Sebastian's Almost Ramen Noodles

sebastians_ramen.txt

This is my recipe for (sort of) ramen noodles. There's no broth involved but my vegetarian friends are pretty happy when I make this. Super easy to make and very filling.

This recipe assumes that you are using a gas stove and can modulate heat on the fly.

Tools you'll need:
- a good knife (or whatever you like to chop with)
- a wok
- a pot for making the noodles

Ingredients:
- noodles (I like China Bowl Select brand Chinese Noodles)
- bok choy, you pretty much can't have too much of it (it shrinks up while frying)
- 1 small onion OR 1 shallot
- lots of chopped/shredded carrots (I usually cheat and buy a pack of pre-chopped stuff)
- spinach, loads of it
- garlic
- olive oil
- sesame seed oil
- soy sauce
- salt
- 1 can of black beans (optional)
- sriracha sauce (optional)

Noodle Steps:
- fill pot with water, put on high heat. this is in parallel with everything else, ideally the noodles should be ready a little after the other stuff has cooked in the wok for some time. 
- once the water boils, throw in the noodles and keep an eye on them.
- when the noodles are done, drain them in a collander.
- see end of veggie steps

Veggie Steps:
- chop everything
- put olive oil in the wok and set to high heat
- when the oil starts to smoke a little bit, throw in all the onions and carrots
- stir vigorously so that everything has gotten heated up and cooked, then turn the heat down to medium-ish
- add the bok choy, let it cook enough to shrivel up some, then turn the heat down a bit more
- add some sesame oil, stir everything
- watch everything for 5 minutes, contemplate the universe, stir occasionally
- turn the heat to medium again, stir everything
- add garlic, stir
- if you want a little extra protein, add the black beans here, stir and let sit for about a minute
- at this point, all the veggies should be pretty well cooked. the way you can tell is if the onions are clear or pretty close to clear
- turn to maximum heat
- add as much spinach as you'd like, probably a little more since it shrivels up
- add a generous amount of soy sauce
- turn everything the wok continuously until the spinach has gotten a little soggy
- turn to medium heat, stir for a minute or so
- turn to lowest heat, let everything sit
- proceed to final steps

Final steps:
- at this point the noodles should be in the collander and the veggies resting at low heat in the wok
- turn wok to highest setting
- throw in all the noodles
- turn all the ingredients together so that the veggies get mixed in with the noodles
- immediately serve noodles in bowls
- if you like sriracha, add some