Food Friday! Feed your family, fast.
Indignity Vol. 4, No. 80
Put Two Eggs in the Ramen
SOMETIMES IT'S ABOUT to be lunchtime and everybody is in a hurry, but also everybody has to be decently nourished for whatever they're in a hurry to do. This is when to do the thing the instant ramen package suggests and put eggs in the ramen. Soft-boiled. Also two other things, napa cabbage and scallions, and that is all.
It's the difference between a snack and a meal. Two eggs per person. One packet of ramen per person, or three packets for four people if it's one of those bigger squarish Korean packs. Half a scallion and a medium-large napa leaf per person. Or more, especially of the scallion.
Put on a pot to boil with the package-recommended amount of water for the ramen, and start a small amount of water boiling in a steamer pot. Wash and chop the scallions into little rounds; wash and chop the napa into quarter- or half-inch strips. When the steamer boils, steam the eggs for 6 minutes, then dunk them in a bowl of ice water. This is a good time to use tongs.
Peel the eggs. This is the only thing that takes any work or attention: the more of the eggshell you've removed, the more the remaining eggshell digs into the soft egg as you pry it away. Just try not to break through to the yolk. Lay out good-sized soup bowls for everyone and put two peeled eggs in each bowl, along with an even share of the scallions.
By now the water for the ramen is probably boiling. Follow the package instructions, except when you put the bricks of noodles into the pot, also put the napa. The napa doesn't care if it's three-minute or four-minute instant ramen. When the timer goes off, use the tongs to pull the noodles and cabbage out of the pot and divide them among the bowls. Ladle the soup over it with a good spoon.
Nothing is more like a meal for less effort. Everything should already be sitting around the pantry or the fridge. Napa keeps for a long time; just get a less-than-gargantuan head of it and stash it in the bottom of a produce drawer.
SANDWICHES CORRESPONDENCE DEP'T.
IN RESPONSE TO our invitation for sandwich experiences inspired by our Sandwich Recipes Dep't. (Indignity Vol. 4, No. 32), Laura writes:
Hot lettuce sandwich: I used the suggested dandelion greens variation. For onion I used part of one of the walking onions in my garden. They’re on the less sweet, more strong side, so I used a pretty small amount. It didn’t specify what type of vinegar—I used apple cider vinegar.This was pretty good! Definitely the dominant flavor was the vinegar. The bitterness of the dandelion greens wasn’t overwhelming and in fact kinda faded into the background.
THESE NUTS DEP'T.
FROM THE INDIGNITY Nut Desk: These KIRKLAND SUPER EXTRA-LARGE PEANUTS nuts, while a solid value found at the Costco (around nine bucks for two and one-half pounds of peanut), and def better than the average salted peanut, are not as good as these previously-enjoyed Parker's Peanuts, as described within Indignity Vol. 4, No. 26.
The Kirklands are simply not as crunchy, and the flavor is a little too close to the Earth (no offense), a bit musty, indistinct, and they need more salt.
They are OK, though, these nuts, and an incredible value, but we're gonna stick with the way more expensive ones until convinced otherwise.
SIDE PIECES DEP'T.
The Editors
FOR FLAMING HYDRA, Joe wrote about how the Fox Weather channel makes him nervous (paywalled).
The Editors
Also, Joe wrote about his mom's apartment (this Flaming Hydra post is not paywalled, which is rare).
WEATHER REVIEWS
New York City, May 9. 2024
★★★ The rainy day in the forecast had been revised to a minor chance of showers, and for a while there was even sunlight out the windows. By afternoon the light was gray but the sky still had a surprising amount of blue in it. The sun found a thin spot in the clouds, if not an opening, and briefly cast shadows. A skinny oak sapling stood just about chest-high in a sidewalk well, distinguishing itself from the opportunistic plants lower to the ground. The silver maple had scattered samaras up and down the block. The evening air smelled sweet and pleasant, with some strong mix of flowers and new growth surrounding and subduing the other odors. One of the towering pin oaks along Central Park West stood out in full dimensionality, the negative spaces between the branches in its crown bending and tapering in toward the trunk. Dogwoods by the park gate were subtly but shockingly pale in the dusk. The overcast night sky looked as loose as the daytime cloud cover had been, but scattered drops began falling from it.
EASY LISTENING DEP'T.
CLICK ON THIS box to enjoy today's Indignity Morning Podcast:
SANDWICH RECIPES DEP’T.
WE PRESENT INSTRUCTIONS in aid of the assembly of a sandwich selected from Mrs. Ericsson Hammond's Salad Appetizer Cook Book, by Maria Matilda Ericsson Hammond. Published in 1924, and now in the Public Domain and available at archive.org for the delectation of all.
Sandwich Concombre au Saumon fume à la Gustaf
For Eight Persons
Eight slices of bread, two spoons of butter, one half pound of salmon, a large cucumber, two spoons of dissolved Cox’s gelatine, cayenne pepper and salt.
How to Make It. Slice the bread in even slices, cut it out with a round biscuit cutter and spread with the butter and smoked salmon that has been chopped. Decorate with a strip of stirred butter all around the sandwich. Peel the cucumber and slice it a quarter of an inch in thick slices and cut it in the shape of a star with six points. Cut out the center for the filling with the cutter according to the size of the cucumber. Place the cucumber on the sandwich and fill. Decorate the star with stirred butter that has been colored the shade of light green with spinach coloring, and in the center of the filling put a star of truffle. Glaze the star of truffle with some gelatine.
Filling. Mix with the rest of the chopped salmon one tablespoon of chili sauce, a pinch of chili powder, one spoon of Cox’s gelatine and one spoon of whipped cream. Leave in a saucepan on ice until cold, when cold fill the cucumber through a fancy tube in the form of a pyramid.
If you decide to prepare and attempt to enjoy a sandwich inspired by this offering, be sure to send a picture to indignity@indignity.net.
MARKETING DEP'T.
Supplies are really running low of the second printing of 19 FOLK TALES, still available for gift-giving and personal perusal! Sit in the gathering heat with a breezy collection of stories, each of which is concise enough to read before the sun gets high.
HMM WEEKLY MINI-ZINE, Subject: GAME SHOW, Joe MacLeod’s account of his Total Experience of a Journey Into Television, expanded from the original published account found here at Hmm Daily. The special MINI ZINE features other viewpoints related to an appearance on, at, and inside the teevee game show Who Wants to Be A Millionaire, available for purchase at SHOPULA.
