Personally, I've never been all that excited about it. Depending on how soup is made, it can feel more like a precursor to a meal than a meal itself. And for all the nice soup smells that come out of kitchens, sometimes you’re just looking for something more filling. In my opinion, the best soup is one verging on being a stew.
So when I had ramen for the very first time, maybe around ten years ago, I was bowled over (sorry, pun very much intended).
It’s my favourite bowl of all time to this day. Creamy broth with nice, thick noodles. There was a line outside of the building, and a steady stream of people coming in and out of the establishment… It was a site to behold.
It was especially tasty at one particular ramen restaurant, in an inconspicuous alley in Ginza, the Tokyo district where the Emperor’s palace is located. It was a restaurant that served only chicken ramen as far as I recall, which as a relatively inexperienced ramen eater, wasn’t something I imagined a restaurant specializing in. Usually you associate ramen with pork broth, cooking in those huge pots.
But this was on another level. It’s my favourite bowl of all time to this day. Creamy broth with nice, thick noodles. There was a line outside of the building, and a steady stream of people coming in and out of the establishment, many of them “salarymen” savouring their lunch break before going back for the rest of an exceedingly long day. It was a site to behold.
Thinking back on that afternoon, it felt necessary to at least try replicating the meal at home. So get out a large steel pot, some large bowls, big spoons, and chopsticks. Let’s try this one out.
Yield: approximately five people
Retsept
- five cups of chicken broth (more on this later)
- a bundle of spring onions
- a package of button mushrooms
- greens of your choice (for example, bok choy or bean sprouts)
- two packages of thick noodles, such as udon (preferably fresh rather than dried)
- four chicken breast pieces, chicken thighs, or even one large piece of pork belly
- soy sauce
- sesame oil
- rice wine vinegar
- one egg for each person eating
- sheets of dried seaweed (optional)
Valmistamine
Start by making a hearty chicken broth the day before, or a few hours before you wish to make the ramen. The best time to do this is when you’ve just finished eating a whole roasted chicken. It’s always useful to have this on hand—not just for soup—and it isn’t too difficult to make if you successfully devoured the roast.
Pull apart all of the bones and skin and put it in a large pot with five cups of water. You may wish to break the bones in half to get the benefit of the marrow inside. Get the water boiling and keep it simmering away for at least one hour (more is even better).
Strain out the bones and skin, and throw this away. Put the filtered broth aside (in the pot or another container) until you are ready to make the soup. You can always freeze this broth to make the soup later.
Start cooking the meat, which you will later slice and put on top of each bowl of soup. 200° C seems to be a sweet spot, and then you can keep an eye on it as you prepare everything else, measuring the internal temperature with a digital meat thermometer.
Wash all of the vegetables. Cut the spring onion into small pieces. Cut the mushrooms in half or in thirds.
Sauté the spring onion and mushrooms in a pan with sesame oil. Add a few splashes of soy sauce and rice wine vinegar, and a few cracks of fresh black pepper and salt, to bring out the flavours.
Bring the pot of broth back onto heat. Keep the heat high at first, then bring it down to medium once it starts bubbling, to simmer until you serve the meal. Place the bok choy or other greens directly into the broth and let it wilt.
Then slide the sautéed onion and mushrooms into the pot, utilizing the remaining sesame oil as well, for flavour.
Once the meat is fully cooked, cut it into medium-sized slices and have these ready for final assembly.
Bring the heat of the main pot up again a little bit and put the noodles into the pot so that they’re cooking for about three minutes. While you’re there, taste some of the broth and see if it needs any more salt (add soy sauce).
Take a small pot and boil as many eggs as you need for seven minutes. Once they are done, remove the shells in a bowl of cold water and keep the eggs on hand.
Now you’re ready to serve. Use a ladle to put a generous serving of broth, vegetables, and noodles in each bowl. Top each bowl with one egg, a few slices of meat, and a small sheet of dried seaweed.
Itadakimasu! Head isu!
