Sometimes, you just throw whatever you find in the fridge in a pot and magical s%@# happens. THAT… happened to me last night. I didn’t bother checking seasoning or temperatures, pretty careless about the whole thing actually. I was just not in the OCD mood and literally threw this meal together last second almost angrily, well kinda, actually not angrily at all, I was in a pretty good mood. But usually proceeding this way ends up in disaster. I got lucky this time I guess. Pinch of this and that, boiled some water, 15 minutes later I was done.
L I B E R A T I N G.
I guess that feeling went away right around the time I had to place that egg yolk on top of that noodle mound, whatever, it was fun too. Anyways, for this post I tried a few new things photography-wise. I just got a gopro camera and a Knog LED light bank for it. Gopros are these tiny basic looking cameras. They’re super powerful tho, serious high tech stuff. They’re literally a cubic inch in size. They can do a lot of things. Time lapse photography is one of them. Wish they could do dishes too. I posted one video here, compressing about one hour into 50 seconds 🙂 Also, I used that Knog LED light bank instead of my speedlite flashgun for the main photography. It was super fun and I hope you enjoy the pics and vid. Ah right, the food… here is the recipe!
Ingredients (serves 2):
500g Dry or fresh ramen noodles, or any pasta you like.
Sauce:
1 can of sardines in tomato sauce and olive oil.
2 Tbsp of dried anchovies (Japanese ones rule)
2 Tbsp minced garlic (yep, that’s a lot of garlic, bring it on)
A bunch of marinated soybean sprouts.
Garnishes:
2 Quail egg yolks. Or chicken egg yolks, let’s not discriminate.
Sriracha sauce to taste.
1 Tbsp finely chopped chives or green onions.
4 water crackers, crumbled.
Noodles. Cook these at the end. Get the water boiling at the beginning tho. By the time that water boils, the sauce (instructions below) should be pretty much done. Add some salt to the water. About a Tbsp per quart. When the water boils. Add the noodles and cook until ready. Some noodles will come with instructions, follow them… or… throw those away, the instructions I mean. Cook them until they are done and al dente. After 3-4 mins, start checking. Ramen noodles have the best al dente bite, love them. It’s probably better to rely on your own senses than on those instructions anyways.
Sauce. Like I said. Throw those other ingredients together in a pot except for the garnishes. Add a couple of Tbsp of water in the pot over medium heat. Boil off that water. That water will just cook the garlic and blend all the flavours together. Remove from the heat, and make sure the sauce is saucy, add some water if too dry. Keep reducing if it is not. Add the rinsed noodles to the pot and mix well. Keep the pot on the stove for a couple more minutes to boil off any extra water added by the noodles if that’s the case. Remove from the heat, keep mixing. Plate the noodles. Add the garnishes. Done. Easy. Hope the weekend is going great. I’m about to eat the leftovers from this post right about now.
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16 comments
Haha. I’m so hungry!!! This looks amazing!!!
Lotis! where have you been? hahah! thanks!
Nice dish, Paul. It’s always nice to note how good you can do something just by ‘instinct’. Love the video, which I would rather describe as ‘photography madness’ 😉 It shows on your blog how much effort you put into photography, but actually seeing you at work makes it a whole different experience. I rarely take more than a minute for the plated shot — remember I have a hungry husband egging me on even during that one minute.
hahah thanks Stefan! and you’re right, I think I’ll change the title of the video 🙂 I just really enjoy the photography aspect of the process but I get you, it’s hard to do when people are hungry and waiting. I usually do it when I’m cooking for myself. When cooking for my girlfriend or my friends, I either don’t do it or serve food for everybody and leave myself last, and shoot while people eat…and I eat while I shoot as well hahah lots of eye-rolling in the room as you can image 🙂
I couldn’t wait that long myself to eat — and I don’t like my food cold either. I can certainly imagine the eye-rolling!
nah, it doesn’t take that long. The composed dish it’s just about 10 mins at the longest. But I hear you 🙂 sometimes I just plate what I know it’s gonna be leftovers and eat my food on the side hahah I dont like cold food either!
Well I come home from work around 7:30PM, so by the time the food is ready to photograph/eat it is usually 8 or 8:30, with lunch having been at noon. And then 10 minutes is a looooong time… 😉
it is! 🙂
I think I took longer this time because I was testing new gear, but the running time of the photography session of the plated dish on the compressed video is about 12 seconds long and that includes me eating haha, the rest is prep or clean up 🙂
12 seconds of compressed time is equivalent to…?
about 10 mins 🙂
I love Stefan’s comment! I’ve learned the hard way not to need to photograph a dish for my husband or worse, for company. But then, that’s how I end up with extra food that I feel obliged to eat!!! I agree, your photographs are stunning. What a great meal!
Thanks Mimi! I’m so glad you enjoyed this post. I gotta say, I don’t photograph every meal I cook. I’d have to quit my day job hahah, but when I come up with something that I’m proud of or that takes a great deal of effort to make, I like to document it and spend more time with the plating and the lighting. I love photography as much I love cooking 🙂 but I above all, I love eating haha
Hey Paul, if you find a camera that does dishes, please let me be the first to know!! Fantastic photos and that ramen is calling my name. YUM!
hahaha thanks Patty! for sure will let you know! haha
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