In Japan we have lots of Ramen shops and each shop has their own style of soups and noodles. You won’t find same taste unless there are more than one shop from that owner or group. Lots of Ramen shops owners explement to find the right soup to match their noodles for their ramen.
What kinds ramen can you find in Japan? Soy, salt, Miso, Tonkotsu, Toripaitan, Tuke-men and Oil-soba are just some of the more popular ones. Tonkotsu, from Kyushu, uses pork bones and is cooked for many hours to make a cloudy soup. Toripaitan is similar to Tonkotsu but uses chicken bones instead of pork. For Tuke-men the noodles and soup are served separately and when you eat it you dip the noodles into the soup. Oil-soba has no soup just noodles on top of TARE (sauce) so when you eat you have to mix noodles and any topping in to the sauce. There are many different toppings as well. Chashu (Roast Pork), Menma (Bamboo Shoots), Nori, boiled eggs, spring onions etc. You can surely find the right ramen suit you taste in Japan. Ramen shop owners are all proud of their style of ramen and customers will return over, and over to their favourite shops.
Sometimes people ask can all Japanese people make ramen soup stock like in ramen shops. Well the answer is yes and no. Yes, you can make soup at home but it won’t be the same as your favourite shop because the owners are very secretive of their recipes. If you just want a simple but quick soup just use chicken bones to make stock or buy a powdered ramen soup. If you want to be really authentic like the shops you’ll need to experiment with different bones and ingredients to try and find your style of ramen soup. Ramen shop owners will either stay back after the shop has closed to prepare the soup for the next day or start early in the morning so the soup is ready by opening time.
Ramen is a very delicate and deep cuisine and people spend years perfecting their own style with a passion that equals that of French or Italian chefs. In 2015 a Tokyo ramen restaurant was even awarded a Michelin Star! Ramen shop owners used to known as “GANKO-OYAJI” meaning stubborn old man. Like I said before, they are fiercely proud of their ramen and believe their ramen is No.1. Each Japanese prefecture has a different ramen style so if you have a chance to go to Japan and travel around, please, try ramen in each place you visit. If you are lucky, maybe you will see GANKO-OYAJI hahaha…and eat Japan’s best ramen.
My ramen recipe uses chicken and pork bones along with dried shiitake mushroom. Pork bones have Inosinic acid, chicken bones have Glutamic acid and dried shiitake mushroom have Guanylic acid which are all natural flavour enhancers that will combine to make a delicious soup.
If people cannot have pork dried bonito has Inosinic acid as well so you can use bonito and chicken bones with shiitake mushroom or you can make your style. There is no rule for ramen soup. You can use Konbu (kelp), dried bonito, vegetables etc.
You can experiment in your kitchen and have a ramen party with your friends or family at home just like a BBQ 😄.
After a couple of hours of simmering your soup stock put your pork in the soup and simmer it on low heat for another four hours. The pork will soak in the soup flavours makes a delicious Chashu. This also saves a lot of time.
If you have any leftover soup you can keep it in the freezer for a month. When I freeze the soup I make small portions so I can just defrost what I need at the time. Leftover Chasuh is best sliced and wrapped individually so you can again just defrost what you need.
If you don’t want Chashu you can use vegetables instead or just spring onion and wakame or nori. You can do anything you want it’s your ramen.
My husband loves Chashu ramen, so I always cook Chashu and put lots in his ramen. Every time he starts by eating the Chashu and when he gets to the noodles he thinks his noodles have increased hahaha 😂. The noodles swell if you leave them too long before eating.
Ramen soup
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg Pork bones
- 1.5 kg Chicken bones
- 25 g Dried Shiitake mushroom
- 2 each Onion 330g
- 130 g Spring onion Use green parts only
- 90 g Ginger use fresh
- 50 g Garlic use fresh
- 3 L Water
- 1 kg Pork slow cook scotch roast For Chashu
Instructions
- Wash all vegetables.
- Add pork bones and chicken bones into a large bowl.
- Add hot water into the bowl to defrost bones and wash away the blood.
- Leave the bones in hot water for 15 mins.
- While waiting for the bones to defrost cut your vegetables.
- Remove onion skin and cut onion roughly.
- Cut the spring onion and use the green part.
- Slice the ginger.
- Peel and crush the garlic.
- Weigh the dried shiitake mushroom.
- After 15 mins throw out the hot water. if the bones are still frozen add hot water into the bowl again.
- Once the bones have defrosted, wash the bones and throw out the water.
- Put the bones, dried shiitake mushroom and all the cut vegetables into a large pot suitable for making soup.
- Add 3L of water into the pot.
- Turn heat to high and bring to the boil.
- Once the stock is boiling, remove the scum
- Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 2 hours.
- While the soup simmer, we will prep our Chashu.
- Add the pork-Chashu into a bowl.
- Add the hot water into the bowl and wash the pork and remove any blood.
- Remove the pork-Chashu and place it in a clean bowl.
- After 2 hours, add the pork-Chashu into the soup stock and cook 4-4.5 hours.
- Remove the pork-Chashu gently from the soup stock and put in into a bowl.
- Strain the stock into a pot to catch the bones and debris.
Video
When you make ramen stock if do not use the soup straight away please let it cool down before putting it in your fridge. Putting hot food straight into the fridge can cause bacteria to grow which can lead to food poisoning. When you want ramen just reheat the soup.
You can buy soup bones at the butcher. They aren’t usually on display so just ask if they have any.
Dried shiitake mushroom you can buy at Asian shops or Woolworths. You can make them at home if you have a dehydrator. I buy fresh mushrooms and put them in my dehydrator for a day.
