5 Creative Ways to Cook Instant Ramen | NYT Cooking

tell me how you make

instant

noodles in the comments, does that really work to be honest? I'd love to know how you make your

instant

noodles. Hi, I'm Eric Kim. Today I am a

cook

ing columnist for the New York Times. I'm going to show you five

creative

ways

to use instant noodles my whole life I've had instant noodles at my fingertips it's something that's al

ways

in the pantry most people go to their pantry and there's cereal and chips we had instant noodles in the pantry University is something I used to eat maybe twice a week now I eat it once a week life is already very difficult, unforeseen events are like there and when the quality is so good and especially when you do little things like the ones shown in this image , you're adding any vegetables from the crisper drawer, you've got scallions, egg, like it's a really hearty meal.

What I grew up with is Shane Ramen. I love this, not necessarily just because of the taste or anything, but because I saw it go from being a snack of my childhood to being like this. Staple Winery in New York, it's really cool anyway. My point is that all of these are available anywhere, so today I just want to show you different situations where instant noodles can be considered a really useful pantry item in the same way you do. I would be boiling spaghetti on a Tuesday night this is something like my kibon in Korean just means as standard this is my way of making instant noodles when I want to eat and I'm really hungry it's usually midnight and this is a pot that something like a big pot and it's something you can get in the home goods section of most Asian grocery stores and it's a

ramen

pot that the noodles fit perfectly in isn't that good, how perfectly does a thing fit that my mom used to do is boil cold water and as soon as it boils, she would stop and it was like this very chewy noodle because it's been like

cook

ing very evenly.

I asked her about it once she said that I never do that I always wait for the moment to come. water to boil first. I thought it was like lighting myself with gas. It's like my mom doesn't remember teaching me that, but yeah. Many people put the soup packet and vegetables with the water first and prepare the broth. It's not like that because it's not like pasta where you have to season the water. I like to flip it and what that means is that now all the seasoning is dispersed in the water. Most people will probably put the little cookie parts in the water too, but I find it a bit annoying, they make the broth a little cloudy, so I usually just eat them, they are very crunchy and delicious and these noodles are fried , so it's good, it's like a little snack while you wait, okay?

Now is the time to probably add the egg. I don't like to touch it. You could make the egg drop soup and, you know, twist it, but this is the way I like to do it because I like to have a nice chunk of egg in the end, it doesn't really mean loosening the noodles, but I like to keep them in place. shape, keeps them nice Al Dente, the noodles are definitely not fully cooked, but they are still nice and chewy, the egg is

cooking

. when the egg runs out, this will be ready, okay, it's definitely ready.

I take the bowl that I want to use for the soup, I take a strainer, I drain it in the bowl and then I put it back here and this is like a It's a strange thing that I do, but a little bit of sesame oil is not much and what It does is give it shine and it also adds a nice nutty flavor, it's like a deeper flavor that makes it go, huh? What's that? And then these gorgeous chives and that's my 12. A.m. at dinner, this is the best part, you actually take the egg, you crack it and all the yolk comes out and you like to use it as a sauce and look at that egg, that's the real bite.

Sorry, I buried the lead. It's a big bite. I'm excited about this one because it's kind of a callback to my first signature back when I was a baby like two years ago uh it was a quick kimchi story oh there's a flashback to that video it's kind of a lot It's a Korean style dressed salad and this is a dressing made with kochugaru vinegar, sesame oil. I haven't prepared it in a while. I will send it to you again. Fish sauce with garlic. Yes, you can make soy sauce if you want. This dressing is magnificent.

It's really very special and you don't want to waste it. One thing I was doing a lot was mixing the noodles and it becomes like a good noodle salad. I want to throw this in here, you can just drain the noodles. You can run them under cold water if you want to stop the

cooking

. Sometimes I actually just add the hot noodles directly and eat the salad kind of lukewarm. It's like a whole. It's like a whole. dish I found that cilantro is very good with this, in fact, you can do scallions, you can't do anything, but I like a little bit of cilantro action, very chopped.

I love cilantro, this is our summer noodle option. It's great that the noodles catch the leaves like so that every bite has a little cilantro score, man it's so refreshing that sometimes I might add like a soft-boiled egg to this if it's lunchtime and I have like 10 minutes instead of five, this is really like between meetings it's eating me up. next is a

ramen

carbonara. I don't think there's any Italian dish that makes people more angry on the Internet than carbonara. This recipe is obviously not the Roman way we use instant noodles. This is something that often excites me.

I'll make myself like I'm really hungry at midnight and I'll be like, hmm, I've got bacon and eggs, even if I don't have cheese, I'll make carbonara like I'm making it anyway because I love it, so first what we made. We fry up some bacon and in the pan that still has some bacon grease there is also this big honey? It's a reference to the base, the flavor base at the bottom, all the bits stuck together, the brown stuff, let's make a nice sauce and bring it to a boil for something like carbonara. You really want freshly grated cheese.

Pre-shredded cheese has all these stabilizers that make it clump up in a liquid situation like this, so it's not really something I want and I'm just using my spatula to scrape up the nice bacon bits on the bottom because we want that on the bottom. sauce at the end I just flip it so both sides cook. I'm not really going to loosen the noodles too much yet because I'm convinced that not loosening the noodles keeps them nice al dente and chewy and that's pretty good. The hardest part of carbonara is keeping the egg fluffy and not scrambled, and one way to do this is to simply make sure you're stirring. while you're adding the egg, another thing I sometimes do is add a little hot broth to the cold egg.

First, eggs at room temperature help you know how to do this with this two-handed motion is like emulsifying. I could add it back to the heat if you like. foreign finish for me pepper is the flavor of super creamy carbonara. I learned this from my friend Rebecca, she said: turn the plate, not the noodles. I said, wow, that's a good fish. We fry an egg to put on top and this is very substantial. Midnight snack would be a good breakfast if you wanted pasta for breakfast. I think this is the direct step to the egg yolk, get that drizzle, it's very nice because of the cheese, lots of pepper, I think you could add salt if you wanted, but Carpenter already knows cheese and bacon, so I often buy carbonara in restaurants because I'm obsessed with carbonara.

Next we'll make Hedy McKinnon's Crispy Noodles with Glazed Tofu. This is a great way to get some protein and vegetables. carbohydrates in your body is a delicious weeknight meal, you can prepare it in 30 35 minutes. The really cool thing about the recipe is that it calls for three packets of those dry instant noodles and you just pour in some boiling water from a kettle and let it steep. for just five minutes and you drain it, so that's what we have here, these are just noodles that have been soaked and drained, they're still very al dente, like they're not cooked through, you're just going to season them with a little bit of sauce soy, sesame oil and a little neutral oil and salt.

I'm just adding the seasonings because they are so bouncy. It's really satisfying. I'm just going to put it on a baking sheet and we'll put the bowls away because we're going to add the bok choy. Bok choy goes here. Oil and salt. oh they are so delicate they say don't overwork me this is an amazing frosting and it's hoisin sauce, maple syrup, sesame oil, sesame seeds and garlic, we reserved some so we could drizzle it over the top but I threw them in the marinade so that the tofu is ready to use, so you take the tossed tofu and you will place it between the noodles that you like.

Place it on the noodles so that it is in contact with the pan. That will help make it nice and crispy. The oven is very hot, it is at 450. We are going to roast this for 15 minutes on the bottom rack and now we are going to take it out, it is very good, magnificent, what is also great are the noodles. the way they are chewy, these are the bok choy that I seasoned with oil and salt, we will just add them on top, the tofus were already cute, the vodka is adorable, they will roast a little longer, only four to seven minutes wow, what?

Doesn't it look tempting? wow, great, you have some leftover marinade and you might like to drizzle it over the tofu with a little cilantro on top to finish it off when someone says they don't like cilantro. I really believe them, I think it's like you can't help it if it tastes like soap to you, so use parsley, even though the noodles are crispy, you know they're crispy on top but still chewy on the bottom. Parts of this is like something I would like on a Wednesday night after work. Very easy to prepare. Not only is it so much fun.

It is a success. I definitely prepare this one. I am very excited about this recipe. This one actually took a long time and was very deliberate. I was working. into minimal pastas and was trying to figure out how to make gochujang pasta. One interesting thing about culture, John, is that it has a great fermented flavor, but it's a deep flavor, it's like you think of flavor as a deep gradient. kind of sweet, earthy notes, that's culture done, but what happens is that a lot of the pasta and culture recipes that are out there I noticed that they just leave it there and then add butter, maybe, which also It's a low note and they like maybe salt. and pepper and that's it, maybe tomato paste that has a little bit of acidity, so I wanted to make a cold drink paste that had everything that had top notes, middle notes, sweetness, spiciness and balance.

I always remember that John's culture is charming. just as he is, he needs friends, he needs things to like, pick him up. I'm going to boil the water. You can make a pound of pasta, but I think the joy of instant noodles is that they're already a single serving and that's really helpful when it comes to. just you, I'm not the best with my knife work, but if I can cut it as thin as possible, the end result will be beautiful, like shavings. Personally I think it looks very pretty, so I have these beautiful chives. I like to mash them up first and then run my knife through and make a very coarse minced meat.

I'm going to start the sauce now with butter and then add the garlic. Salt. You don't want the garlic to burn. The salt will be removed. a little bit of water, you hear that sizzling noise because it's the garlic letting out its water in the fat. I'm going to add the noodles now because it's finally boiling with your tablespoon measure. I'm going to add a little bit of oil as if I were shaking it. around the culture, John, look how well the cherry vinegar went down, it's really good, it needs a little bit of honey, you need a little bit of sweetener and now put it back on the heat and let it boil and all of this is going to bubble up.

For a delicious frosting, you can use tongs if you want, but I'll just add it right in. This will finish the sauce. A little bit of butter to give it shine at the end. This is a little trick. A shaky little shake. This helps. the sauce sticks more to the noodles and makes them shiny and glossy and that's basically what the noodles are here, it was really special, it's very intense, the vinegar is important, but you need that acid to balance the sweetness of the culture, John, it's like a new flavor I am very happy with it the noodles are a basic component a package of ramen may look like just a package of ramen but there is a lot of potential in that little package, you can make it from the package and according to the instructions on it and They tend to be very delicious, even just adding an egg, adding some scallions or, for example, roasting them in a pan with vegetables and tofu or making your own sauce to go with it like kosher with butter sauce, as much as I love noodles of rice.

They're more fun to eat, right, yeah, that's the end of it, right, what I really want is to see you eating them, get in there, that's so good, they're delicious, oh my god, well, an explosion of flavor in my mouth.