Ramen is a great dish with plenty of versatility, so here’s how to bring some of the Japanese specialty in to your kitchen
Ramen is a dish that has a long and popular tradition in Asia, in particular Japan, where eating the dish alone has become an art. From movies to books to TV shows, plenty of pop culture references draw on this food stuff for inspiration, not least Tampopo, a Japanese movie that dedicates a whole scene to how to properly savour it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9m6FoSw4jE
The best known place to get yourselves some ramen around Ireland is Wagamama, who also do a mean yasai katsu curry, something we’ve yet to master we must admit. That’s next on the list, and we plan on getting to grips with it with the Wagamama cook book. Anyway, back to the topic at hand.
Recently, we were lucky enough to head along to meet head chef Juan Manteca , who walked us through the history of ramen (interestingly they came into Japanese cuisine from China) and gave us some insight into how they make the noodles, and the different types of ramen dish.
You can use a couple of different types of broth for the base, including vegetarian options, but the usual is to use a broth made from pork, in particular the bones, which are pretty hard to come across here in Ireland. While you can make your own and make your butcher go to an awful lot of trouble to locate them, another option is to pick up some pre-made broth from a supermarket that will make your life easier. The pork broth is known as Tonkotsu, while you can also choose Shio (chicken), Shoyu (chicken with soya) and Miso.
The great thing is, when it comes to ingredients in ramen, similar to the stock, it’s really up to you. You can choose beef or fish, add spices and vegetables, go for chili, add some fresh coriander, the list is pretty long, but it’s whatever flavous you think might work. On the day, JOE went for salmon, so here’s our recipe:
- 1 salmon fillet
- 2 ladles of tonkotsu broth
- 200g fresh noodles
- 1/2 chili
- handful freshly chopped coriander
- half a chili
- 1 boiled tea-stained egg
- wedge of lime
- pinch of dashi (dried tuna/bonito flakes)
Start off by putting your salmon fillet on the grill, add a small bit of cracked black pepper if you think it needs it. Cook the noodles for two minutes, or until they change colour. You don’t want them to turn into a noodley mush, seeing as they’re going into a broth anyway. Pour your broth into the bowl and add a pinch of dashi, but beware, these are seriously powerful and don’t need much to achieve the desired flavour.
Once the salmon is done, place it in the bowl too. You can add fish cakes for extra effect if you like, and they bring a bit of vibrancy to the dish.
At that point, you can start adding your other ingredients, so chop up the chili and coriander, placing it on top of the fish of the noodles, add in your tea stained egg (that bit’s optional, you can achieve almost the same flavour with a hard boiled egg) and top it all off with your wedge of lime.
Of course, that’s just JOE’s recipe which we put together with the help of chef Juan, and you can choose whatever you want. Our dish came second in the blind taste test (we’re quite proud of that, of course) but we lost out to one with smoked eel, which was absolutely delicious, so that’s well worth a try as are other options like chicken, beef and other types of fish.
Ramen isn’t terrible for you either, and we all know that eating healthy can be laborious at times; all that chicken and broccoli can really get tasteless and lack flavour. Ramen is a great way to add variation with fish, maybe beef, go veggie and put in some tofu, give yourself some chili to kick your metabolism into gear, and generally get some great flavours going. The key thing is that what you use isn’t processed, and you’re adding natural, healthy ingredients to it.
If you don’t fancy going to all that trouble, or you think a pro can do a better job in the kitchen, then head along to Wagamama to check out their ramen, and who knows, you might even get some inspiration from their menu. Thye’ve also just started a range of bento boxes that are available 12-3pm Mon-Fri for a quick meal at lunchtime that’s full of flavour.
Now, we’re off to master that yasai katsu curry, if you’ll excuse us.
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