Home-made ラーメン and カスタード・プリン
Yet another cooking adventure Moriah and I embarked on! I'll start with the ramen I made last night, and then review the custard puddings we just finished.
So, it was a leftover night, and I was trying to think of someway I could spice up the various food items we had in order to 1) make them taste better, and 2) increase my appetite, which wasn't very big. There was some leftover chicken that my dad had grilled the night before, some spaghetti noodles from a few nights back, and various other items. I looked at those two food products - chicken, noodles - and ramen immediately sprung to my mind! I informed Moriah of my idea, and she enthusiastically offered to help me eat it.
Well, I dissolved some chicken stock granules in some water to make the soup base while Moriah set to making two hard-boiled eggs. Once the stock was dissolved, I sliced an onion and threw it in along with the spaghetti noodles and chicken (which I had previously heated in the microwave so they'd be nice and hot). It all simmered together for about 10 minutes, with me stirring occasionally. I then poured it into two bowls, and we waited for the eggs to finish. We then took the eggs (which were technically partially hard-boiled; the best way to eat them on ramen is with the yolk still slightly runny) and cut them in half and laid them on top of the ramen in the bowls. And voila!
Now review. Please note that this was all completely from scratch on my part, not looking at any recipe; the only idea I had of what it should be like was from the ramen I ate at Sushiya last month. On the whole though, it turned out very well! The noodles were still a bit too chewy; partially because they were leftover and partially because I didn't want them to get too soggy so didn't let them cook in the pot for long. But other than that, it was delicious! Probably nothing like real ramen, but still.
Now for the puddings. After watching "My Boss, My Hero", I had a very strong urge to have some custard pudding. However, it is very hard to find Japanese custard pudding (called "purin") outside of Japan, and so I thought, "Why not just make some?"
I got a recipe from the internet (in Japanese; it's gotta be authentic) and then went downstairs to make them. I won't give the recipe just now - maybe later. But anyways, it was quite simple... except for the first mess-up when I told Moriah to get 250 ml of water for the caramel instead of 20 ml... but we shall overlook that tiny detail. Our main problem was that we didn't have any purpose-made pudding cup things, so we had to use glasses. Because of that, we weren't able to steam the things long enough, because I was so petrified that the glass was going to crack. Thus, they were not quite solid enough. But for next time, having the pudding cups should help a lot. When we tasted one, I also think I put a bit too much vanilla in. But other than that, I would call them a success! I've put them in the refrigerator where I'm gonna let them sit for a few hours... we'll see how they are after that.
So, it was a leftover night, and I was trying to think of someway I could spice up the various food items we had in order to 1) make them taste better, and 2) increase my appetite, which wasn't very big. There was some leftover chicken that my dad had grilled the night before, some spaghetti noodles from a few nights back, and various other items. I looked at those two food products - chicken, noodles - and ramen immediately sprung to my mind! I informed Moriah of my idea, and she enthusiastically offered to help me eat it.
Well, I dissolved some chicken stock granules in some water to make the soup base while Moriah set to making two hard-boiled eggs. Once the stock was dissolved, I sliced an onion and threw it in along with the spaghetti noodles and chicken (which I had previously heated in the microwave so they'd be nice and hot). It all simmered together for about 10 minutes, with me stirring occasionally. I then poured it into two bowls, and we waited for the eggs to finish. We then took the eggs (which were technically partially hard-boiled; the best way to eat them on ramen is with the yolk still slightly runny) and cut them in half and laid them on top of the ramen in the bowls. And voila!
Now review. Please note that this was all completely from scratch on my part, not looking at any recipe; the only idea I had of what it should be like was from the ramen I ate at Sushiya last month. On the whole though, it turned out very well! The noodles were still a bit too chewy; partially because they were leftover and partially because I didn't want them to get too soggy so didn't let them cook in the pot for long. But other than that, it was delicious! Probably nothing like real ramen, but still.
Now for the puddings. After watching "My Boss, My Hero", I had a very strong urge to have some custard pudding. However, it is very hard to find Japanese custard pudding (called "purin") outside of Japan, and so I thought, "Why not just make some?"
I got a recipe from the internet (in Japanese; it's gotta be authentic) and then went downstairs to make them. I won't give the recipe just now - maybe later. But anyways, it was quite simple... except for the first mess-up when I told Moriah to get 250 ml of water for the caramel instead of 20 ml... but we shall overlook that tiny detail. Our main problem was that we didn't have any purpose-made pudding cup things, so we had to use glasses. Because of that, we weren't able to steam the things long enough, because I was so petrified that the glass was going to crack. Thus, they were not quite solid enough. But for next time, having the pudding cups should help a lot. When we tasted one, I also think I put a bit too much vanilla in. But other than that, I would call them a success! I've put them in the refrigerator where I'm gonna let them sit for a few hours... we'll see how they are after that.
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