Thursday, July 23, 2009

Brandon's Pork Chop Ramen Fabulous


Any of y'all that grew up broke or went to college or went broke in college or went to college broke or broke down while broke in college cuz you had to grow up...will know of the great and powerful $.25 meal called ramen.

Now when I was a kid...all I knew about was Top Ramen and Smack Ramen and Cup-o-Noodle Ramen. By adulthood, I had discovered an entire world of imported ramen from China, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam. I once believed that ramen came only in pork, chicken, beef, oriental, and shrimp flavors. Only to discover, thanks to many an Asian grocer, that there is roast duck flavor, hard boiled egg flavored, and some flavors that don't even have a translation in English.

Now that I am officially too old to actually eat a package of ramen as a meal. And, considering I personally made several ramen manufacturers extremely wealthy as I packed away two packages of ramen AS A SNACK through most of my teen years, I thought I would combine my love of ramen with my love of half-way good for you food.

So, I created this recipe, and let me tell you...it is so good that I am going to ask the Ramen Gods to include it on the backs of all my favorite brand's packages.

Brandon's Pork Chop Ramen Fabulous

3 Packages Chicken Flavored Ramen
3-4 small to medium sized pork chops, lean cut, with some marbling
4 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon seasoning salt
1 tsp salt
1 bunch of scallions
1 large sweet red bell pepper
1 large jalapeno
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tbsp olive oil

First, lay the pork chops in an oven safe cooking pan. Sprinkle the seasoning salt and salt on the pork chops, then pour the soy sauce over the pork chops. Cover the dish with tin foil and bake in the oven at 375 degrees for about 30-45 minutes. Turn once about half way through cooking.

Once the pork chops are done, remove the pork chops from the pan but SAVE THE JUICES in the pan. Slice the pork chops off of the bone and then dice into strips or bite size pieces. Set the bones aside.

In a sauce pan, bring six cups of water to a boil. When you put the water on to boil add the pork chop bones to the water. Once the water begins to boil throw the ramen noodles into the water and let them boil up for two minutes or until al dente. Drain the noodles into a strainer, and then remove the bones from the noodles in the strainer.

In a large wok, heat olive oil, then add garlic (minced), jalapenos, and onions, allow to sizzle and snap and fry up for a good three to four minutes. This allows the onions and garlic to caramelize and sweeten. Then add the noodles. To this add TWO of the three chicken flavoring packages from the ramen....DO NOT use all three or it will be tooooo salty. Stir the noodles, onions, jalapenos, and garlic together. Then pour the juice from the baking pan into the mixture. To that add the sweet bell pepper, cut into bite size pieces, and the chopped pork chop meat to the mix. Keep the dish stirring for about 3 minutes, just enough time to let the bell pepper soften up a bit...and then get you a bowl, put some of the food in it, and eat it up. Lemme tell you...you ain't NEVER had ramen like this before.

6 comments:

  1. I am running out to the store right now. It's amazing that we didn't eat more Ramen in Puerto Rico with our ghetto broke asses . . . .

    ReplyDelete
  2. Man...we had a rice cooker and all the Goya canned beans we could eat. Hell we were getting beans cheaper than we were getting ramen. Shoot...but I made magic with that hot plate, some beans, and a rice cooker. Yes lawd. I am the Ghetto Chef Superstar!

    ReplyDelete
  3. For some reason, I'm still scared caca-less of ramen because at some point I was convinced that it's terrible for you. ?? I used to loooove it though. I liked the mushroom kind...

    I can't wait for the Fairy Chef. Can you make it a point every once in a while to do an actual dinner party and write about it? I promise I will bring goodies... lol

    ReplyDelete
  4. Caro! So...ramen (the noodles) are just a basic carb...not too great...not too bad. The seasoning packets is where the msg and all the nasties are found. So, just eating a big old bowl of ramen with the full seasoning package isn't the best. And, frankly, this recipe could probably use only one package of the seasoning from the ramen, which would make it healthier. And...the Fairy Chef is now up: www.fairychef.blogspot.com.

    ReplyDelete
  5. My kids eat ramen raw, uncooked, as a snack... damn crumbs get everywhere! Horrifies me.

    ReplyDelete
  6. LOL! I love it when your queer boy tendencies step up front and center ;-). You sound like my boyfriend with that comment. I used to munch on the leftover ramen crumbs in the package after you'd put the big block of noodles in the water. Delicious!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, feelings, and insights. And thank you for reading!