Ramen - don't 'just add water'

Oh, ramen... I fell in love with those noodles. Real ramen, that is, not the instant kind - although I have to admit that they were fun back in the days...

Manga sparked my interest in them. I remember an anime called Juliette, Je T'aime from the mid-eighties where the main character (a student named Hugo) would prepare them everyday because he was broke. Unfortunately, his neighbour Stéphane would sneak into his room and slurp them down before he did. Years later, regular supermarkets started selling them everywhere. But it was only after reading Naruto - a fellow noodle-obsessed young boy - that I craved for the real stuff.

Ramen are basically big bowls of noodles served in broth (to which has been added a fragrant base) and covered with different kinds of toppings (bean sprouts, tonkatsu, green onion slices, beef terriyaki strips, tofu, etc.). Some of these ingredients being hard to find, we usually end up making a 'easternized' version. Last monday, the fridge was desperately empty. My 16 year old bro had asked me to cook some for him and I pityfuly came up with the following recipe which he surprisingly liked. You will need big asian serving bowls for this.

Empty Fridge Ramen Bowls - serves two... or four:

• 1l of vegetable stock
• 6 BIG broccoli bits thingies
• a handful of haricots verts (the end of a frozen bag I found)
• two portions of thin egg noddles
• a handfull of lardons (bacon bits)
• cooked, diced chicken (leftovers from a previous pizza)
• 2 eggs

1. Cook the different vegetables in the stock. Take them out, set them aside.

2. Cook the noodles in another pan. Drain.

3. Sauté the bacon. Remove them, then scramble the two eggs in the same pan.

To serve, divide the noodles between the bowls. Pour in your ideal amount of broth. Cover with the broccoli, the haricots. Finish with the chicken, bacon and eggs. It is meant to be eaten with chopsticks and those funny looking asian soup spoons. Beware... it turned out to be so much I couldn't finish. You can keep it in the fridge for a couple of days and microwave it for lunch.

Saturday morning baking

me: 'I know you don't like crêpes... do you like pancakes?'
my brother: 'Nope.'
'Waffles?'
'You know, I'd really like to love waffles. They look so... enjoyable.'
(strange look): 'huh?'
'People look so happy when they eat warm waffles. But I can't stand their smell.'
dreamy: 'Yeah... they smell so good...'
making a face: 'Yuck.'
'Alright, alright. What about french toast?'
'I hate french toast.'
'In fact, you hate every sweet thing that can be made in a pan for breakfast.'
'I also hate omelettes.'
'You're no fun. At all.'

I just make sure to ask him those questions every once in awhile... hoping that he'll someday feel adventurous and, well, eat. Using leftover baguette, I made Baking Sheet's Individual Baked French Toasts with a few changes. I used sugar combined with the maple syrup, added grated nutmeg (I can't envision french toast without it) and used stale baguette for the base. I will probably cut down the amount of milk to avoid too much leftover and omit the salt. I really liked the crunch on the breadbits that were on top. So much, that I secretly swore to bake them separately for the hell of it. They were delicious!

I also made her version of monkey bread - the only recipe I had was too time consuming and had raisins which, as surprising as it may seem, my brother hates. I didn't like the buttermilk bread base. I have only been starting to bake with it a couple of months ago and I don't like the taste it gives to things... waffles excepted. It's like it lacks something. On the positive side, the bread felt really 'light'.

me: 'Did you try it?'
him: 'Yeah.'
'And..?'
making a face again: 'It was sweet.'
'It's monkey bread. What did you expect?'

A devil in my left ear

Oatmeal is one of my favorites comfort foods. It's quick, tasty and satisfying - yes, i do find oatmeal nature very tasty - especially when I'm very tired or feeling the need to wake up slowly on my days off. I was extremely tired all day today because of a babysitting session that ended at two am, followed by a too short 5-hour night before work on tuesday. After this afternoon's nap, I needed a solid quatre heure (afternoon snack). Isleepwalked to the kitchen, took out some oats and a bowl. I had just opened the fridge to take out the milk when my eyes fell on a foil covered cup.

It was some leftover ganache from a chocolate cake I made last weekend. I almost heard a 'ding!' and thought "wow, that would be really nasty if..."

"Satan told me so" oatmeal - serves two:

• one rice cooker cup of rolled oats
• two rice cooker cups of milk
• four big teaspoons of ganache
• more milk, sugar (optional)

Set the microwave timer to four minutes. Put the oatmeal and the milk in a bowl. Heat it for a whole minute in the microwave. Take it out, add the ganache and give it a good stir. If you need it, you can heat it a little more to make sure it has dissolved. Once it has, add a little sugar if you need it - I didn't. Cook it for the remaining time. You have to watch it or it will easely overflow. Add more milk to desired texture. Cover with a plate and wait for a few minutes before eating - it's superhot.

See, I'm not much of a chocolate person. I like my oatmeal plain. It all just happened lol. If you have the time, do it in a pan. The cereal cooks much better that way. I have an excuse: I was in a hurry...

Brioche

Two years ago, I lost my favorite brioche recipe. It was a braided kind that was supposed to be served on Easter, the first one I ever made - and remade. After looking around on the web, I discovered that it was a variation of the brioche vendéenne. I wrote down the ingredients I remembered and hunted down more recipes.

In fact, it took so much time that I ended up making something completely different last tuesday; The Traveller's Lunchbox' post completely got me hooked. Too bad we didn't have any vanilla beans... I skipped the browned vanilla butter part completely. This was the first time I ever worked with fridge-raised dough.

It was a little too sweet for my taste but good. The hardest part was to give the second loaf to our neighbours. I'll probably do it again with vanilla beans - did you know I had never, ever used real beans before? They're quite expensive but I think I can make exceptions for big occasions...