Ramen

  My ramen's toppings: soft boiled eggs, shiitakes, chashu, scallion, nori and roasted chicken.

In Japan, the noodle that rules all others is ramen and undoubtedly it is one of the most popular dishes over there. Though it varies region by region, basically it includes meat or fish based broth, flavored with soy sauce or miso, and toppings are chashu (Japanese braised pork), nori (dried seaweed), kamaboko (cured surimi) & green onion.

·         Yokahama: where the first ramen shop appeared in Japan, the soup is fatty and salty

·         Hakodate: the broth is pork and chicken based

·         Sapporo: it’s miso based topped with sweetcorn

·         Kitakata: the noodle are flat

Momofuku ramen is closely to Tokyo style which has a touch of dashi (kombu & katsuobushi), and the toppings are scallion, menma (fermented bamboo shoots), sliced pork, kamaboko, egg, nori & spinach.

Recipe adapted from momofuku ramen

Ingredients

Ramen broth (I made the broth a half of the original recipe)

22 g kombu

2,5 l water

21 g dried shiitakes

1 kg pork bones

1 carrot

2 scallion roots and whites

Tare

1, 3 kg chicken (3 chicken legs: cut into thigh pieces & drumsticks)

140 g bacon

1/2 cup sake

1/2 cup mirin

1 cup soy sauce

Directions

Make the ramen broth

1.     In a large stockpot, heat the water to 70°C. Turn off the heat and steep the kombu in it for 1 hour.

2.     Roast pork bones until mahogany color in the oven at 200°C about 30- 45 minutes.

3.     Peel carrot and mirepoix.

4.     Soak dried shiitakes mushroom in hot water about 15 minutes. Wash briefly in cold water, and squeeze the exceeded water. I don’t know why but it is the way my mother and Vietnamese friends deal with the dried shiitakes before properly cook them.

5.     Remove and discard the kombu and add roasted pork bones. Bring to a gentle simmer and skim off the impurities that rise to the top during the first 15 minutes of simmering. Add the shiitakes, carrot, scallion roots and whites. Adjust the heat so the broth simmers gently for 3- 4 hours.

6.     Skim, strain the broth and chill. In case you want to reduce the finished broth, add water when in use.

 Make the tare

1.     Place the chicken in a baking dish; apply a light brush of oil on the skin. Roast in a low oven first at 125°C, so it renders out some fat to cook in then crank it up to 200°C after a couple of minutes. It’s ready when the chicken reaches the mahogany color. It takes about 40-50 minutes.

2.     Remove the chicken from the baking dish. Deglaze the dish with the sake. Scrape the baking dish to “release the fond”. Return the chicken to the saucepan, set it over a medium-hot stove, and add the remaining ingredients.

3.     Lower the heat to the barest of simmers. Keep it there for 1, 5 hour. The idea is infusion, not reduction.

4.     Strain the meat and bones out of the tare and discard them; (keep chicken & bacon if you like)

5.     Chill

To serve

In a separate saucepan, heat the broth and add some water; season with salt & tare to taste. Serve with alkaline noodles, sliced pork and soft boiled eggs.

Chashu - Japanese braised pork

The side effect of watching Chang’s cooking episodes is that whenever I saw or tasted something delicious I thought ” this is insane” & then laughed at myself. I like him, like his sense of humor. He is so real and honest.

When I look at the picture of Momofuku ramen, I’m so into Chashu that I searched for the recipe how to make it. Luckily, I found it on Just one cook book, where she gave the step by step instructions.

It tastes like Vietnamese style caramel pork but sweeter due to sake and mirin. The sweet and salt combination is so umami with ginger infused. The ingredients I used is a bit different, I don’t know what to do with the left-over of Ajitsuke tamago’s marinade from yesterday so I add some sake, salt, and ginger to use for Chashu.

Recipe is inspired and adapted from the original one justonecookbook

Ingredients

544 g pork belly

1 tsp salt

1 bulb of spring onion

1 tbsp oil

For the sauce

1/3 cup soy sauce

3/4 cup water

1/3 cup sake

1 tbsp mirin

1/2 tbsp brown sugar + 2 tbsps white sugar

1 tsp salt

6 slices of ginger

Directions

1.     Cut spring onion into 2 inch lengths and separate the green parts and white parts. Slice all the white parts and a few green parts thinly. (slicing a few green parts is optional, Shiraga Negi indicates only the sliced white part of spring onion, but I would like to keep a few green pieces to make it colorful).

2.     Soak in cold water for 10 minutes and drain well. Put it in an air-tight container or cover with plastic wrap. We will use this for garnishing later. 

3.     The rest of the green parts will be used later on for cooking.

4.     Peel and slice ginger.

5.     Clean and dry pork belly with kitchen paper. Sprinkle and rub the salt on the pork belly.

6.     Heat the oil in a frying pan over high heat and brown the fat side first, then flip over to brown the other side. It’ll take about 10 minutes.

7.     While browning, put all the ingredients for seasonings in a pot.

8.     Place the pork belly in the pot and add ginger and spring onion and bring it to a boil.

9.     Place a lid on top of the pot, but only cover about 8/10 part of it.

10.  Lower the heat to medium low and simmer, occasionally turning, for about one hour or until there is ¼ inch liquid left in the pot.

11.  Remove the lid and reduce the sauce until you can see the bottom of the pot when you scrape the sauce. Stay in the kitchen as the meat can easily get burnt if there is no liquid left. After 15-20 minutes or so, bubbles start to appear. You are getting close to the end. Turn off the heat when you see the bottom of the pot when you slide the meat around. The sauce is now thickened and meat is shiny.

12.  Take out the meat and cut into thin slices.

13.  Transfer to a serving plate and top with Shiraga Negi.

      

      If you don’t use the chashu right away, pack the chashu and the sauce in an air-tight plastic bag to give it more flavors all around. You can store it in the refrigerator up to 5 days and 3 weeks in the freezer.

Ajitsuke tamago

After watching the first episode of “The mind of a chef”, I was so intrigued by ramen and really want to taste the real one from Japan. My friend once told me he ate ramen in Helsinki but there is nothing special. I thought it was probably because he didn’t have a chance to taste the authentic one. Restaurants are usually adjusting the flavors in order to suit the taste of local people.

Today I learned to make Ajitsuke tamago in order to make ramen. Thanks to Evan's post with a clear instruction, I was able to make them successfully.

However, I did make a little change for the marinade due to the shortage of soy sauce in my home at the moment, and for my taste. Feel free to change what is suitable for you.

And here is the link to Youtube video showing how to make half boiled egg 

Ingredients (makes 3 eggs)

3 room temperature eggs

pot of water enough to cover the eggs completely

a bowl of iced water

For the marinade

1/3 cup soy sauce

3/4 cup water

3 slices of ginger

1/2 tbsp brown sugar, or to taste

1 tbsp mirin

Directions

1. Bring the pot of water to a bare simmer. Add in eggs and boil for 6 mins. Immediately shock them into the bowl of icy water to prevent the eggs from cooking further. Leave them in the iced water for 5 mins then peel.

2. Combine the soy sauce, water, ginger & sugar and mix well to combine. Pour marinade into a ziplock bag and place the eggs inside to marinate for 1-3 hrs in the fridge. Do not soak them for too long as the whites will turn rubbery. Serve cold.

Classic blueberry smoothie

The combination between blueberry and banana makes it one of the most popular smoothies until now. Furthermore, using honey instead of sugar is very healthy and you can decide whether to use honey or not, if you think the banana is sweet enough. For me, I always use honey.

Ingredients

¾ cup plain yogurt (Pirkka)

A handful of frozen blueberry

1 ½ tbsp. honey

1 ripe banana

1 cup milk

Directions

Place all ingredients in a bowl and use immersion blender to blend until smooth as desire.

Stir-fried chicken and cabbage noodles

This post is nothing but to show you my lunch today. One of my repeated foods is noodles with different kinds of version. Today I fried noodles with chicken, mango sauce, cabbage, and onion which I found left over in the fridge for many days. Such a comfort and easy food to make in a rainy day!

Avocado smoothie

Born in a tropical country, I was lucky enough to taste different kind of fruits. My favorite of all times are: avocado, coconut, mango, and cainito. Living in Finland, I really miss Vietnamese food and fruits. Fortunately, Finland also has avocado so I can make it when I want to. I love avocado because of its smooth and creamy taste.

When my grandfather was alive, he grew an avocado tree next to the house in the country side, and it bore the loveliest fruits with green skin and the best taste that I have ever known. Remember in Vietnam, I used to eat avocado with condensed milk and I love this combination so I make smoothie using condensed milk too. It is super easy to make with just 3 ingredients, an immersion blender, 3 minutes and you’re done.

Ingredients

1 ripe avocado (medium-large size)

3 tbsps. condensed milk

1 cup milk

Direction

1.     Cut avocado in half, remove the pit and use the spoon to scoop out the avocado flesh.

2.     Put all the ingredients in a bowl and blends untill smooth with an immersion blender.

Freely adjust the sweetness and thickness according to your taste.

My favorite foundation, serum and lipstick

YSL Le Teint Touche Éclat

It’s difficult to find a foundation suitable for my skin tone and skin type that I feel great when I apply. Hesitate for a long time because the price is high for me, finally I decided to buy it after a few tries. It is a weightless, illuminating foundation that makes my skin look really beautiful. 

I apply with my fingers and it gives the luminous, flawless finish. The shade B 30 beige best suits me.  It is one of the most fantastic foundations I have had so far. With light-medium coverage, the texture is smooth and lightweight. And yes, I would definitely consider buying it again.  

Estée Lauder advanced night repair serum

What could I say? A great serum; my skin wakes up more beautiful and I can apparently feel it. It’s truly expensive but the bottle lasts a year for me.

MAC Catharina Ultimate Lipstick

In Helsinki day, my friends and I gather together in the city center and we passed by Mac store. Unfortunately, I saw this lipstick and fall in love with it immediately. When I tried to put it on, a friend said the color looks like Korean trend. I bought it not because of my friend compliment though I also like Korea but because I think the color really fits me. I don’t have and don’t like bright lipstick but I am really into this one.

According to Temptalia website, Catharina is described as a “fuchsia.” It’s a bold, bright fuchsia pink with cool, blue undertones and a luminous finish. It had mostly opaque color coverage, but there’s a slight translucency that gives it a lighter look applied to the lips.