Elevate your instant noodles: Smoky, spicy keema noodles by Masterchef Singapore's Chef Vasun

Masterchef Singapore’s Vasunthara Ramasamy, or Vasun, as she’s known, is usually an advocate of slow food made the traditional South Indian way at her private dining outfit Cutlery Optional.

One of her legendary dishes is her thosai, for which she stone-grinds rice and lentils, and allows the batter to ferment for 14 hours.

So, naturally, I assumed she’d turn up her nose at the plebeian idea of instant noodles – or any kind of processed food, really.

Turns out, I was wrong.

“I eat a lot of processed food!” she said, prompting me to feel that Singapore’s reigning queen of thosai had suddenly become a bit more approachable.

In fact, “I always have two types of instant noodles in my pantry,” she added. (The only way she could have scored more points with me is if it had been three.)

When it comes to food and the enjoyment of it, after all, there’s no place for judgment. “I don’t ‘yuck’ people’s ‘yum’,” Vasun said. “I think there's a time and place for everything. If it's instant noodles, it does what it is – it's instant.”

Fancying up instant noodles is something she does now and then for fun, taking inspiration from the things she eats from day to day.

A recipe she decided to share with me was inspired by a bowl of Chinese la mian in a meaty sauce that she had enjoyed recently.

“I always like to Indian-ise everything I eat,” she explained. “When I saw meat sauce, I thought, ‘This looks nice for a version of keema’, (which is) like an Indian bolognese.”

As her noodle base, she uses Korean Shin Ramyun, because “I think Korean and Indian flavours have a lot in common.” She also adds tofu for texture, and a fried egg on top.

Of course, she had to luxe the dish up in her own style – with the addition of lots of Indian spices and an ancient smoking technique called “dhungar”, a traditional Indian method involving spooning some ghee over hot coals to smoke the food inside a covered pot. It’s “a little bit of old Indian magic”, she said.

It may be “a simple dish that I’ve complicated”, she quipped, but smoking the noodles elevates the dish “to a non-instant-noodle level”.

And sometimes, doing things the old-fashioned way pays off. You could, for example, use a blender for onion and ginger, but Vasun uses a pestle and mortar because “it’s more fun to bash things”. It also brings out the flavours better, but that’s secondary, lah.

Vasun’s ‘Smoked’ Keema Ramyeon

(Serves 2)

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 inch cassia stick
2 green cardamom pods
2 cloves
1 medium onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 green chilli, thinly sliced
1 inch ginger, minced
1-2 tablespoons curry powder
2 packets instant noodle seasoning
150g minced meat
50g firm tofu, cut into small cubes
Small charcoal piece
1 teaspoon ghee

2 packets dry ramyeon noodles
2 fried eggs
Lime wedges

Instructions:

1. In a medium pan, heat vegetable oil and add cassia, green cardamom and cloves. 
2. Once whole spices are aromatic, add minced onions, garlic, ginger and green chilli slices, and saute until lightly brown.
3. Add 1 packet of instant noodle seasoning and curry powder. Saute until mixture is slightly dry . 
4. Add minced meat and saute until oil separates. Add tofu cubes. Turn off the heat and set aside.
5. Make a dhungar: Add a small metal container into a pan with cooked meat mixture and  add hot coat pieces into the small container. Add a teaspoon of ghee to the hot coals and immediately cover your pan with a tightly fitting lid. Leave to infuse smoke into the meat mix for five minutes. Open the lid and remove the small coal container with tongs. 
6. In a separate pot, boil instant noodles and cook until slightly underdone. Refer to the noodle packet for cooking time and undercook it for 30 seconds. 
7. In another bowl, add remaining instant noodle seasoning powder, oils and whatever came in the packet. Drain cooked noodles and add to the bowl with seasoning. Toss noodles to evenly coat seasoning. 
8. Add noodles to your serving plate and add ‘smoked’ minced meat mix on top of noodles. Serve with fried egg and lime wedges.