How-to: Easy at home Ramen

How-to: Easy at home Ramen

I love to cook and try out new things. I have had an eye on making my own Ramen soup for a long time. Ever since I fell in love with eating Ramen at a Sushi Restaurant. It is just a favorite treat of mine.  For those of you who do not know what Ramen: It is a simple noodle soup dish from Japan. Traditionally the Japanese put in rice noodles (these I used for this recipe as well) but I have eaten it also with Ramen wheat noodles. The broth is usually meat but sometimes also fish-based. Traditionally the Japanese add miso or soy sauce, and seaweed and sliced pork – or optional fish. Important here are green onions thinly sliced. Then add as many vegetables as you like. Simple.

So I have been enjoying Ramen now and then but finally I wanted to try to make it on my own. For some reason it felt intimidating but it is easier than I thought. I share my recipe here today but you can add, personalize or create your own flavor combinations of course.

Serves: 4-6 people

Ingredients: 

1 lbs pork – either pork tenderloin or loin. (I used tenderloin – 6-7 pieces of meat)

1 big onion

6 large carrots

6-8 cups water

1 tablespoon salt

2 tablespoon sesame oil

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

2 tablespoons of sake (yes, you can drink some while cooking)

1 bunch of green onions (I just used it for decoration at the end and did not cook it)

About 2 ounces of fresh ginger root sliced or optional the already ginger that is already pre-made in the glass with water and salt added ( I prefer the fresh ginger)

4 cloves of crushed garlic

3 packs of ramen noodles. (I used organic “Forbidden Rice Ramen” from Wholefoods)

Toppings: Go crazy here. I used: carrots cut in small cubes, eggs, jalapeños, green onion, parsley, spinach and some more ginger

Instructions: 

Season the pork with salt, put it in a bowl and let it sit for an hour or so. Remove pork and place in a large pot on the stove. Now add the thinly sliced onion, some carrots, the ginger and garlic and six cups of water. Add the salt! (Mom always says: “Soup without salt does not taste good!”)  This is how to start the broth. Bring everything to a boil. Once it boiled for five minutes or so let it simmer for two hours. (This is important to keep in mind because it is quite a while!)

Now you have two hours to prepare all your toppings. First I sliced all the carrots into tiny cubes, cut the green onions and the jalapeños, washed the fresh spinach, cut it in stripes and put everything into small bowls so my family could customize their own bowl of Ramen. Put all the toppings in the fridge and start boiling the water for the Ramen noodles. Once water is boiling, put Ramen noodles in and let them boil for one minute or so. Then turn down heat and let them cook for another five minutes. Put in colander and rinse with cold water. You find the instructions on how to boil Ramen noodles on the package but I just wanted to share how I did it.

Now boil the eggs.

By now the broth should be ready. My mom told me to check if a broth is ready by putting a fork into the meat while it is simmering and if it goes through the meat nicely it all done. (Thanks mom!)

Take out the meat and start cutting it in stripes and place them into a bowl as well. Add sesame oil, soy sauce and sake to the broth. The broth can continue to simmer until you serve the soup.

To serve, fill bowl with noodles and now everyone can add the  toppings they want. Then pour broth into bowl. Add sliced boiled eggs and garnish with the sliced green onions if desired.

Pour the rest of the bottle of sake and enjoy!

 



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