Miso Ramen - 味噌ラーメン - かまきの食事時間#6

「寿司を作りたい」と思って、でもこしひかりがも食べ終わった。

With shortage of rice in the house, I had to pull out my noodle storage today. Throwing a bit of my love for Japan, I decided to make ramen (ラーメン) for dinner. Ramen is an iconic Japanese dish that can be served with versatility. Various form of ramen noodle requires careful selection of specific thickness of the soup base. It is often said that when eating a bowl of ramen, the soup must be "pulled" with the noodle itself in order to taste the intended texture and flavour of the dish as a whole. With some people calling the "theory of ramen" (ラーメン理論), multiple ramen shops therefore strive to create the most balanced, and perfect, ramen dish.

A commonly used soup base for ramen is miso (味噌). Miso comes in various type, but the most common types are (1) white (白味噌 [しろ]), (2) yellow (信州味噌 [しんしゅう]), (3) red (赤味噌 [あか]), (4) barley (麦味噌 [むぎ]), and (5) soybean (豆味噌  [まめ]); with 白,信州, and 赤 being the most widely used. People living in different part of Japan may tend to use different type of miso, some finds specific miso more suitable for specific dishes. Although I cannot say for sure, but a few of my Japanese friends like 赤味噌 with sashimi (刺し身). I personally like 赤味噌 because of its intense and rustic flavour.

The following is my recipe for miso ramen (味噌ラーメン). Unfortunately, I am unable to make the typical ramen toppings (ラーメントッピング) from scratch.

Ingredients (serving for 4)
Pork belly - 400g
Garlic - 3 cloves
Shallot - 2 sticks
Sliced Onion - 1
Red miso paste - 2 table spoons
Seaweed (わかめ) - as desired 
Dried Skipjack Tuna flakes (鰹節[かつおぶし]) - as desired
Chinese Five spice - 1 table spoon
Ground coriander seed - half table spoon
Chicken stock - 250mL 
Eggs - 1 egg per person if desired
Salt and pepper - as desired

 

1. Season the pork belly by rubbing salt, pepper, diced garlic, Chinese five spice and ground coriander seed on all surfaces.

2. Pan fry garlic and shallot, then place the pork belly with its fat part faced down. Pan-fry until the fat turns golden brown.

3. Remove the pork belly from the pan, and then tie it up into a roll shape with a stick of shallot in the middle.

4. In a stew pan, place in chicken stock, shallot, onion and the residual shallot and garlic from the fry-pan. Place the stringed-up pork belly into the stew pan, and add water until the whole meat is covered. Stew for at least 2 hours.

5. To make the miso soup, add 4 cups of water and bring to boil. Add the miso paste in, and add about a cup of the sauce from the stew for additional flavour. Then add the seaweed and dried skipjack tuna in.

 

6. Slice the pork belly. Don't forget to remove the strings!

 

7. Serve ramen noodle with miso soup, pork belly and any other toppings as desired. I added eggs and a vegetable in this case.

 味噌ラーメンを完成！！
どうぞごゆっくり召し上がってください。