Beef Ramen With Sesame and Sriracha
Wheat noodles in a soy-sesame broth, loaded with jerky and heat. A step past the seasoning packet.
- calories
- 780
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 130
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 8 min
- total time
- 13 min
- water
- 500 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Car camping
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Nested wheat ramen noodles | 100 g | plain nests, no seasoning packet |
|---|---|---|
| Beef jerky | 3 oz | sliced thin at home; replaces the fresh beef |
| Bouillon cube | 1 | beef or all-purpose |
| Soy sauce | 25 ml | leakproof dropper bottle |
| Toasted sesame oil | 15 ml | |
| Mirin | a few drops | optional, cuts the salt |
| Dried onion flakes | 1 tbsp | |
| Dried jalapeno slices | 1 tbsp | or a teaspoon of chile flakes |
| Grated nutmeg | a pinch | |
| Dried cilantro | 1 tsp | |
| Sriracha | to taste | single-serve packets travel best |
| Freeze-dried scrambled egg | 2 tbsp | optional, stands in for the boiled egg |
Method
- Drop the onion and jalapeno flakes into your pot with 500 ml of water. Let them sit while the stove warms up.
- Bring it to a boil and stir in the bouillon cube until it dissolves.
- Add the soy sauce, sesame oil, mirin, nutmeg, and cilantro. Stir.
- Add the noodle nests and cook about 3 to 4 minutes, pushing them under as they soften.
- Kill the stove. Stir in the jerky and let it sit two minutes to soften in the broth.
- If you carried the egg powder, sprinkle it over the top now and stir once.
- Add sriracha at the end, off heat. Do not salt it; the bouillon and soy already did.
The original is a fresh-beef, soft-boiled-egg dinner cooked at home. On trail both of those go away. Jerky replaces the steak and rehydrates in the hot broth in about two minutes, which is enough to soften it without turning it to string. The egg becomes powder or nothing; boiling one in its shell costs seven minutes of fuel and gets you one egg.
The broth is where the recipe lives. Bouillon, soy, and sesame oil do the work a seasoning packet does, with more fat and more depth. Add the sriracha off heat so the vinegar in it does not cook flat. Nothing else needs salt, and adding some will wreck it.
Packing
Noodles in one bag. Bouillon, onion, jalapeno, nutmeg, and cilantro premixed in a small zip. Soy sauce and sesame oil in dropper bottles, doubled in a bag, packed upright.
Variations
- Swap the jerky for a foil pouch of chicken if you want the meat softer.
- Rice noodles in place of the wheat nests makes it gluten-free, but check the soy sauce and bouillon too.
- Half a packet of miso paste instead of the bouillon cube.
https://blog.monrechaud.com/ramen-au-boeuf