directions. I mostly use a pair of scissors to chop stuff up (I chop the cooked fish a couple times, but then it falls apart the rest of the way) and to open the packages... and I stir with the scissors.  *cough*  So, there you go. It's just ramen with a little more. I can make this in about 10 minutes from putting the pot on to putting it in the bowl. 

Comments

[troisroyaumes]

Er, just a point of clarification: Nong Shim is the manufacturer and Neoguri is the brand name (not a more general type of noodle). It's meant to simulate a more udon-type of noodle soup though, so you're right that it's thicker.

One thing I like to do with ramyun is to drop in an egg just before serving and stir around.

If one doesn't like spice, another good variant is to just cook the noodles and drop in a stock cube along with other ingredients of choice as well.

[0jack]

Oh, thanks, I'll clarify that. It was how it was listed when I looked it up at the store website. :)

[0jack]

Oh, I forgot about the egg. That's the one thing my partner can do for himself, so I never do it. LOL. I let him do that when he wants ramen and I can't make it. I've done chopped boiled egg in a pinch as well. I want to try a can of tuna, as well.

That's a good point about the stock. This brand packages the spicy stock separate from the dried vegetables. I get a really good vegetarian stock in a lot of flavours.

[troisroyaumes]

Tuna sounds like an awesome idea; I should give that a try.

[0jack]

It's pretty cheap for a protein, per gram. It goes really well with all the other spiced stuff I make. I also put it with cucumbers or cabbage & a dressing of hot chilis, garlic, ginger, and sesame oil (oh, and rice wine vinegar or white vinegar) if all my brain wants is SPICY SALAD. Sometimes my brain is all DO NOT WANT about protein, which is horrible because I need a lot of it.

[afuna]

Oooh I should try some of those. I usually just add in some leafy vegetables (stalk + leaves) while cooking, and then swirl in an egg at the very end.