Ha, Kaki, this was a hilarious kitchen mishap.

See, I made this soup?  That tastes really good?  But, uh, it is not cute.

I had veggie stock in spades this weekend, and some kale stems all sliced up ready to go, and I knew I wanted something healthful and light after the amazing weekend of  Thanksgiving Over-Indulgence Madness.  So, ramen it was!  I slightly modified the recipe I used last time.  And then, I really modified it: it occurred to me to add egg.

I’ve never made egg-drop soup before.  But heck, can’t be that hard, right?  And I knew Budget Bytes has a recipe with good instructions, so why not just go for it?

Well, I broke a cardinal kitchen rule, which of course is that if you’re going to modify a recipe, check the proportions of the original recipe.  Because Budget Bytes uses 8 cups of water.  And I was using 6 cups.  Plus I had already added noodles.  Basically what this means is that there was no room for my eggs to swirl around as they were supposed to, and instead of making pretty, lacy egg threads they clumped and split up and decided to look generally “ugh”.

But oh man, did this come out tasting great!  I tried to take the most appetizing picture of this that I could.  But just trust me on this, flavor-wise this is out of the park.

Just, maybe only one egg next time.

Ramen Egg-Drop Soup
(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 tablespoon butter
• 1 glug olive oil
• 1 inch fresh ginger, peeled
• 1 clove garlic, peeled
• kale stems from one bunch of kale, diced (about 1 1/2 cups) (could substitute celery or the ribs of another hearty green)
• 6 cups stock (vegetable or chicken)
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
• dash or two of sriracha
• one package (3.5 oz) ramen noodles (just discard the flavor packet)
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
• 6 grinds of black pepper, or to taste

Directions:

Put butter and olive oil into a large Dutch oven or other large pot.  Turn heat to just under medium and let the butter melt.

Using a microplane grater, grate the ginger into the pot*.  Grate the clove of garlic into the pot as well.  Stir to coat in the butter and olive oil, and let cook for a minute or two until highly fragrant.

Add the kale stems to the pot, and stir to coat in the buttery, gingery mixture.  Turn heat up to just over medium.  Saute until kale stems have softened to the point they have just the slightest toothsome-ness left (not super soft, you know, but also not crunchy).  This will take 8 or so minutes.  Stir occasionally.

About the time the kale stems are ready you will start to see brown-bits collecting on the bottom of the pan.  Add the stock, soy sauce, sesame oil, and sriracha.  Bring to a boil (increasing heat slightly if need be).

Add the ramen noodles, breaking the brick of noodles into quarters if shorter noodles are desired.  Let these cook for three minutes (at which point they should be barely done).

During this time, crack the egg into a measuring cup with a pour spout, or some other cup from which it will be easy to pour.  Beat the egg thoroughly.  Add the tablespoon or so of water and beat to combine.

After the noodles have cooked their three minutes, turn off the heat, and let the soup pot rest for two minutes.  The broth should no longer be boiling.  Now give the pot a really good stir; you want the broth to really be swirling around the pot quickly.  While the broth is swirling around, slowly pour the beaten egg into the pot in a thin stream to create the egg-threads.  Once you have poured all of the egg into the broth, let the broth sit undisturbed for two minutes.

Season with salt and pepper.  Ladle into a bowl and revel in the deliciousness.  Just don’t dwell on how it looks.

You’ve got a race coming up, Kaki!  Break a leg?  How does one wish a runner good luck?  Runners don’t strike me as the superstitious type, now that I think about it.

Can’t wait to hear about it!

-Caitlin

*When you grate directly over the pot, any liquid released from grating the ginger will drip into the pot instead of just hanging out on your cutting board.  Lovely ginger-flavored liquid does you no good on the cutting board.