My last year of college was a bit of a nightmare. I was trapped inside of a shoebox apartment in a small southwestern Pennsylvanian town, and trying to focus on classes while staring at a laptop all day certainly didn’t help. And while I did live within a 10-minute drive of three Sheetz locations, the bougie foodie in me needed something more.
So, armed with a nonstick pan, a hot plate and two decades of “Barefoot Contessa” reruns, I improvised.
Upgraded Ramen Noodles
1 package of instant ramen noodles of your choice
Ground ginger
Red pepper flakes
Soy sauce
Acid of your choice (Rice vinegar works well, but something like lime juice would work with beef-flavored noodles)
Leftover protein, such as Denise’s Crunchy Chicken from last month’s Newsroom Nosh
Optional: synth-heavy tunes to jam out to, like ABBA’s greatest hits
Throw some water in a medium nonstick pan and set it over medium-low heat. Since the end goal is not to make soup, you don’t need the full amount of water recommended on the package.
When the water is boiling-ish, drop your noodles in there. I cook them just enough to be able to unfurl from the block — slightly undercooked is how I like my ramen.
Optional: give the lipsynch performance of a lifetime to “Lay All Your Love on Me” in full view of your neighbors like the true Newberry native you are.
Ditch all but around 1/3 cup of the very hot noodle water and return the pan to low heat.
Sprinkle less than a half of the seasoning packet into the noodles. As a bonus, you can keep the rest of the seasoning mixture in a small plastic container to add a bit of oomph to other dishes.
Add the ginger, red pepper flakes, soy sauce and acid to taste. If you, like me last Sunday, accidentally add far too much rice vinegar to your concoction, just throw in some more red pepper to convince yourself that you were actually going to make hot and sour noodles the whole time.
Whip out your wooden chopsticks and let those flavors get to know each other. The leftover water helps make a sort of sauce, and as the water evaporates, everything gets all concentrated and yummy.
Throw in your leftover protein of choice, lightly salting if needed.
Serve immediately because it gets kind of weird if it sits for too long.
And voila! A low-effort meal that’s slightly less depressing than just eating the noodles dry like I did once my sophomore year of college (only to be outdone by my own father’s indulgence of dry Stoffer’s stuffing mix while he was in grad school.)
