The Impulsive Chef's Sister Presents: Ramen for the Sophisticate

Hi readers, I'm filling in for Brian today with an "Impulsive Single Girl Chef" post. For those of us who are unlucky in love and destined to be spinsters it can be quite a challenge to put time and energy into cooking for one. So many leftovers, no one to share the meal with...delivery sounds much better. My favorite delivery guy, Hideki, at least asks how my day was...

But, with a New Years resolution to experiment with cooking (gotta get some wifey skills, amirite?) I'm trying my hand at a few dishes here and there. After a recent breakup I've basically been on a diet of wine and...wine...so I figured it was time to head to Trader Joes & Whole Foods and stock up the ol' pantry.

My recent favorite meal in DC is ramen...not Top Ramen or anything, but these really nice/trendy ramen restaurants that are absolutely to die for. I think the broth is laced with crack because it's addictive. Since the weather has been freezing all month and I don't want to leave my apartment, I decided to try and replicate a fancy ramen dish (see photo). Let the impulsiveness begin...

I took one package of beef flavored Top Ramen and cooked it per the directions. While it was cooking, I chopped up some carrots, green onion, and mushroom and also threw in some corn. I also took some frozen wild mushrooms from Whole Foods and added those (single girl tip: these mushrooms literally can go in anything you cook. Stock up!). Next I took one egg and beat it in a cup, then slowly drizzled it into the boiling water a la egg drop soup style. Finally, I added the flavor packet, some soy sauce and sesame oil for flavor and was all done. An easy way to take cheap ramen and make it "fancy" in a pinch. Doesn't exactly beat a $20 bowl of ramen, but it sure comes close when you don't want to leave your house during the polar vortex. Bon apetite!

This just screams amazing!

Terrific Tumeric Soup

On paper, being sick sounds like a lot of fun- you get to stay home, lay in bed, watch TV, sleep...pretty much living the life. In reality, however, it's usually something you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. I just got over a pretty horrendous bout of the norovirus, and it was highlighted by a delirious online conversation with a friend about seafood curry. At least, I think the conversation took place- it could very well have been completely imagined by my sick-addled brain. A quick search of my chat history indeed confirmed the conversation took place, even though I only have fleeting memories of it. Regardless, that conversation planted the seeds for this dish.

How can something so cool looking be so evil?

I had been sick for almost two full days, eating virtually nothing, when all of a sudden, like a bolt from the heavens, I felt 100% better. I had energy, I was hungry, and I wanted to make something for dinner. Thinking that soup would be a great way to kick the rest of the sickness from me, I took those seeds that were planted during the curry conversation and got impulsive. Lisa doesn't like curry at all, but she DOES like tumeric. For those of you that don't know, tumeric, on its own, has a very mild curry flavor. It is used in curry powder, usually with other ingredients.

I <3 you, tumeric!

I called my wife and asked if she would pick up a couple of things that I would need on her way home from work. I already had beef bullion and tumeric, so I asked her to pick up beef smoked sausage, diced tomatoes, brown rice, and an onion. I prepped the broth by making a stronger than usual beef base, and ground the tumeric with my mortar and pestle to a very, very fine dust, and mixed it in. I sliced the onion and rinsed the diced tomatoes, then cut the smoked sausage into bite-sized pieces. After adding all of these to the broth, I brought it to a boil and added the brown rice.

Sausage, tomato, and rice bubbling to the top

I had meant to cook the smoked sausage on the stovetop first to give it a little bit of a "burn" taste, but completely forgot to do that. In hindsight, i'm actually glad that I didn't- boiling the soup and "cooking" the sausage really allowed the flavors to mingle- the soup got some sausage flavor and the sausage soaked up some tumeric flavor! It was a happy accident.

So in the end, the soup really turned out well- bold flavor, great textures, and lots of leftovers!

Total cost:

Beef bullion (with most of it left over and unused): $1.49
Beef smoked sausage: $1.99

Onion (5 onions, only 1 used): $1

Brown rice: $1

Diced tomato: $0.69

Tumeric: $1.29 (1/4 lb, used about 2 tbsp)

Total: $5.47 (11 servings @ $0.68 per serving)

Fast Foods- Homemade Pizza

Weekend eating can be one of three things: 1) Leftovers 2) Take-out/Sit-down dining 3) Home cooked. I love Saturdays because I love making something that just doesn't fit into the week. Honestly, it's usually pizza of some sort. Granted, it can be a frozen pizza, delivery pizza, make-your-own with a pre-made crust, or what I did this past Saturday- made from scratch dough pizza. Growing up, making pizza with my parents was always a really special occasion.

D'oh!

I've never made my own dough before, and I thought that it was going to be tricky. Turns out that it's not. At all. 1 and 1/2 cups flour, a packet of yeast, a cup of water, 1/2 tsp of salt and a teaspoon of sugar and I was rollin'. To the crust for my pizza, I added about a tablespoon of garlic powder. I suppose that you can add whatever you'd like- next time i'll be adding Parmesan cheese and minced garlic. That'll be good.

Lisa's turkey and veggies pizza

Lisa wanted a pizza with white sauce, but since "white sauce" can mean anything, I figured that making one of my own would be good. I used a packet of Kroger alfredo sauce powder, milk, and Aldi buttermilk ranch salad dressing. I made it moderately thick, and then brought it to a boil on the stove and then let it cool. It came out with a a perfect consistency, and the taste....oh my. I could have eaten the whole pot by myself. It was cheesy, ranchy goodness. I will be making this again...but I want to use it as a pasta sauce with a rustic-style pasta and some pancetta. But that's for another day!

I love my ergonomic pizza cutter!

For toppings on her pizza, I decided to purchase a Lean Cuisine (i think?) frozen box of salad topper. It was like $2, and came with a bag of roasted turkey chunks, yellow and orange carrot slivers and broccoli. It was the perfect amount for a pizza. I added shredded mozzarella, and baked until the edges were golden brown.

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie....

My pizza was decidedly more traditional, consisting of my homemade crust, canned pizza sauce, fresh mushrooms, pepperoni and mozzarella. I love the gigantic mushrooms though (from Aldi). They're the best i've had for the price.

So that's my pizza. Nothing groundbreaking, but certainly a lot of fun to make. I look forward to sharing this experience with my son as he grows up, and hope it's as special to him as it was to me.