Ramen Goodness

Nothing like home cooked Ramen eh?

Haha was at Marutama the other day and it was awesome. Many complain its too salty… but thats simply just how I like it. (Dont’ listen to those crap comments by the unappreciative hurhur)

In any case, I figured that I should try to make some home cooked ramen too! (Inspired by Marutama)

Doesn’t Jackies face on teh right simply spell out her excitement for this? Hurhurhur… BTW…  This takes hours to cook so only attempt if you have the time.

J-Ramen (approx 3 hrs the longer the better…. with pressure cooker 1hr is possible)

So I haven’t done this food blogging for some time and wasn’t prepared to do a full breakdown so I’ll just have to guess and remember what I did.

Recipe

1x    Chicken Bone (Whole... Well you can find whole body chicken bones these days at the super market.. or if you're friendly with your local market they may just give it to you for free)
2x    Leek
1x    Spring Onion

200g Pork (I used Frozen pork belly cuz of its excess in fat and its cheap price. But you can go for tenderloin etc… More fat though…. lean meat doesn’t suite this dish)

 
1Tbs    Miso paste
1Cup    Dashi
1/2Cup  Dark Soy
1/2Cup  Light Soy
1Tbs    Sesame Oil 
1/2 inch of Ginger cut into several large slices
1 Tbs   Vinegar (Can use white, cider or even sushi seasoning)
1 Tbs   Sugar
5Cloves Garlic
Japanese Ramen
3 litres water
optional eggs

Ok the Numbers I'm guessing cuz I did not measure. But its probably pretty close and the rest is up to your preference
Preperation 3 Steps….(You can do simultaneously) 
Pre steps… Boil both the chicken and pork from tap water to a short boil for about a minute. Discard that water and use fresh water after (This is to remove all the crap and stuff that the meat would produce.)
Step 1 The Meat
I figured that even Marutama’s “chicken stock” has the goodness of it’s CharShu pork in it. So lets keep it nice and asian and make a kinda “kong ba” (Stew pork)
Slice the pork to about 1 cm thickness if you’re in a hurry if not your can just stew the whole chunk of meat and chop it up later.
Add a cup of water, the dark sauce, ginger, vinegar and suger into a saucepan and put in the pork. It be good if it were fully submerged.  And boil in medium heat till water is reduced to a sauce
I’d definitely say Pressure cooker if you have one to get the meat soft. but fear not if you dont… just boil it slowly for an hour maybe dont let it dry out though…
Remove the meat and Roast in pre-heated oven 220 degrees for about 15 mins a side… Add the whole garlics into the oven for roasting as well… you may wanna drizzle some oil on them and watch that they turn brown and not burnt
Well this is just to roast the out sides… I don’t know why I did it but I did… Its a texture thing.. lol
Step 2 The Broth
Wash your leek, and remove the other leaves, and chop of the top third of it…
Plonk in your chicken into a large pot, leek…. This is a serious case of the longer the better.. I boiled mine for 2 hours on high heat topping up the water levels when it went down, and only then did the full flavours start to emerge… Pressure cooker is a good option
Step 3 Combine and serve


Once the full flavours of the chicken and leek are in your broth, do  the unthinkable and dump in all your pork (not the sauce..) and 3 cloves  of roasted garlic into the broth and let it simmer for another 30 mins  minimum.lower to a medium boil and add in the miso till your salt  preference. It should thicken the broth slightly but not overpower it.
Once it’s all done remove the pork and slice it (if you havent already)
Boil some Ramen in mildly salted water, strain, immerse your ramen in your crazy soup and garnish with fresh leek, spring onions, eggs and your prev raosted garlic

DO NOT USE INSTANT NOODLES AS RAMEN SUBSTITUTE LIKE THE ABOVE NEGATIVE EXAMPLE….
Instant noodles has a funky taste and your 3hour soup would taste blah…. I kinda almost achieved the soggy yolk of Marutama in this second attempt but thats for another post.
I’m sorry if my methods went against any traditional means of cooking or were a little too vague in description but hey… it DID really taste pretty awesome.. haha
TTFN

JeRmS