What Is Instant Noodles Tantanmen Style?
Before, it was the Chinese chicken mami that made chilly rainy days bearable. With its combination of noodles, shredded chicken, and the occasional cubed vegetable swimming in the flavorful chicken broth, sipping and slurping was the thing to do when eating these noodle soups.
Ask anyone now and you’ll discover that Japanese-style ramen has taken over as the favorite hot bowl of noodle soups. The Japanese ramen is richer than the Chinese style of noodle soups, where bones are simmered for hours to create a collagen-rich liquid that coats each noodle and ingredient component in the bowl.
Asian noodles soups have a tendency to share histories and the Japanese tantanmen ramen and Chinese dan dan noodles may indeed be just that: twin recipes adapted to suit the country it is enjoyed.
Both noodle dishes are peanutty, both are loaded with ground meat, and both can also be made spicy, especially if you add the favored spicy condiment of choice of either country: the Chinese spicy chili oil or Japanese red pepper powder.
What these two noodle bowls also share is a long cooking process. This can easily be hacked if you use instant noodle packs. That’s what we do in this tantanmen noodle hack.
Table of Contents
How to Serve Instant Noodles Tantanmen Style
Instant noodles are meant to be convenient and instantly satisfying. There is little need to do much after cooking the noodles but you can serve it with more aplomb, especially if you are satisfying a quick hunger with company:
Pair it with mantao: We realize this is a Japanese recipe but there is no harm in mixing up cuisines if you’re especially hungry. If you have frozen mantao in your freezer, thaw then steam (or toast!) so yo can dunk them into the rich soup of this instant noodle meal.
Add a ramen egg: You may have foreseen the rainy days ahead and made some ramen eggs in anticipation of all the noodle soups you would be eating. If you’re this far thinking, make sure you have ramen eggs on hand. The jelly yolks are superior and the perfect addition to mere hard-boiled eggs. However, if hard-pressed, making hard-boiled eggs makes this meal more filling than without.
How To Cook Instant Noodles Tantanmen Style
One of the reasons why this recipe is so great is that it can literally be done in a short amount of time. Instant noodles are meant to be fast cooking and equally fast in satisfying hunger. Since each packet already has all you need to make a flavorful bowl of noodle soup, there is little to make this recipe fail.
To make this — and other instant noodle recipe hacks, for that matter — fast and easy, prepare all your ingredients before starting because once you start cooking, it easily comes together.
Start with cooking the ground meat of your choice. We use ground pork because it’s delicious and affordable, but you can easily substitute it with ground beef or ground chicken. You can even swap it out for crumbled tofu if you’re looking for a meatless option. Sear and brown this meat in a little oil. Add the remaining ingredients, including more water than the instant noodles call for, plus the seasoning packets that came with your instant noodles.
Recommended Videos
This makes a super tasty broth for your noodles. Once you have your flavorful broth, it’s just a matter of simmering the dried noodles until tender before you can serve it.
Tips To Make The Best Instant Noodles Tantanmen Style
1 Use ground peanuts aka kare kare.
If you have ever had kare kare made with ground peanuts instead of peanut butter, you’ll easily understand how using peanuts makes a difference to the taste of the dish.
The presence of finely crushed peanuts not only gives the dish an interesting texture but also delivers are more nuanced flavor. You get both crunch and that fresh peanut taste that you can’t replicate with peanut butter.
2 Add pechay or bok choy.
Cabbage is easily a good substitute for either pechay and bok choy if you don’t have either of these greens. You can even use kang kong, too.
Whatever leafy green you add, remember to add it with the noodles so it can blanch and become tender at the same time.
Instant Noodles Tantanmen Style Storage Tips
1 Transfer and keep cold for up to 3 days.
We can’t see any reason to not finish off this bowl of soup at any one sitting. Instant noodles are so easy to make and one packet is normally good for one serving that there is little need to store it. Should you need to store it, simply transfer the leftovers into a container with a lid and keep cold. Reheat and consume within the next three days for best results since the noodles can turn mushy beyond that time.
2 Make the ground meat mixture ahead and refrigerate until ready to cook.
While we can’t see a reason to store it, we can however see how this can be made ahead of time. Just like a ramen egg, you can make double or even triple the amount of seasoned ground meat mixture and store to a container, refrigerated.
When ready to make and are hungry for this instant noodle recipe hack, sauté your desired amount of meat in a little water before proceeding with the rest of the recipe.
Watch: How to Make Instant Noodles Tantanmen Style Recipe Video
Instant Noodles Tantanmen Style Recipe
Ingredients
- 100 grams ground pork
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup fresh milk
- 1 120-grams pack Jin Ramen
- Chili powder for topping (optional)
Instructions
- In a saucepan over medium heat, heat about 1 tablespoon oil. Add ground pork and cooked until no longer pink.
- Once browned, add soy sauce and peanut butter. Stir to melt the peanut butter.
- Add water and fresh milk and mix well.
- Heat and then add the instant noodle seasoning and dried vegetable packets.
- Add instant noodles and bring to a boil. Simmer until noodles are cooked, stirring.
- Transfer the noodles to a bowl and sprinkle with chili powder if desired before serving.
