Homemade Ramen

 

In my family, no one can say no to ramen.  Well, we're a japanese household anyway.  But this is definitely one of our family's favourites. 

Every part of ramen is time consuming and special in its' own ways.  First off, the soup.  It is a whole day task.  I usually combined chicken bones and pork bones to make the broth.  This a slow process since it must be simmered for at least 3 to 5 hours for good broth.  The beginning part of the process is the most tedious. This is another of those time, where I pull a chair and my trusty lap top where I slowly skimmed out the "aku" (the white scums that floats to the top as the soup simmer in the beginning part of the process) while watching K-drama.  Once, the soup stop producing "aku" I will let it simmer without care for the next few hours with the lid on.

Then, there's the charsiu (roast pork).  There are many types of charsiu which can be used for ramen.  But I like the roasted version.  There is another version which stewed the rolled up pork belly tied in strings in a good amount of marinade.  But I think this way a soy sauce consuming effort.  Besides, I like roasted meat.

After marinating the chunk of pork (I do not use port belly, but pork shoulder or the butt for a little mixture of fat), I just dump into the broiler for 45 min (depending on the size) and turning it half way through.  I find this way simple and tasty.

The noodles, I often just use packet ramen noodles.  But I have tried to make hand-pulled noodles for my ramen, which turned out good, but the effort was time consuming.  I would have like to make ramen noodles, but it was hard to get lyme water which is a critical ingredients for ramen noodles.  Plus I don't have noodle machine to make the thin or curly shape.

One all three (skipped the noodle making), my ramen can be plate-up (I mean bowl-up).  This of course is at least at 3 day process.  One day for prepping the charsiu meat (marinade at least a whole day before roasting).  On second day, prep for soup.  And at the same time, I can roast the charsiu.  Once these two are done either I can have my ramen that night, or the following day.

Happy slurping!!!