Homemade Ramen from scratch

I’ve been inspired by the amazing ramen I’ve enjoyed recently, to try my hand at making my own from scratch. If you have never had real fresh ramen I would encourage you to try it at your local restaurant or try making it yourself. One of the things that I love about Ramen is the choice of toppings, from soft boiled eggs to mushrooms, sprouts, green onions, to corn tossed in butter. I love any dish where you can personalize it easily to your own taste. 

Soup Base Ingredients*:

• 6 cups water
• 2 cups of Chicken stock (I purchased mine at a local butcher shop)
• 7 Heaping Tbsp. of Miso Paste (I used Skirakiku Awase Miso)
• 4 Tbsp. Soya sauce
• 6 Tbsp. Sake
• 4 Tbsp. Chilli paste (I used Sriracha) 
• 1 Tbsp. Sesame oil 
• 3 Cloves of garlic, minced
• Pepper to taste
• Salt to taste
• Szechwan pepper to taste

*I was inspired by this recipe on Japanesecooking101.com but added some additional ingredients and altered the quantities of the original ingredients to suit my own tastes. 

Miso, Ramen before being cooked, Toppings for the soup

Ramen Recipe:

 I used this recipe and directions from Instructables. But I added about a 1/4 tsp of baking soda to the dough… I wouldn’t recommend adding the baking soda, this was an error on 1my part… I’ll have to retry this recipe another time. The noodles were good but lacked the real al dente chewiness that I love about Ramen Noodles.

Toppings: 

Use your imagination, or whatever you have in the fridge. Here are my favorites.

• Chicken cutlet (I used a Jane’s Chicken Burger and cooked and cut into slices)
• Corn (forzen that I just defrosted with some butter)
• Sliced mushrooms (these are cremini)
• Soft boiled egg
• Chopped green onions

 

The finished dish – My husband’s portion

  

The finished dish – My portion (extra corn)

 

Yum Yum Yum – the result was delicious. The soup I’ll make again and I’ll definitly keep playing with the ramen recipe in search of chewy, slurpy deliciousness!

Advertisement

Recipe for miso salad dressing

  I love ramen. I really love it. I want to try and make it myself. To make ramen myself I bought some miso paste. I haven’t quite carved out enough time yet to try to make my own ramen but I did put some of the pasted to good use tonight by making my own miso salad dressing. 

Ingredients 

• One spoonful miso paste (small dessert spoon) I used shirakiku awasa miso
• 1/8 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1 dessert spoon of sugar
• Two squirts lemon juice
• Pinch of pepper 
• Dash of sriracha

Stir all ingredients together and voila! So yummy. 

Can’t post. Too busy packing on Xmas weight.

Enough said 🙂 hope you’re Ll having a delicious and delightful holiday break.

Apple Crisp (Using an Apple Delivery System)

My bf sent me an image of this dessert some weeks back and I was inspired. Why hadn’t I thought of using the apple itself as the delivery system for delicious apple crisp?

Having no idea where the image originated I decided to re-create it using my crisp recipe as a guide.

Apple Crisp (Using an Apple Delivery System)

Ingredients:
– Apples (Choose your favorite baking apple)

Filling:
– Quick oats (1/2 cup per apple)
– Canola oil (1/8 tsp per apple)

All other ingredients are to taste.
– Vanilla
– Cinnamon
– Allspice
– Ginger
– Lemon juice
– Brandy
– Raisins

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Dig a hole in your apple (be careful not to go through the bottom of the apple). I used a knife and a serrated grapefruit spoon for this task.
3. Place your apples in a lightly greased baking dish.
4. Mix filling. I’ve provided a rough guide for the quantity of the oats and oil per apple but the rest of the ingredients will really depend on your own preferences. The goal is to have oats that are moist and sticky but not wet and goopy (since the apple juices will also soften the oats).
5. Spoon filling into apple. I packed mine in a little as I like a fairly even apple to crisp ratio.
5. Bake for 25-35 minutes.
6. Serve warm with frozen yogurt.

Enjoy.
K

Sweet and Savory Roasted Carrots

I was lazy last night. I did not plan my meal in advance, so I was forced to forage on the fridge for meal ideas.

Carrots seemed the logical choice to accompany my open faced sandwhich. And they were also the only veggie I had in my fridge. My BF also just bought a huge (think 3 pound) bag of walnuts. Turns out carrots and walnuts taste pretty delicious together.

Sweet and Savory Roasted Carrots

Ingredients
– 2 large carrots
– 6 cloves of garlic
– 3 tbsp of chopped walnuts (un-salted)
– salt and pepper to taste
– 2 tsp of sugar
– 1 tbsp lemon olive oil

Directions
1. Wash and peel your carrots. Cut them into about 1 to 2 inch pieces.
2. Remove the skin from 6 cloves of garlic. Leave clove whole.
3. Place carrots and garlic in a baking dish. Toss with lemon olive oil and add some salt and pepper to the mix. Toss again.
4. Place in the oven at 450 degrees fahrenheit for 20 mins.
5. Remove your baking dish from the oven and add your walnuts and sugar. Toss the contents of the baking dish, allowing the sugar to mix with the heated carrots and oil thoroughly.
6. Place back in the oven for another 5-6 minutes. The goal here is to let the walnuts brown a little.

Voila. Yummy goodness.

K

Lemon Pepper Kale Chips

I love kale. I only recently discovered this mighty leaf. A friend served kale chips at a party and I was a hooked.

But at 8 dollars for a bag of kale chips I knew I’d have to learn how to make them myself.

Here is my quick and easy recipe for Lemon Pepper Kale Chips.

Lemon Pepper Kale Chips

Ingredients
– 1 bunch of Kale
– 3 tbsp. olive oil (lemon flavor but you could use any flavor)
– pepper

1. Wash your kale. Tear the kale into large pieces omitting the spine of the leaf (keep in mind they shrink drastically when cooked).
2. Dry kale.
3. Place dry kale in a large ziplock bag. Add 3 tbsp of lemon flavored olive oil to the bag.

4. Shake the closed ziploc bag to coat all the leaves evenly. You might have to use your hands to help smooch them all together.
6. Place coated leaves on a baking sheet.

7. Lightly pepper the leaves. Remember they shrink up when cooked so you don’t want too much pepper.
8. Bake for 5 mins at 410 degrees Fahrenheit (or until leaves turn a deep green/brown shade).

Enjoy! Nom Nom Nom.
K

Good Morning Cookies

Good morning!

I love cookies. Just like cookie monster I could eat cookies all the time; except then I’d pay the price at the gym. Still that doesn’t stop me from finding creative ways to inject cookies into each meal 🙂

These little beauties are crunchy yet moist at the same time. Filled with plenty of oats, apricots, cashews and soy protein powder they can just squeeze their way into being a guilt free breakfast. This dairy free recipe was made with minimal sugar and oil.

This is the apricot paste. Delicious. It is essentially a really big apricot fruit roll up. Which makes me think you could use any 100% fruit snack as a substitute as well. I found this at my local middle eastern food store.


Ginger sugar! It has a lot of ginger which is why I didn’t add any more to the recipe. I found this at my local Asian supermarket. I’m a sucker for trying new baking ingredients.

Finally. The end result. These delicious breakfast cookies. I really enjoy the pockets of apricot. I like mine a little warm but they are great cold too. To eat warm (if you aren’t gobbling them straight out of the oven just nuke them for 15 seconds).

Nom Nom Nom!

K

Blueberry Banana Bread

I made pies this weekend. But this post isn’t about pies. This is the story of what happened to the leftover blueberries from those pies.

The farmers market always makes me buy too many berries. I see the pints of fresh berries all lined up at a stall and I just can’t help myself. They smell delicious, they look divine and who doesn’t like supporting local farmers. So of course I bought too many. I couldn’t let them go to waste, so decided to make some blueberry banana bread instead.

Inspired by this post from the Chef-in-training.

Ingredients:

Dry Ingredients

• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 4 Tbsp. honey
• 1 3/4 cups of flour
• 1/4 cup of psyllium husks

Wet Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp. Canola Oil
• 4 Tbsp. honey
• 2 Medium Bananas mashed
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 egg

Last Ingredient to fold in before baking

• 1 1/3 cups of blueberries (fresh)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a medium bowl mix all wet ingredients together. Make sure your bananas are mashed but not pureed. (Don’t add blueberries yet you’ll add these last, before baking).
3. In a second bowl mix all dry ingredients.
4. Mix wet and dry ingredients together in one bowl.
5. Once all ingredients are throughly combined fold in your blueberries with a wooden spoon or a spatula so as not to bruise the berries.
6. Grease a loaf pan. Pour the contents of your bread into the pan.
7. Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the loaf comes out clean.
8. Once fully baked, let the loaf cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then loosen and place on a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy all the blueberry goodness.

K

Mini Oatmeal Apple Pies

I love oatmeal and I love apple pie.
But what I love even more, is a good desert without the guilt.

So I decided to make a healthy ode to both of my favorite’s.

Mini Oatmeal Apple Pies


Crust Ingredients (wet):
1 snack size Mott Applesauce, unsweetened (111g)
2 tbsp Oil
2 eggs
4 tbsp water
2 tsp vanilla

Crust Ingredients (dry):
1 tbsp brown Sugar
5 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1tsp cloves
2 tbsp chia seeds
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1.5 cup oats

1. Mix wet ingredients together.
2. In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients together.
3. Combine wet and dry ingredients into one bowl. Mix well.
3. Grease a muffin tin.
4. Fill each muffin cup with a rounded spoon of crust.
5. Use a spoon to mold the crust to the cup, creating a cup for your apple filling.

Apple Filling:
2 apples chopped
1 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp Pinnacle Whipped Vodka (insert your choice liquor here)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cardamom
dash of nutmeg
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp flour

1. Mix all filling ingredients together.
2. Scoop a rounded spoon of apple filling into each oatmeal cup.

Bake your Oatmeal Apple Pies in the oven at 375 degrees for 20 – 25 mins or until the sides look sufficiently browned. Serve with a mint leaf.

Enjoy!
K.

One tough trooper cupcakes

Our neighbor was hit by a car last week! Don’t worry, He is alright minus a leg fracture. This unfortunate event surely deserved cupcakes.

One tough trooper cupcakes

Ingredients
– 1 Package store bought white cake batter
– (Whatever the store bought cake batter calls for in order to make it a cake)
– 2 packages of lime kool aid

Directions
– Mix the cake batter per the instructions on the back of the box.
– Once mixed toss in two packages of kool aid lime mix. (I found this to be too much lime and will use only one next time but my bf loved the one he tasted.)
– Bake per regular cupcake recipe (per back of box).

Once baked, ice the cupcakes and add the topping of your choice. I went with tough lime army men 🙂

Ps. I’m haven’t added my icing recipe because there isn’t one. I never measure but the ingredients are butter, icing sugar, vanilla, milk and food coloring if desired.