Food 2021-07-12

How To Make Amazing and Easy Homemade Ramen

Most of the recipes for ramen I saw on the internet were very complex, some even had an ingredient that you cannot find easily in your local supermarket.

Ramen Photo by JAN N G U Y E N 🍁 from Pexels

Hello there, if you are crazy about Japanese culture like me, I am sure you have heard about ramen. It is one of the most popular food in Japanese culture. As someone who watches anime a lot, I see in a lot of anime so I decided to check out how to make ramen.

Most of the recipes for ramen I saw on the internet were very complex, some even had an ingredient that you cannot find easily in your local supermarket. But then after months and months of research. I stumbled on a recipe that has a recipe in which the ingredient that it contained can be easily found in your local supermarket.

Before we get into the recipe that I found, let’s talk a little about the type of ramen. There are different types of ramen, these ramens differ mainly in the type of broth used and the toppings. So, I will give a little explanation of the different ramen we have.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF RAMEN

SHOYU RAMEN: this is the most familiar type of ramen; the broth is made mainly from soy sauce which is usually a clear and brown color. The noodles used in shoyu ramen are usually the springy curly type. The broth is usually made from the addition of ingredients such as soy sauce, chili bean paste, sesame oil, chicken stock, sake, and aromatics.

SHIO RAMEN: shio ramen is a type of ramen whose broth gets its flavor and salinity from salt rather than miso or soy sauce. The broth is made from chicken or fish stock, dashi, and the flavor is added by salt, lemon, and kombu

MISO RAMEN: miso ramen is a type of ramen whose broth is made from fermented soybeans sauce. The miso broth is thicker and are contains more umami than shio and shoyu broth. The miso broth is cloudy and complex and can be in red or white color. The five key ingredients used in creating the miso broth are chili bean sauce sesame seeds and sesame oil, homemade or store-bought chicken broth, white pepper powder, and miso.

TONKATSU RAMEN: this type of ramen takes a long to make, making a Tonkotsu ramen takes time and effort. It takes about 12-18 hours to make the broth of Tonkotsu ramen. The broth is cloudy brown and the ingredients that are used to make the broth are pork, egg, tare, and noodles.

HOW TO MAKE HOME-MADE RAMEN WITH INGREDIENT THAT CAN BE FOUND IN YOUR LOCAL SUPERMARKET

Now let us get to the real reason why this article was written. I will give you a homemade recipe I got from the internet, it is super easy to do and does not take more than an hour to complete. All you need to do is just follow the instruction to the latter and you should be fine. The recipe also contains ingredients that you can easily get at your local supermarket at the international section or an oriental store.

Recipe (Easy Homemade Ramen).

The ingredients that you will need are:

  • Instant Ramen (discard the flavor packets)
  • Sesame oil
  • Olive oil (or avocado oil)
  • Garlic
  • Fresh ginger
  • Shredded carrots
  • Shiitake mushrooms (optional)
  • Chicken or vegetable broth
  • Rice vinegar
  • Low sodium soy sauce
  • Sriracha or hot chili garlic sauce, like Sambal Oelek
  • Scallions
  • Sesame seeds
  • Soft-boiled egg

PROCEDURE (STEP BY STEP)

  1. Pour sesame oil and olive oil into a saucepan over moderate heat.
  2. Add garlic and ginger, and let them simmer in the saucepan until fragrant, for about 2-3 minutes. Do not brown the garlic, or else you will get a bitter flavor. Then add carrots and mushrooms if you choose to use them, let them simmer until they soften, for about a minute; stir the mixture frequently.
  3. move the broth to the pot, then add rice vinegar, soy sauce, and Sriracha sauce to it. Stir the mixture very well to combine and bring the broth to a simmer; let it go for about five minutes. Taste, and adjust the heat and flavor to your liking by adding more Sriracha and soy sauce if needed.
  4. Carefully place the Ramen noodles into the pot of simmering broth and allow it to cook for approx. 2-3 minutes until it is cooked and tender. (You could also cook the Ramen noodles separately, then place them into a bowl and spoon the broth over the noodles. I’ve found this method works better since first creating this recipe—it’s much easier to portion out the noodles.)
  5. Carefully transfer the soup and noodles to bowls, and allow them to cool. In the meantime, make your soft-boiled egg. Bring water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add the egg, and let it boil for five minutes. Prepare an ice bath in a bowl. Once five minutes are up, remove the egg and place it into the ice bath for about a minute to cool off—enough for you to be able to peel and handle the egg. Then, lightly crack and roll them on a flat surface, peel, slice in half, and place them on top of your Ramen.
  6. Garnish with your toppings of choice like Soft-boiled egg with a jammy yolk, Narutomaki (fish cakes; you’ve likely seen them. If you have ever watched the anime Naruto, They’re the thinly-sliced rounds with pink spirals in the middle you see in Naruto’s ramen), Enoki mushrooms, Nori (dried seaweed). Etc. most of the toppings can be found in an Asian supermarket.

Conclusion

We all know that ramen is one of the most popular Japanese food. Most times the ingredient for ramen is not available in our local supermarket, but as the food gets more popular the ingredients will also get easier to find. Making a standard ramen takes time and skill, which most of us don’t have. But with this recipe I have shown you, I hope you will be able to have a little taste of japan even without leaving our house.