Survival Sunday: Mo' Ramen!

I made some shio ramen with Z that involved bacon, scallions, and a lot of grease. We had some emergency ramen that Z'd picked up at work ages ago, some fancy organic bacon, some pretty fresh scallions, and an empty kitchen. I picked up one of the frying pans I'd been holding onto for a few years and hadn't used, brought it across town with me, and tackled one of my greatest (and most pathetic) fears:

I fried me some bacon, y'all!

And it actually came out pretty good (if super crispy)

Guys, I'm terrified of frying stuff on the stovetop, and the idea of the bacon grease splattering my arms and burning me makes me cringe even now. I separated out the bacon strips from the package (applewood smoked, no preservatives, super delicious), settled about half of the strips into an unheated pan and turned the burner to its lowest setting. If you think your bacon is cooking low enough, turn it down more. I turned it up to the 2 mark on the electric stove top and instantly regretted it. Thankfully nothing caught fire, but I was terrified that I'd burn the kitchen down.

Here we have the bacon station.
Paper towels on a plate for the finished bacon.
The other half of the strips waiting to cook.
Bowl with a metal spoon to pour the bacon grease into between batches!

Now, of course, one does not simply dump bacon into a bowl of ramen by itself - I also fried a pair of eggs in the remnants of the bacon grease from the second batch, and they came out pretty darn good if I do say so myself!

I added nothing to these eggs. And yes, we added a little bacon grease to the bowl to boost the ramen's flavor!
Who needs arteries?

Proof that we made two bowls and I didn't just eat a huge bowl of bacon & egg ramen...

Uh... veggies are important, yeah?
Left: Frozen corn (boiled in the ramen water)
Right: fresh scallion (also boiled with the ramen)

My pan waiting to cool down.

If you're cooking bacon, you absolutely should never, ever put the grease down the kitchen sink. You pour as much of it out into a heat-resistant vessel of some sort, let it solidify, and then dispose of it with paper towels. Unless you're saving it for other uses, which I've been told there are many of. I dunno, man, maybe arteries are important...

Putting the pan on to boil while the eggs are frying was difficult and a little scary.
I don't really like having too many different burners going at once, since my attention span is lacking...

Our cheapo shio ramen. They show it with sliced pork, shrimp, and hard boiled egg.
We used extra crispy bacon, frozen corn, fried eggs, & scallions.
Because we're hardcore.

It was hectic getting everything together, guys.
I almost couldn't get the photos I did get because I was busy fluttering around the kitchen
with various tongs and spatulas and spoons trying to get everything organized!

Another view of the ramen. I believe Z added some sesame to our stuff!

So, I mentioned removing the bacon grease. I wanted you guys to see what that looked like when you use a spoon to scrape it out of a bowl (this is really gross, sorry).

It's like soupy oysters. I'm sorry, dudes.
It was still bacony, so it at least smelled great...

Okay, so that was our homemade bacon & egg ramen! Let's recap:

• To cook your bacon, start from a cold pan (that just means room temp), and don't get too worried about how close everything is to each other, because it'll just shrivel up anyway!
• Keep your temperature as low as possible! Don't turn the heat up. Bacon isn't supposed to be fast on the stovetop - you want fast bacon, you microwave it.
• Drain your pan between batches and remember the metal spoon - it helps act like your computer's heatsink and keep the bowl from maybe exploding when hot grease hits it. This is especially true in the winter when the ambient temp is really low. Leave that fat sitting there until it solidifies and cools enough to hold onto the bowl.
• If you're frying your eggs in the leftover grease, go for it. Just remember to leave everything on the lowest setting! Cook your eggs however you like, because just because I like mine mostly done doesn't mean you will! Go for it!
• Don't add too much bacon grease to your noodles, no matter how delicious it smells. I've been told by reputable sources that arteries are, in fact, super important. A little dab'll do ya.
• Put the corn in your ramen pot first. It'll hold up to heavy boiling.
• Once your water is boiling, add your noodles. At this point, you can also add your scallions if you like them cooked.
• I like to take the noodles out and put them on top of my eggs in the bowl because the noodles will heat the eggs back up, then I scoop my veggies out of the pot, then I add the flavor packets to my ramen, and then I add the water until I have just enough broth. Finally, I garnished with bacon & sesame!
• Your house will smell like bacon now, so you may as well chuck the cooled grease into your trashcan.

 Finally, I'd like to show you what Z tried recently at one of the interesting restaurants we've been to:

Behold, tako sashimi aka raw octopus. Z said it was really good!

I had something called a Black Dragon roll that involved tuna, tempura crispies, and cucumber inside the roll with avocado and eel on the outside, garnished with a hefty serving of both eel sauce (addictive!) and spicy mayo! Oh man, it was divine. We followed our sushi/sashimi with a tonkatsu curry that blew both of our minds. It was a very good day.

I think that'll just about do it for me today!

Go Enjoy Something!!!
FC