Spam Noodles

Hello, chefs! 😋

How's the cooking? I hope it's going well. I try to add something new to my dishes but, like most, I am limited by the time I have to cook and the contents of my fridge. That is how this dish came about. I came home late from work, hungry, and took what was in the fridge.

So today for lunch will be spam noodles.

This title may sound strange to you, but it's not about an irrelevant email, but a meat product originating in the USA, more precisely, canned boiled pork, which became popular during the Second World War. Some say that the name is a compound of 'Spiced Ham', but in Europe, it's said to be an abbreviation for 'Special Processed American Meat'.

Here, 'spam food' or 'junk food' means poor quality, unhealthy, pre-processed food that should be avoided and does not fit into a healthy eating style. Even at home, we rarely eat canned food, preferring to make our own from fresh ingredients whenever possible.

Well, one day I was watching a documentary about Okinawa, and among other things, it was mentioned that there is Spam popular even now, not only during and after the Second World War. Yes, I suppose the Americans brought it there.
However, it is noteworthy that Okinawa is one of the areas where the oldest people live in the world, and they consider healthy eating very important ...

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Which ingredients I used for the spam noodles:

400 grams of instant wheat noodles
a few stems of baby onions
a few carrots
two tomatoes
two garlic cloves
a tin of pork meat
1 soup cube or 1 liter of stock base (any)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
salt, pepper, spices (if necessary, as tinned pork is quite spicy)

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Preparation

First, everything must be cut into small pieces. This also takes the longest. I started with the baby onions and garlic, then carrots and tomatoes. Finally, I diced the preserved pork.

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Now we have everything we need ready to cook. Including spices, noodles, and soy sauce.

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First, heat a frying pan or wok (if you have one, well, a wok is not a traditional vessel here, but it's becoming more and more popular). Add the baby onions and garlic, fry briefly, then it's the carrots and spices, fry again for a minute or so to soften them a little, and add the tomatoes. Once the tomatoes have softened, put them all in another bowl.

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Now add the preserved pork to the heated pan and start roasting.

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While the spam cubes are slowly frying, prepare another pot in which to boil the water to cook the noodles.
I added a veggie stock cube to the water, a stock base would be better, but if you don't have one, a stock cube is fine too.

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The Spam cubes are roasting nicely, I think they're fine.

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Add the noodles to the boiling cube soup and turn off the heat. Allow to simmer for three minutes as directed (or longer, depending on how firm you want the noodles).

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When the instant noodles are soft, pour cold water over them to prevent sticking and they are ready. Add them to the pan with the spam, add the roasted vegetables and finally stir.