Venison & vegetable ramen

This is probably one of the easiest noodle dishes I have made, as it mainly involved pouring bottled sauces over stuff in the frying pan. It was quite sweet from the oyster and hoisin sauce and if you like a sweet and mild Asian dish, this may be for you.

You can use whatever vegetables you fancy, but keep them thinly sliced for fast cooking. I happened to have some shredded carrot, courgette, leek and radishes, mixed with bean sprouts from yesterday's raw Pad Thai and decided to chuck it in, alongside some sweetheart cabbage, green beans, onion, pepper, more courgette and more bean sprouts. I used garlic, chilli and sesame seeds for flavour.

Because I cook a lot of Asian meals, I have invested in a range of sauces and that was handy today. The dish featured sesame oil, soy sauce, mirin, hoisin sauce and oyster sauce. As usual, I didn't measure anything. A squirt of this, a drizzle of that and ta-da! All I can say, use the sesame oil sparingly, as it is jam packed with flavour and it can easily overpower a dish.

You know by now that I normally have an abundance of venison, which is why that's the mince I opted for. You can use any mince you want, or thinly sliced meat, if that's what you prefer. Perhaps you want to make it completely vegetarian. That's fine too. Make it your own.

1. Get all ingredients out.

2. Soften the onion, garlic and chilli.

I used half a home grown chilli and it totally lacked any heat. Total home grown failure. No heat or flavour what so ever, so I would have been better with a shop bought chilli or gone for the dried flakes in a jar. Oh well, never mind. I only have another 25 of disappointing chilli peppers.

3. Add the mince and cook until almost done.

4. Add the vegetables, but hold the bean sprouts back. Cook for a minute or two.

5. Add the sauces and mix well. Cook for another few minutes.

I used the 'splish splosh' method and it worked well. Splish this, splosh that and hope for the best.

6. Add the bean sprouts and mix well.

7. Cook the noodles, if you want them in this dish. 

If you are a low- or non- carber, leave the noodles out. You can add more cabbage instead. I have found that cabbage is a great substitute for noodles. My regular choice is savoy, which is prettier and slightly softer than regular white cabbage. It also cooks quicker. If replacing noodles with cabbage, I recommend adding it at the end and leaving a fair bit of bite or it won't be quite as satisfying.

8. Add the noodles and mix well.

I cut my noodles before adding them, to make mixing and eating easier.

9. Take a minute to behold the beauty of this dish. Take a deep breath. Sniff it, ogle it and work up an appetite. If you plan to eat more than you should, peel your eyes off the goodness and jog around the kitchen for a while before dishing up. Add a few star jumps for good measure. Go on, do it!

10. Dish up and devour.

I didn't jog around the kitchen and made no star jumps. That's why I didn't fill the bowl to the brim. I could have, but I know I would have eaten it all, so I didn't. I try to maintain my weight by adjusting my portion size, as well as making fairly decent choices when cooking.