Shoyu Ramen

Serves 2 Starters and mains

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Method

Either get your butcher to cut up the trotters or, if doing this yourself, take your strongest knife or cleaver and split each one lengthways down the middle (between the toes). Place the halved trotters (or pork bones) and chicken wings in a stockpot or your largest saucepan. Cover with cold water until all the bones are completely submerged and bring to a rapid boil over a high heat. Let it boil for 1 minute, then remove from the heat. There will be a lot of foam and scum on the top – this is why you do this step. Tip the trotters or bones into a large colander and run them under cold water. One by one, scrub them clean, getting rid of any exposed marrow, clotted blood or other dark dirty bits (a chopstick is good for doing this). You will be left with grey-looking but clean trotters or bones. Clean out the stockpot and return the scrubbed bones to the pot.

In a heavy-based frying pan, heat the neutral oil and fry the onion, leek, garlic and ginger over a medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes. A little charring will add flavour: you don’t want to cook the vegetables, just add a bit of caramelisation. Once you are happy with the colour of the vegetables, add them to the stockpot with the meaty bones. Add the kombu and shiitake mushrooms, cover with cold water until all the ingredients are submerged and bring to the boil. Lower the heat immediately, skimming off any scum that rises to the surface. Leave the stock at a steady simmer, covered with a lid, for at least 3 hours – ideally, around 8 hours. The longer you leave it, the more intense the flavour will be. If the liquid levels become a little low, top up the pot with water until the ingredients are just submerged.

When you are ready to remove your broth from the heat, first scoop out any of the larger bones from the pot. Strain the stock through a fine- mesh sieve or a piece of muslin into a large bowl or large clean pan. Dispose of the aromatics and bones left behind.

Now, make the tare. Add the tare ingredients to a small saucepan and gently heat for 10 minutes to infuse the flavours of garlic and ginger.

Cook the noodles in a pan of boiling salted water for 11⁄2-2 minutes, depending on their thickness (or according to packet instructions), until al dente. Drain and rinse under cold water to prevent them from sticking.

Due to the fat content in the stock, it will jellify quickly. Reheat enough of it for 2 people – 800-900ml. Remove the garlic clove and ginger slice from the tare, then divide the tare between 2 large ramen bowls (adding 3-4tbsp per bowl) and follow with the steaming ramen broth.

Top with the noodles, an egg, the spring onions and a couple of slices of pork. Finish with the roasted garlic chicken fat (if using) and 1⁄2 sheet of nori.

Ramen noodles

Combine the flour and kansui in a mixing bowl with the salt, 86ml water and the riboflavin (if using) and combine until the mixture forms rough pieces. You can use the paddle attachment on a stand mixer to do this. Once dry straggles start to form, bring the dough together into a ball. Apply pressure using the palm of your hand in a downward motion and continue to do this until the straggles of dough are forced together to form a rough ball. Cover the bowl with a clean, damp tea towel and leave to rest for 15 minutes. In the meantime, set up your pasta roller, clamping dough is extremely hard.

Remove the dough from the bowl. Take a rolling pin and section by section, until it is thin enough to pass through the pasta roller on its widest setting, then feed the dough through the roller. What will emerge may be quite rough and ragged but this is okay. If the sheet has separated or holes have appeared, don’t worry. Pass the dough through again on the widest setting and repeat this step until you have one complete sheet of dough, with no holes. Reset the pasta roller to the next-narrowest setting and pass the sheet of dough through, then reduce the setting once more, to the third-narrowest level, and feed Now fold the dough in half, lengthways, and pass through the pasta roller on the widest setting. Repeat this sheeting and folding process until you have a smooth and even- textured sheet of dough. The edges of the sheet may have become dry and cracked during folding but this is okay. Gently fold your sheet of dough in half and leave to rest for 30 minutes, covered with a tea towel or cling film.

Once the dough sheet has rested, unfold it and pass through the pasta roller to the cutting the dough into noodles. The thickness of your noodle will be dictated by the recipe you plan to use it in.

To create your noodles, pass the dough through the cutting attachment. Lightly dust the noodles with potato starch or separate. Ramen noodles get better with age – resting them for 24 hours will improve the texture. They will keep for up to 5 days, chilled, but can also be enjoyed straight away.

Cook the noodles in a pan of boiling salted water for
11⁄2 -2 minutes, depending on their thickness, until al dente. Rinse in cold water and serve in your chosen recipe.

Note: When you add an alkali salt to noodle dough, it changes the pH of the dough, increasing bond formation between the gluten strands and making the leads to a chewier and springier noodle that will absorb water less quickly, which is perfect if the noodle is destined to be set in a bath of hot soup, and ramen noodles are tailor-made for the purpose. In commercial ramen production, a combination of alkali salts are used depending on the properties required from the noodle, whether thick, thin, hard or soft. When making these noodles at home, you add kansui – an alkaline mixture of potassium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate or bicarbonate of soda – to the dough. Kansui is available to buy, but it’s very easy to make.

Ramen eggs

Bring a pan of water to a rapid boil. Lower the eggs gently into the water and cook for exactly 6 minutes. Remove from the water and run under very cold water for 3-4 minutes, or plunge ice cubes. When completely cool, peel the eggs. Combine the soy sauce, mirin and dashi stock. Submerge the eggs in the liquid and
cover with baking paper. (Alternatively, place the eggs in a sealable container or with the stock mixture.) Chill overnight before eating. The eggs will keep, chilled, for up to 5 days. Serve them with your favourite ramen dish.

Chashu pork for ramen

Preheat the oven to 120C/100C F/Gas 1⁄2. Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based frying pan or cast- iron grill pan over a medium- high heat and brown the pork on all sides. Remove the pork and place in a roasting tray that’s big enough to leave a gap of 3-5cm between the meat and the edge of the tray. Add the saké to the frying pan/grill pan to deglaze, then add the soy sauce, mirin, sugar and 200ml water. Heat through gently and add the spring onions and ginger.

Pour the sauce into the roasting tray over the pork, including the spring onions and ginger. Tightly cover the tray in 2 layers of foil and cook in the oven for 3 hours.

After 3 hours, the pork should be very tender. Transfer the pork and liquid to a sealable container or resealable plastic bag and chill overnight. This firms it up, making it easy to slice.

When you’re ready to add the pork to your ramen dish, cut into 5mm-thick slices and heat either with a blow torch, until the edges turn golden, or under the grill, until caramelised.

Roasted garlic chicken fat

A shop-bought whole chicken will have a plug of fat attached to the skin at the opening of the bird, where the neck would have been. It’s usually tucked
of skin out and cut out the fat plug with a sharp knife. You will likely see other collections of fat surrounding this area – trim them away, too, and set aside. Higher-quality birds, such as corn-fed or organic, tend to have more of this tasty fat.

Add the chicken fat to a cold saucepan and bring slowly to a medium heat. The fat will render and create a pool of oil. There may be a couple of browned nuggets left behind – remove these.

Pour in the rapeseed oil. Crush the garlic cloves with the side of a knife and add to the oil, along with the spring onions. Let the oil sit over a medium- low heat for 30 minutes. The garlic cloves and spring onions should bubble away gently brown, lower the heat. Remove the garlic and spring onions with a strainer, take the pan off the heat and allow to cool.

Once cooled, decant into a sterilised airtight jar, seal with a lid and store, chilled.

Kansui

Preheat the oven to 120C/ 100C F/Gas 1⁄2. Sprinkle the bicarbonate of soda onto a foil-lined baking tray and bake in the oven for 1 hour. As it heats, the sodium bicarbonate changes into sodium carbonate, an alkali salt that can be used to change the pH of the noodle dough and make it firmer.

The powder will lose around a quarter of its weight.

Remove the kansui from the oven and transfer it to a clean, airtight jar by making a crease in the foil and pouring it into the jar (taking care to avoid contact with your skin as your pour). Seal with a lid and use the kansui as directed in the recipe.

The powder will keep for up to a month. Don’t leave the jar open for too long, allowing the kansui to come into contact with the air, or it will absorb moisture and be less effective.