Grown-Up Ramen

  So, earlier this week I was jonesing for some Ramen noodles.  Whether they'll admit it or not, anyone who's ever been a poor college student knows how shamefully good that little packet of 1434mg sodium tastes when it's poured into a bowl of water and a few curly noodles.  The problem was, I knew I couldn't come back to class knowing I'd stooped to the lowest culinary low. So, instead, a found the closest thing to it in Bittman (Stir-Fried Chinese Noodles with Vegetables pg 171) and hoped for the best.

The whole process was pretty quick, really.  The recipe starts out by blanching the asparagus -- it was a perfect opportunity to practice what we'd done this week in lab.  The noodles only took a couple of minutes to cook, and I was able to get all of the chopping done in the mean time.  Everything went into one pan (in hindsight, I would definitely use a larger skillet), I stirred the whole thing a few times, and it was ready to eat.  The process from start to finish probably took me 15 minutes.

The finished product was great; it really was like a grown-up version of Ramen, but with way less sodium and much more hearty with the added veggies.  The only real downside to this meal was probably the cost of buying the oils (the sesame oil was relatively expensive for such a small bottle) but I personally considered it an investment for future Asian cooking, and it was well worth the added flavor that it gave the dish.