Shin Ramyun is a delicious and (chili) hot instant noodle soup produced by the Korean company Nong Shim. It comes in a packet containing noodles, dehydrated vegetables and a powder soup base. Boiling water is all you need to make a very comforting, hot and tasty noodle soup. Read more about it here – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_ramyun.
Yesterday, while suffering the effects of a bad cold, sore throat and fever, I thought it would be nice to have a bowl of the stuff, but found I was all out. The thick and relatively bland Nestle soups just didn’t appeal. So, with no other option I thought of trying to replicate the Shin Ramyun… and it actually worked.
Here’s what you do:
- Chop some onions finely and begin frying them on a low flame in a pot. The oil should be minimal and odourless.
- When the onions begin to brown, add some finely chopped garlic.
- As the onions and garlic fry, mix the following in a bowl – red chilli powder, paprika, ground black pepper, MSG, soya sauce (the authentic chinese variety works best), salt, thai chilli oil and fish sauce.
- To the frying onions and garlic add a brunoise of bell peppers, mushrooms, spring onions and carrots.
- Fry a bit more and then add the mixture from step 3.
- Stir and then add water.
- Finally toss in a bouillon cube (I used Nestle/Maggi) and dissolve it into the soup.
- Check for taste when it boils.
- Finally put in some dried noodles and cook as per packet instructions.
You’ll end up with a fairly dark, watery, hot, delicious soup with noodles in it that you can further make into a full meal by adding sliced button mushrooms (raw), spring onions, tofu, sliced boiled eggs, bean sprouts, omelette strips and toasted garlic on top of the noodles (after pouring into a large bowl). If you’re serving it very very hot, you could also break a raw egg on top of it. Try some laver (dried sea weed) strips too.
- Sid
PS: If you want a vegetarian version – omit the fish sauce and use vegetable stock cubes instead. Also, if you’re using fish sauce, be careful as it can get quite salty. Add the salt towards the end if you’re not sure.
Your site is wonderful Sid! I like this recipe and I’m looking into your other recipes here to try at home. Love your pictures too! Do visit us sometime at Foodista and let us know what you think of Foodista ? We are building an online food and cooking encyclopedia ala wikipedia Thanks
That sounds like an instant cure for a cold. Are you better now and was it the soup that fixed it?
Awesome…when you get something in your head you make it happen. To me that is a lot of work to recreate an instant soup.
@Job: Well, actually, that’s the thing – the ‘instant’ stuff tastes very good and since we don’t know how to cook the stuff ourselves, the ‘real’ cooking is slowly forgotten and we depend more and more on packaged stuff. Now, how healthy is that and secondly, how good is it, i.e. to forget how to do some ‘real cooking’?
@Foodista: Thank you for your kind comments. I would love to help with Foodista.
Hi Sid, you have such a wonderful site here. Just discovered you on Foodbuzz. Will keep visiting now:-)
@Shreya: Thank you! Look forward to hearing more from you!
interesting =) I think instant noodles are not healthy SO thank you for sharing this.. I just have a question do you still remember how much salt, pepper, paprika, soy sauce etc will you use for this?=) Hope to hear from you soon..
Aah; no
Why not give it a shot anyway. It may be fun to add pinches of stuff getting the taste right. If you care to share *your* recipe when you’re done, I’d love to publish it here. 