Better Know a Seasoning: Sriracha Sauce

Those of you who are already familiar with Sriracha sauce I'm sure love it and use it all the time. If you don't already have multiple bottles stocked up in your pantry (like me), I highly recommend you go out and get at least one (you can find it at your local grocery store).

This ubiquitous sauce originated in Thailand but is amazing on foods of all nationalities. The #1 brand in the USA (and my personal favorite) is this one pictured above with the giant rooster from Huy Fong Foods.

Huy Fong Foods is so proud of it's sauce that it has a page on its site dedicated to "letters from satisfied customers". Some of my favorite comments include: "I could almost eat a napkin that was dotted with it", "It brings tears of joys (sic) to our eyes!", and "May the eyes of the Heavens be with you and the Spirits guide you!!!".

Fellow Sriracha sauce lovers: I challenge you to submit a hilarious letter of satisfaction & praise to the Huy Fong Foods site! Let me know if your comment is published -- the best/most chuckle-worthy comment will win a RAMEN NOODLE prize! :)

Spicy Buffalo Ramen

This is one of my new faves! Half this recipe if you only want to make one bowl.... but it's too delicious not to be shared with a friend so you might as well make two!

Ingredients:

1 pack chili ramen

1 pack chicken ramen

1/2 diced yellow tomato (red is ok too)

1/2 diced onion

2-3 sliced medium mushrooms

1 1/2 tbs diced fresh cilantro

2 oz. ground bison (regular beef may be substituted but it's not as exciting)

salt

pepper

olive oil

white wine (cooking or otherwise, whichever you have on hand) (drinking wine is more fun)

Sriracha sauce

Directions:

Cook the ramen and set aside. Don't use those sauce packets yet! Add a little olive oil to the pot of noodles and season with salt & pepper to taste. In a different pot (or pan), cook all of the other ingredients together until the bison is browned and cooked through and the veggies are au dent. Add in half of each ramen flavoring pack (chicken & chili). Deglaze with a little white wine and toss with noodles until ramen is well coated. Finally, serve and top bowls with Sriracha sauce.

Try it for yourselves and let me know what you think!

Better Know a Seasoning: Soy Sauce

Soy sauce is one of my favorite ubiquitous sauces that has always been a staple in our kitchen - and every time we buy soy sauce, we buy Kikkoman (are you brand loyal?). They have a nifty & informative website, too:

http://www.kikkoman.com/soysaucemuseum/index.shtml

However, despite my love affair with Kikkoman over the years, it was only recently that I noticed this on the back of my beloved bottle....

Does anyone actually refrigerate soy sauce? Does it really improve the quality? Also, what the heck is a "sase"?? (Top right hand corner of the label)

3-Mushroom Ramen

Ingredients:

1 pack chili flavored ramen

3 mushrooms

green onions to taste (optional)

sesame oil (or butter or olive oil or whatever you like to sauté things in)

soy sauce

mirin

** Note - ingredients are for a single serving.

Pro Tip: if you want to make 2 servings, double the recipe. Then you can change the name of this epic dish to 6-Mushroom Ramen.

Directions:

In one pot (or in the microwave) start making ramen. In a deep sauté pan or another pot, simmer 3 mushrooms & green onions in sesame oil on med-high heat for about 4 minutes (roughly the same amount of time it takes to cook your bag-o-noodles).

Add to mushrooms a 50/50 soy sauce/mirin mix - about 1/8th cup of each.

Simmer for roughly 30 seconds.

Your ramen will be done by now. Drain those noodles so they don't get soggy.

Add (drained) ramen and stir vigorously.

Add 1/2 pack of chili flavoring.

Mix well & enjoy.

Let me know how this turns out for you, and feel free to post your own ramen pix!

Getting Started...

(a delicious, delicious 3-way)

I used to be like you and just make my ramen the standard way, sometimes altering it a little by adding in whatever random foods/toppings I had on hand, until I discovered this magical trio of sauces that change everything.

Go out right now and add the following to your kitchen ensemble: Soy Sauce, Peanut Sauce, and Mirin. These three things will elevate your ramen experience in untold ways and take it from boring to soaring (not that ramen could ever be considered "boring").

We all know what soy sauce & peanut sauce are, and you should be able to easily find them in the foreign foods aisle of your local grocery store. Mirin is a Japanese sweet-sake used for cooking (don't drink it!), and depending on where you live you may or may not have to go to a specialty store to find it... But trust me, it's worth the effort!

Anywho, you won't necessarily be using all three of these every time, but I do include at least one of the above in pretty much all of my recipes.

What's your traditional go-to ramen addition?

Momofuku Ando: aka My Hero

First, a brief history:

"Ramen" is actually how the Japanese pronounce the Chinese characters for "Lo Mein"; but while this amazing delicacy originated in China, it was Japanese businessman Momofuku Ando who created the first of the dried-up-noodle-packages that we know and love today.

(I both know and love this)

He did it for a good cause too. He wanted to make something easily transportable, inexpensive & filling for the food crisis in Japan following WWII. The rest, of course, is history and today countless spinoffs are available at grocery stores world-wide.

Sadly, the world lost this great man in 2007 when he passed away at the ripe old age of 96. He once attributed his longevity to eating chicken ramen almost every day.