Home made Ramen!

During the few years I spent in Japan as a child I remember how good the Ramen was. I remember being intimidated by how large the bowl was and yet excited by the wonderful smell of the broth. I loved the ritual of bringing the chopsticks or “hashi” loaded with noodles up to my mouth and slurping them down loudly and having the noodles dissolve on my taste buds. Using the big ornate spoon I would drink down the soul warming broth, I was fascinated by all the things they put on top of the noodles including fresh vegetables, fish cakes that looked like pinwheels, and juicy cuts of pork loin. Well, I had to try it at home, and I have to say it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself. Mama loved it too and got in on it by making her own Gyoza, which was also very good.  I ended up serving the left overs to the kids the next day and they all loved it as well. I think what really made it good was Mama’s Chicken Broth and the Kombu (dried Seaweed) I put in at the end. here is the recipe.

For the broth:

• 2 quarts homemade chicken stock
• 1.5 lbs pork loin
• 1 leek, trimmed and sliced into 1″ discs
• 1/3c ginger, peeled and roughly chopped or sliced
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1/3c shoyu or other high-quality soy sauce
• 1 tbs vegetable oil
• salt
• 1 sheet of kombu (dried kelp)

For the ramen: 

• 24 ounces curly chuka soba noodles OR 6 3.5-ounce packs of fast ramen noodles (noodles only, no flavoring)
• 2c fresh baby spinach
• 3 thinly-sliced scallions

Instructions

1. In a very large stock pot, add the chicken stock (or water + chicken), garlic, ginger, leek, and shoyu. Bring to a boil, then reduce to low and simmer while you prepare the pork.
   Note: You could use a large slow cooker instead of the stock pot + stove burner.
2. Heat the vegetable oil over medium- high in a saute pan large enough to accommodate the pork. Salt the pork on all sides, and add to the pan.
3. Brown on all sides. About 12 minutes total. Transfer the browned pork to the stock pot.
4. Simmer the broth mixture and pork over low for 2 hours, or until the pork is very tender.
5. Once the pork is tender, remove it to a plate and refrigerate. Strain the remaining solids out and discard them.
6. Return the broth to the pot. Add the kombu, and continue to simmer for an hour and a half.
7. Remove from heat and let the broth cool for a while, and rest. Skim the fat and/or “scum” that appears on top.
8. At this point, you can either use the broth to make ramen right away, or you can refrigerate or freeze it and save it for later.
9. To finish the ramen soup, preheat the broiler. Slice the pork loin into 1/3″ slices.
10. Brush the slices with shoyu. Heat under the broiler for about 5 minutes, or until lightly browned on top.
11. Prepare the ramen or chuka soba noodles according to the package instructions, and heat up the broth (approximately 1 1/2 cups of broth per serving).
12. To prepare each bowl: Add the noodles, and pour 1 1/2 cups of hot broth over them. Add 3-4 slices of pork, 1/4c spinach, 2 sheets of nori, and sliced scallion to garnish. The spinach will wilt in the hot broth, and the nori will hydrate and become soft.

Here is where I got the recipe obviously made some changes but this is the original.

http://www.lolfoodie.com/archives/2010/10/shoyu-ramen/