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.