Ramen Noodles - Carol Stream,IL

Put the noodles in just 10-15 mins before you serve - they absorb a lot of water and you'll have a big lump of sticky noodles!

Good luck - love the idea of sharing ethnic foods.

Enjoy!!

Nope!

Ramen will stand up better than MOST asian noodles (rice noodles will completely disintegrate left standing in water, and Ramen will as well in about double the time... which is still far too short for a slow cooker).

What I'd recommend is this (see bottom for alternate -but similar- dish recommendation which is a cold rice noodle salad using the same veggies and meats you were planning... just different noodles and super easy dressing):

- Cook the noodles ahead of time (along with any broth). Separate out the noodle and toss *lightly* with a 1:10 ratio of sesame oil and veggie oil (aka float a dash of sesame oil over a quarter cup of veggie oil). Store in a sealed container in the fridge.

- Cook broth down until it's about 1/4 of full strength.

- Cook the veggies and meat ahead of time and also store.

Use a teakettle, microwav, stove, hotplate, whatever... to heat up the missing 3/4s of the broth water (aka just plain water) to a boil. Pour over noodles and veggies right before serving. Alternate; bring hot water in thermous.

This is actually what the Japanese do. Soup broth in condensed and stored in the fridge (or dried into granules) and then everything is tossed together in about 3 minutes right before serving. It gets VERY hot in Japan (easily 90s with 98% humidity) and homes aren't air conditioned, and there isn't space to cook outside... so ANYTHING that would heat up the house during hot months is broken into pieces to cook for as little time as possible.

The term for condensed or granulated soup broth is Dashi, and it's used in the BEST and most expensive restaurants (unlike here, where bouillion is a cheat and never tastes 'right'). In not-so-recent times (and in some traditional households) Dashi is still made on a weekly or annual basis cooked outside in big kettles to store inside. Mostly, people buy bottles of Dashi at the store. To give an idea of how concentrated Dashi is: Liquid is 1 Tbs per 3 cups of water (or more), and Granulated is 1 Tsp per 3 cups of water or more.

Thailand is *somewhat* similar. Soup base in Thailand is usually a combo of curry (which takes *forever* to cook from scratch, just like Dashi in Japan, or Stock in Europe) and coconut milk (or a 'quick' stock which is essentially american/european 'gravy' sans flour... aka just the meat drippings plus water to thin it). Thai people don't make curry as needed, they make curry in large batches and then drop a small amount into the coconut milk or quick stock.

For both countries it's a regional thing. It gets HOT in SE Asia, and stays hot most of the year. So cooking with heat is kept to a bare minimum. In most of Europe it's COLD most of the year. Stocks were easily boiled over a day (or days) over the continuously boiling fire. Modernly having a stock boiling in the house or flat helps to heat it. (In the Mediterranean you find *very* few 'stock' recipes, cooking is vastly different. Italian and Middle Eastern Cuisine bears far more similarities than Italian and French). Here in the US we've mostly adopted Northern European cooking methods. So ditch them, and go culturely appropriate. :) AKA prep everything ahead of time, and spend 3 minutes reheating them.
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Alternatively:

A cold rice noodle salad (somen not soba, preferably, in a pinch Thai 'rice sticks' will work, and will continue with the theme) with the following dressing... and any veggies and meats you were already planning on using

Prepare somen noodles or rice sticks as per package. Set aside.

2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil (not olive oil)
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
dash of toasted sesame oil

Mix all the ingredients together with a whisk and pour over somen noodles/ toss.

Add veggies and meats over the top. Store in fridge.

***** A better option *****

Keep all the ingredients separate. For school shake jar and dump (haha, but yes) over noodles. Stir (they'll all be stuck together from being in the fridge, but magically come unstuck as soon as the dressing is added). Put meats and veggies over. Takes, again, about 3 minutes (asian prep ahead of time theme)... but no heat and no water/soup base/dashi is required.

Yup, what Jane said, mush.

I'm not sure that I would put cooked ramen noodles in a crock pot for several hours. That would turn into mush!! Maybe you could put everything else in the crock pot, and then put the ramen noodles in last, uncooked, and leave it on low. I bet it would turn out OK if only left for a few hours. Or if you could keep checking on it, and when the noodles were soft turn it off.

Yes, put everything in a crockpot but don't put the noodles in until 10 minutes before it's served, otherwise they'll get all mushy, yuck!

Chicken stock, soy sauce, grated garlic, grated ginger, splash of sesame oil, bokchoy, mushrooms, scallions, sprouts, julienned carrots, chicken, beef or pork.....then add the noodles at the last minute!

:)

If you leave them in the pot on the stove for 5 minutes they suck up all the moisture...I don't think it would work.....

I really like Riley's idea of serving a cold noodle salad. Not only will it taste better after a long wait but it will be very much easier to transport.

The kinds of vegetables (greens) that go into asian noodles are delicate. They overcook easily. The rule for asian soup dishes is bring soup to boil, add vegetable, stir and turn off heat between 3 and 5 mins later. Things like napa cabbage leaves and green leafy vegetables that go into these soups turns mushy and brown if you let it sit for a long time in the broth. You can do the stock and meat in the crock pot but put the noodles and veggies in right before serving. Check out foodnetwork.com for recipes.

Could you use the thicker Japanese noodles so that they wouldn't get so mushy?

Just double check the schools handbook on homemade food. Many schools requir for birthday treats, etc. for the food to be prepackaged from a store, etc. and some times depending upon the make up of the class, a peanut free snack/ meal too. Sounds like a great idea, have fun!! :)