1/19. My 10 minute valentine’s eve intuition ramen recipe and a story of growth
Valentine’s day is tomorrow and that is irrelevant to my single ass if not for the fact that it’s the birthday of a past friend. I am 1/5th of the syllabus down for an important exam due tomorrow afternoon. I want ramen, and there is a bottle of near to non alcoholic juicy sprite in the fridge. I make a bold move to establish my adulthood in an Indian household. A summary. Read on.
I just made myself some one pan intuition ramen (approved scrumptious because my Japanese culture obsessed and hyper critical younger brother liked it) — intuition because I did not follow any recipe, I am not even sure if what I did is near an authentic ramen, but you too can make it, and it was tasty and saucy.
I took one of those raised edge pans, put about 1.5 cups of water to boil, and put 4 frozen salamis in the water to cook. Once they were cooked, I took them out and placed them on a plate, and added my ramen noodles into the same boiling salami water. Along with my noodles, I added half a cup of water more and left it covered to cook on low heat.
I have over 4/5th of the syllabus for my Lean Six Sigma Black Belt examination to cover in the coming 12 hours of consciousness, but cooking is therapeutic and I really enjoy cooking for myself. Procrastination? Maybe. I detest accepting when I procrastinate, because my debater personality type can let me justify almost anything to almost anyone, even myself.
Next comes the soya sauce, red chili and green chili sauces — all added with intuition and heart, it’s called doing something dil se (with the heart) in Hindi, and then a packet of Maggi noodles masala. Added a little bit of water, and after a little stirring, I covered the pan and let it cook for some more.
My next round of adding water to the sauce also includes adding chicken soup powder. Those ready to cook soup mixtures? Yeah, they’re a blessing. I do two rounds of the water and chicken soup powder, and my sauce is getting real thick by now.
The last step is to add the salami pieces and a final 1/3rd cup of water, let it simmer on medium heat, and when your sauce looks a thick rich consistency, add a small dollop of butter to your ramen and keep it covered as you switch from medium to high heat for a few seconds. Then switch it off. While my butter melted into the ramen and my sauce thickened with the steam in the pan, I popped open a cranberry Breezer. I season my ramen with pepper and a little bit of green chili vinegar.
I had called my father a while ago, standing next to my brother busy studying for his engineering year 1 exams. My father and mother have gone out for a dinner party, and I have never had alcohol in my house before. I stood there, my 18 year old little brother by my side, and asked my father if I could share a Breezer with my brother. “A what?” said my father, and my brother shut his eyes, already wishing I had not included his name in the dreadful question.
“Yeah.” he answered after I explained myself again. “Yes, you can.” I replied with an “I love you, and thankyou Papa,” and cut the call. My brother thought Dad sounded disappointed but my elder sister self knows that was not disappointment, that was relief. We shared my first Breezer, and my valentine’s eve intuition ramen, in the gaze of a dozen tabs on engineering calculus open on his laptop.
After he had tasted the ramen and approved — our usual process for whenever I cook anything — I took my intuition ramen pan and cold cranberry Breezer bottle, and went out onto our terrace with our dog Stripey ahead of me.
It was a beautiful night, I wasn’t tensed about anything (though I very well would be justified in being so for an exam I am absolutely unprepared for,) and I was absolutely ass-single the night before the most publicly romantic day of the year, feeding saucy salami from my hand to my little dog.
I won’t get too into the details, because this isn’t my journal. This is just a story of a girl, her brother, and her parents, and growing up. And some food. I would also like to share that I popped open the Breezer cap on a table edge, my first time ever. I really am unusually impressive.
I also saw today that SNEAKO, a Youtuber that I enjoy watching videos of, broke up with his girlfriend. I wasn’t paying the most attention, because he seemed unusually cringe and irritating and wasn’t making much sense — not the kind of behavior that attracts me. Apparently he wasn’t loyal during the pandemic, and because of the distance. Big up, SNEAKO. I wonder if I would ever get cheated on, and how I would respond to that. Would I ever cheat? Unnecessary thoughts to be having in general, even more so when you’ve never been in a relationship, but rather difficult to ignore when it’s the loneliest day of the year in a few hours.
You can bet I won’t be on social media a lot tomorrow.
Goodnight, and feel free to share your valentine’s day plans with me in the comments.
Love. ❤
Here’s a summary of ingredients, without quantities of course, and a link to the beautiful music I was listening to as I wrote this.
Mahieka’s valentine’s eve one pan intuition ramen and juicy alcohol dinner, with some background music recommendation to set the mood ❤
1. Maggi noodles packet and masala
2. Soya, Green and Red chili sauces
3. Frozen Salami slices
4. Salted Butter
5. Water
6. Pepper
7. Green chili vinegar
8. Instant chicken soup powder / mix
9. Raised edge pan with lid
10. Cold Cranberry Breezer
