My Miso Ramen Recipe

Dear Japan, I'm sorry! Here's how I make Miso Ramen.

Broth (base)

I'm usually cooking a vegetable broth from what's laying around. So roughly cut vegetables like leek, onions, carrots, garlic, parsley root, celery etc. pp. Fry briefly, deglaze and broadly cover with water. Add ginger, a few spoons of soy sauce and sesame oil. Cook for three to four hours or more..

Pour everything through a sieve.

I started to cook two pots (2x 5 litres) of broth when I'm at it and freeze a few litres for later. I'm planning to buy a 10 litres pot to save energy.

Tare sauce

"Tare" is a thick sauce from various ingredients. Refrigerated it can be stored for weeks or even months, and it's easy to have a few small jars with various tare sauces "in stock" so one can make different Ramen soups from a base broth (that can also kept frozen) and a few teaspoons tare of choice.

I'm using things like light or dark miso paste, soy sauce, forest honey, freshly crushed garlic, stewed onions and the like. Just put everything in a marmalade jar and stir into a fine puree.

Meat or tofu (topping)

Lots of options here. I usually sear rolled pork belly (Chashu) or chicken breasts, then cover it with about 50% water, 30% sake and 20% soy sauce. Add spring onions, sesame seeds, ginger, suger, a bit rice vinegar. Cook for three to four hours or more..

Tofu is next to experiment with.

Ramen eggs (topping)

Cook eggs for exactly seven minutes and scare them in ice water. After they cooled down, peel the eggs and put them in a storage jar. Cover them with 50/50 water & soy sauce. Let them steep for an hour minimum - the longer the better (one or two days are fine).

Mushrooms (topping)

Enoki and Mu Err are my favourites. When dried, soak mushrooms for at least 15 min., then cook them in fresh water.

More toppings

Try spring onions, red onions (sliced very thinly), various sprouts, corn, sesame seeds, ..

Noodles

Cook the damn noodles. Don't cook them too long. Try different sorts, they're making a big difference.

Serve up

Put 2-3 teaspones of tare and a portion of broth in a bowl, stir it togehter. Add a portition of noodles. Arrange toppings to your liking. Cut a marinaded egg in half, put it atop and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Pour over a little bit of sesame oil. May serve everything with a quarter nori sheet.