Guys, I’m pretty excited about this one. I had a moment of divine inspiration yesterday and just couldn’t wait to get to the grocery and start cooking. The genius was burning, as they say in Little Women. I’ve been stewing over an idea for a pasta salad made with Ramen noodles for awhile, and I think I finally hit it.
Ramen was all the rage a year or so ago, with David Chang’s bad assery, food trucks, and gastro-pubs trying to elevate it to something akin to cuisine. It has slowly and finally made its way to my sleepy southern town, and as I’ve mentioned before has become a bit of an obsession with the husband. Not much can inspire him to cook, but he makes himself lunch at least once a week now (see Forever and Ever Ramen – Part 2). I can’t say I’m such a fan, but something about those springy curly noodles just appeals to me and I wanted to do something different with them.
Idea! Pasta salad! While I have an almost world famous repertoire of prepared salads (chicken, potato, pimiento cheese), I haven’t hit on a really good pasta salad yet – or at least one that doesn’t involve dumping a bottle of Italian dressing over a bowl of noodles and vegetables. And I also thought about a two month stretch where my man and I decided to try out every Japanese hibachi grill in town and ate like kings.
So – here it is. A light and refreshing pasta salad made with ramen noodles and dressing inspired by that delicious orange sherbert colored tangy ginger dressing you get on salads at the best (and not-so-best) hibachi restaurants.
As always, first we start with the ingredients:
This caused a minor shopping frenzy, since my standard southern/Italian fare doesn’t call for such exotic ingredients such as rice wine vinegar or fresh ginger root. (C’iao, y’all!).
Mix the following in a small food processor or blender:
¼ cup peanut oil
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
¼ cup of onion, roughly chopped
1 clove of garlic
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon fresh ginger root, chopped
¼ cup shredded carrots
¼ teaspoon black pepper
Give it a whirl – and let it spin for awhile. Remember you’re making salad dressing, not soup. Aim for a smooth texture, but a few little chunky bits won’t hurt anyone. It will taste a little too sharp and vinegar-y at first, but will mellow in the fridge.
The dressing:
Now take two packages of ramen noodles – not nice ones, but not the cheapest ones either, which will turn to paste. I used Maruchan for the purposes of this post, but next time I’ll upgrade to the $.50 or even $.85 stuff for a more durable noodle.
Throw out the packets of iocaine powder or whatever the hell it comes with. Crunch them into smallish chunks – you don’t want long slurpy noodles. Boil ‘em up until just al dente (possibly first ever use of the phrase “al dente” in reference to ramen). Drain and “shock” the noodles with ice water so they don’t turn to gummy paste. Drain again – drain well and thoroughly. They’ll be slightly sticky, but you don’t want them wet.
Prepare the mix-ins (you can have fun with this – I’m using things I like and that will be pretty and colorful, but be creative!). Here we have one half cup each of shredded carrots and red bell peppers, and one fourth cup each of water chestnuts and scallions.
Lightly toast one tablespoon of sesame seeds in a dry pan over high heat, tossing, stirring, and moving them about constantly so they don’t burn. Better a little underdone than burned and bitter. (Note: If you are me, and have the particularly crazy brand of luck that I have, you will dump the seeds into the pan and see a maggot squirming around in them. I mean, it was a brand-new safety-sealed tin of sesame seeds that I’d purchased that same day. I checked the expiration date, which informed me that they were good until April of 2003. 2003! Kroger can expect a strongly worded letter from me in the near future. This of course meant another trip to the grocery store, much dishwashing and bleaching, and even a little bit of dry heaving. If this happens to you, just follow the aforementioned steps and soldier on.)
Toss everything together – you will think it’s too much dressing, but the noodles will absorb some of it and you don’t want it dry.
The finished product:
Pretty darn good! As I said, I’ll use a better quality ramen noodle next time, but not the plain ones – I want the springy curly noodles to give some personality to this salad.
I have to say it’s kind of good. Expect some recipe-tweaking in the future.
illdothedisheslater 