User Blog:
Geek Recipe - Ramen with Shrimp and Edamame

Last week in my geek dating advice, I mentioned how you could make Ramen that’s dinner-worthy, and could win the heart of a geek girl? Well, here’s one instance of it. It’s a very simple, starter dish. I’ll do more complex ones later on. I wouldn’t make it a big date, but if you’re doing a little movie night at home, it’s great. Not only this, but it’s great dorm food, since it’s easy to clean after and requires only a mini-fridge for ingredients, and a microwave. Also, it’s SUPER cheap. In fact, for eight dollars, you can get everything you need to make about twelve servings. Healthy, tasty lunch for under a dollar. For serious.

The Bowl

This is the biggest investment. In later recipes, I’ll refer to it as THE BOWL. If you’d doing dorm cuisine, it’ll be a godsend. Trust me, it’s fucking magical. Back in college, I got one at IKEA. I want to say it was like $2.99. The bowl must have a few major traits:

1) A lid. You need a snap-on lid with venting holes. If push comes to shove, you can use plastic wrap with a little hole in it. But that’s annoying.
2) A rounded bottom. This is important, because we’re going to be using the bowl as a makeshift steamer. So no boxy, square bowls.
3) Size. It has to be microwave-friendly. I strongly prefer single-serving sizes. In my apartment, I had four of them for guests. The most important thing: You need to be able to rest a brick of ramen in the bowl, so it doesn’t touch the bottom and doesn’t block the lid. That’ll apply to almost all models, but eyeball it.

The Ingredients

Ramen - Duh. Buy a box. Just the normal Maruchan stuff works fine. It doesn’t matter the flavor, because you’re not going to touch the flavor packet. I tend to find chicken cheapest in boxes. I get a 12-pack for about a dollar or two.
Shrimp – Small. Frozen. Shrimp come in different sizes. I prefer the smaller end. 51/60 is my favorite for this recipe. 41/50 also works. In my experience, shell-off is just as cheap. This is the big price buster for the recipe, it clocks in at about six dollars for a pound bag. But you’re not going to use a lot. The bag works for about ten servings.