Recipe - Perfectly Portioned Packet Noodles
No other carbohydrate has been as successful in its portioning advice as the noodle.
The bus lurched as it emergency-stopped on the dirt road in the dark (there was no emergency, this is just how buses seemed to stop in Nepal). The driver hurried us off the bus and gave us 20 minutes to pee, eat if we needed to and stretch our legs before continuing our journey from Kathmandu to the Indian border. As usual, there was a small table set up by the bus stop, heaving under piles of shiny noodle packets, steam escaping from massive thermoses of boiling water. I bought one small, yellow pack of dried, spicy noodles in a cup of water and sat on a broken plastic chair, tentatively trying not to burn my tongue on the hot noodle broth.
I had been advised by my host family back in Kathmandu to always search for these noodle packs if I was hungry when on the road instead of the local (and, to be honest, more delicious) food that would undoubtedly give my un-acclimatised Western stomach a shock. Though Nepal is not an Asian country that has noodles as a staple (apart from amongst its Tibetan diasporic community), the popularity of packet ramen has spread rapidly across the country as a quick snack in the last two decades. This trajectory is the same for many other countries across the world. Indians eat packet noodles less than only the Chinese, the Vietnamese and Indonesians now. South America, particularly Columbia, can’t get enough of packet noodles and, in West African countries like Nigeria, many will consume a couple of packets a day to fit into their hectic and busy schedules that simply do not allow for long meals. In the UK, we have the ubiquitous pot noodle, invented in West Wales, inspired by Japanese and Korean dishes (I should point out, though, that instant noodles in general were invented in Japan by Momofuku Ando, not by the Welsh). At this point, more of us across the world eat a packet of instant noodles than a sandwich, daily.
It’s no wonder really that instant noodles are having a moment. One of the biggest gripes that many of us have about cooking for ourselves is how much we unintentionally make and how long it all takes. Especially when carbs are involved. ‘The only way to cook pasta is too much,’ a chef-friend said to me once. Rice, too, is always inadvertently cooked by the tonne. Both of these, as we have established over the course of this podcast, are great friends to the solo cook. And yet I have overlooked noodles, in particular those in packets, which is possibly a solo chef’s greatest pal of all.
The main benefit of noodles, be they instant or udon or egg or whatever, is that it is far less possible to cook too many of them — no other carbohydrate has been as successful in its portioning advice as noodles have been. The instant packet noodle comes as a one-portion-parcel, but even the non-instant kind are often shaped into single portioned sized nests or bundles. Instant or not, noodles are quick to make, the absolute longest it will take is 10 minutes. In short, the noodles are good communicators. They are easy to understand, we know how much we need to eat, we are confident how long they take to make, they don’t confound us like pasta and rice.
Yet the packet noodle gets a bad rap, often thought of as ‘struggle’ food, associated with poor students (or poor people in general). It is the food we eat when we are in a hurry, often ultra processed and full of preservatives, so we turn our noses up at them, even though we are always in a hurry and the rest of our diets are ultra processed and full of preservatives anyway.
Inspired by my conversation with Sophia Luu in Episode 17, I would like to come to the defence of instant packet noodles. There is no shame in eating them as they come, straight from the packet after a night out or a long shift at work, dressed with only the sauce and seasoning that they come with. Eaten this way, they are useful for times when you just need delicious sustenance in a hurry. But, I would argue that because they are so easy and quick to make, they are actually perfect vessels for really delicious meals and I often use them to trick myself into eating more vegetables. I do, therefore, think they are definitely better tarted up than eaten straight from pot. Here is a recipe for pimped up packet noodles, made in a way that is quick, cheap and good for someone cooking by themselves in a hurry. Enjoy:
Time: 10 minutes
Makes: 1 portion
Plant based options: Check the packet to make sure it’s veggie/vegan. Leave out prawns if veggie, egg if vegan
Faff Level: The lowest of all time, Level 1.
Ingredients:
200 ml water (or chicken/veggie broth if feeling extra)
Instant noodles & its gubbins
25 g frozen prawns (optional)
25 g frozen peas
1 small, chopped onion (include the green bits)
1 large clove of garlic, squashed
1 thumb of ginger chopped into fine batons
1 egg (optional)
Flakey salt
Chilli crisp
Directions:
In a frying pan, heat up some oil and add in garlic, the white parts of the onion and ginger. Fry lightly for a minute or so.
Add in the peas and prawns. Cook for another couple of minutes until thawed and have started to brown slightly.
Turn the heat down when fresh ingredients are cooked and add dry noodles to the pan. Sprinkle over all the seasoning and sauce (not just onto the noodles, but to the other ingredients, too) and then add 200 ml of liquid.
The noodles should start to go soft in 3 minutes.
Once noodles are soft, add chilli crisp, chopped green bits of the onion, S&P and consider adding a soft boiled or crispy egg.