Today my son was having his birthday party and he requested ramen.

These are basic soy sauce ramen with the usual egg, porc and veg toppings.

Took a while to make these but worth the time given how they were appreciated by the kids :)

    • a4ng3l@lemmy.worldOP
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      6 days ago

      (copied from my answer to another comment)

      Several for the whole thing actually ,-)

      Day -1 I started with the eggs; 6:30 mins in boiling water then straight in ice water. Peel them and shove them in a container and add the marinade. The marinade is equal part good soy sauce, mirim, sake (here I used xiaoshing wine) and water. You can also add ginger, garlic, dried shiitake… but for the kids this was already a lot of new flavours. Heat it to boil off the alcohol & cool it before putting the eggs in it otherwise, you’ll overcook them.

      Personally, I put some paper towels on top of the eggs so that they colour evenly. But that’s only an OCD thing of mine I suspect.

      Day -1 prep the menma-like bamboo bits by using the same marinade as above with bamboo cuts. They won’t have time to ferment but they are already quite delicious like that.

      Day -1 prep the charsiu. That’s a complete topic on itself that one. It’s a pork roast with 5 spices for this one that we all love. you can also make it in the broth itself, but I have limited success with that plus you never know when someone can’t have pork… So I always do it a day before and if I need I dump some chicken in the broth if needed to accommodate someone.

      Day 0 - early morning I started by making the dashi. Soak 3 kombu pieces in a large pot of cold water (7L I think I used) for ~2 hours.

      Then heat it to 80°c and cut the heat at that point. Don’t overheat or you’ll get a bitter taste and that’s not enjoyable.

      After cutting the heat I added my katsuobushi for about 10 minutes.

      At that point you have dashi. It should already have the distinctive “ocean” but not fishy taste of a good dashi broth. Mind that at this point there’s no salt or anything in it.

      At this point you need to decide what type of ramen you want to do - I was requested shoyu ramen and I know by experience that in Europe we like it a bit less subtle taste-wise so I started by roasting some chicken wings to boost the taste. I personally prefer making tonkotsu but following a previous instance of home cooking of that sort I have been ordered to never to it inside again…

      I prepped my veggies (2 onions, 2 carrots and 1 leek)

      And once the wings are well roasted - WELL ROASTED I dumped all in the dashi and added 2 shiitake because I love the additional aroma they bring

      Let that cook for as long as possible, boil it for a few minutes to remove any scum and them let it simmer at least 4 hours to get as much collagen as possible out of the bones which is what is going to make the broth “full”. Once done you drain all solid twice and let the broth cook until you serve. It will only concentrate the flavours at that point.

      At the same time I did the tare which is basically 4 parts good soy sauce, 1 part mirim and 1 part saké with ginger and 2 shiitake in it for good measure.

      I also blanched some bok choy for some of the guests, prepped all in small containers so that the kids could choose their toppings and all.

      Cook the noodes, have hot bowls and the rest is just having fun with the toppings :)

    • a4ng3l@lemmy.worldOP
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      6 days ago

      Several for the whole thing actually ,-)

      Day -1 I started with the eggs; 6:30 mins in boiling water then straight in ice water. Peel them and shove them in a container and add the marinade. The marinade is equal part good soy sauce, mirim, sake (here I used xiaoshing wine) and water. You can also add ginger, garlic, dried shiitake… but for the kids this was already a lot of new flavours. Heat it to boil off the alcohol & cool it before putting the eggs in it otherwise, you’ll overcook them.

      Personally, I put some paper towels on top of the eggs so that they colour evenly. But that’s only an OCD thing of mine I suspect.

      Day -1 prep the menma-like bamboo bits by using the same marinade as above with bamboo cuts. They won’t have time to ferment but they are already quite delicious like that.

      Day -1 prep the charsiu. That’s a complete topic on itself that one. It’s a pork roast with 5 spices for this one that we all love. you can also make it in the broth itself, but I have limited success with that plus you never know when someone can’t have pork… So I always do it a day before and if I need I dump some chicken in the broth if needed to accommodate someone.

      Day 0 - early morning I started by making the dashi. Soak 3 kombu pieces in a large pot of cold water (7L I think I used) for ~2 hours.

      Then heat it to 80°c and cut the heat at that point. Don’t overheat or you’ll get a bitter taste and that’s not enjoyable.

      After cutting the heat I added my katsuobushi for about 10 minutes.

      At that point you have dashi. It should already have the distinctive “ocean” but not fishy taste of a good dashi broth. Mind that at this point there’s no salt or anything in it.

      At this point you need to decide what type of ramen you want to do - I was requested shoyu ramen and I know by experience that in Europe we like it a bit less subtle taste-wise so I started by roasting some chicken wings to boost the taste. I personally prefer making tonkotsu but following a previous instance of home cooking of that sort I have been ordered to never to it inside again…

      I prepped my veggies (2 onions, 2 carrots and 1 leek)

      And once the wings are well roasted - WELL ROASTED I dumped all in the dashi and added 2 shiitake because I love the additional aroma they bring

      Let that cook for as long as possible, boil it for a few minutes to remove any scum and them let it simmer at least 4 hours to get as much collagen as possible out of the bones which is what is going to make the broth “full”. Once done you drain all solid twice and let the broth cook until you serve. It will only concentrate the flavours at that point.

      At the same time I did the tare which is basically 4 parts good soy sauce, 1 part mirim and 1 part saké with ginger and 2 shiitake in it for good measure.

      I also blanched some bok choy for some of the guests, prepped all in small containers so that the kids could choose their toppings and all.

      Cook the noodes, have hot bowls and the rest is just having fun with the toppings :)

  • vrek@programming.dev
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    7 days ago

    Everything but the seaweed looks great. Where can I send you my address so you can deliver the extras?

    • a4ng3l@lemmy.worldOP
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      7 days ago

      The larger seaweed were the spicy kind so even if you are not crazy of seaweed itself you could enjoy those.

      The sprinkly seaweeds on top yeah that’s acquired taste I guess.

      • farmgineer@nord.pub
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        7 days ago

        The larger seaweed were the spicy kind

        The, er, spicy kind? I am really confused as to what this means.

      • vrek@programming.dev
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        7 days ago

        Nope. I can’t do spicy at all. My limit is like banana peppers on a sandwich and that’s pushing it.

        Funny story. One time I was meeting friends at a Turkish restaurant for a night out. We were sitting there with drinks discussing where to go, the table NEXT TO US ordered something so funny I had to walk outside cause I was crying. No idea what they ordered but it was so spicy I couldn’t stay there

        • a4ng3l@lemmy.worldOP
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          7 days ago

          The spices are like salt / sesame and stuff. Not pepper or anything that will make anyone shed a tear ,-) I think this brand is typically more of a snack than a ramen topping as it’s too tastfull.