← Nouns Cooking · Japanese

Ingredients

• 1 l good chicken stock
• 1 clove Garlic, crushed
• 3 slices Ginger
• 2 Spring onion, white parts whole, green parts finely sliced
• 3 tbsp Soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Mirin
• 1 tbsp Sake
• 1 tsp Toasted sesame oil
• 2 large eggs
• 250 g fresh ramen noodles (2 portions)
• 100 g Bean sprouts
• 60 g menma or tinned bamboo shoots (optional)
• 1 sheet Nori, cut into 4 rectangles
• 4 slices slices of cooked chashu or roast pork (optional)

Method

1. Simmer the stock with the garlic, ginger and spring onion whites over low heat for 15 min to infuse. Strain and keep hot.
2. Meanwhile, lower the eggs into boiling water and cook for 6–7 min for jammy yolks. Move them to iced water, then peel and halve.
3. Mix the soy sauce, mirin, sake and sesame oil (the tare) and divide it between two deep bowls. Warm the bowls with a splash of hot water first if you can, pouring it out before adding the tare.
4. Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Blanch the beansprouts for 30 seconds and lift them out, then cook the noodles to the packet time, usually 1–2 min. Drain well, shaking off the water.
5. Pour the hot stock over the tare, stir, and add the noodles, lifting them so they lie neatly. Top with the egg, beansprouts, bamboo shoots, pork, nori and spring onion greens. Eat straight away.

Tips

• Taste the broth with the tare and add a little salt or soy if your stock is unsalted; ramen broth should be quite savoury.
• Contains wheat, egg and soy. For a vegetarian bowl, use a mushroom-kombu stock and leave out the pork.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Chopstick Chronicles Just One Cookbook