Recipe: Not-quite-instant noodles
Found the
singleserving food community, so I posted there with this Not-quite-instant noodles recipe. Crossposting it here to my own journal. :-)
I tend to mostly cook big batches of food - cooking for two busy people who go out dancing a lot, plus "dinner parties" occasionally, so most of my recipes aren't quite appropriate for here.
But, I do tend to get home after a long night of dancing and make myself a midnight snack, which, given my relatively insane metabolism, is what most people tend to define as a single serving meal. The most common item I make is "instant noodles", except dressed up. I also vary the amount of stuff I put in based on how hungry I am. :-)
The ingredients list is not as fixed as I present it below - any kind of protein based stuff works a treat (I often have pre-cooked diced-chicken-in-garlic-and-rice-wine lying around to add), but this is the quick and easy midnight snack with nothing prepared version.
Not-quite-instant noodles
Ingredients
- eggs (1-3, either beaten or just cracked and left whole)
- bacon (1-3 rashers, optional)
- tofu (diced, good vegan option instead of the bacon and eggs)
- garlic (fresh diced, or dried chips work as a cheat)
- oil (amount and type to taste - I often use a mix of corn oil, peanut oil and sesame oil, volume is dependent on taste and fattiness of bacon)
- about a litre of water (boiling)
- dried noodle cakes (1-2) (maggi, or ramen cakes, or a zillion other options)
- seasonings: e.g. curry-powder/chilli-powder/soy-sauce/tamari/salt (to taste, possibly added to beaten egg mixture in advance)
- scallions/lettuce/spinach/fresh green leaf (cut roughly or torn); and/or frozen peas/beans/corn
- fried shallots
- If using dried garlic chips, put them in a small bowl and wet them to "reconstitute" in advance.
- If using bacon, I usually dice it, but if I'm really tired/lazy I just tear it up into a few chunks.
- Fry bacon and oil in wok (or bottom of appropriate size metal pan)
- If using "dried" tofu, possibly choose to fry them here, or simply add them later, either is fine
- If you're using beaten eggs, add them here once the bacon is cooked, and slosh the eggs around carefully and turn occasionally to make an omelette, then break it up into spoon sized chunks once it's mostly cooked
- Add garlic (the reconstituted you'll have to watch very closely) and wait until it starts to brown
- Pour boiling water over it (watch the steam cloud and don't splash!)
- add the tofu (if you didn't already fry it)
- add the dried noodle cakes, add more water if necessary to cover the noodles, more or less water depending on how "soupy" you want the noodles
- If you're using whole eggs, gently slip them into the water to poach whilst the noodles cook
- add seasonings to your taste
- simmer for slightly less than the suggested noodle cooking time on the packet, occasionally stirring. If you can avoid breaking the egg yolks if you're poaching, that's one option, otherwise, don't worry, it's tasty anyway.
- toss in green vegetables, bring back to simmer
- serve in a large bowl with fried shallots on top for fun and crunch
comments). Please read DW OpenID Help if you want to comment there