Cooking: Shoyu Ramen

Shoyu Ramen is my absolute favorite ramen. It has incredible depth of flavour without being too fatty. You can mix in lots of smokey fish flavours without overpowering the broth. The flavour of shoyu just seems to be the perfect balance for meaty stock. As a newcomer to cooking ramen, this is just the ideal first bowl to serve friends. You don't have to work as hard to find a balance where Tonkotsu, Shio or Miso can more easily overpower or underwhelm.

“As a newcomer to cooking ramen, this is just the ideal first bowl to serve friends. You don’t have to work as hard to find a balance where Tonkotsu, Shio or Miso can more easily overpower or underwhelm.”

Here is my recipe for right now…I am sure it will change in a few months.

Stock

  • This makes six bowls. I roughly use 400ml of broth per bowl with about 40ml tare.
  • Poor 3litres water into a stock pan. Bring to boil. Turn off heat. Submerge some kombu. Leave soaking in hot water for one hour.
  • Remove kombu.
  • Place whole chicken in roasting tin. Poor over kombu water. Cover in foil. Cook in oven for two hours.
  • Remove chicken meat and save for other dishes. Poor liquid in to stock pan with chicken carcass.
  • Add to stock pan one trotter (cut in half) and two chicken feet (if raw, bring to boil and discard water to rinse blood before adding to the stock pan).
  • Boil rigorously for six hours topping up water regularly.
  • Optional: you can add aromatics. I add less to concentrate the chicken flavour.
  • Strain liquid through cheese cloth pressing out every last drop!
  • Seasoning - I use a combination of ginger, white pepper, garlic salt, dried and ground katsuobushi flakes. I also have some dashi stock powder that I use if it needs a bit more body and a spicy pepper mix to add some kick. 

Tare

  • Combine 2 tablespoons dry sake, 1 tablespoon mirin, 1/2 cup shoyu, some juice from the chashu and a cup of dashi.
  • I go for 1 part tare to 10 parts broth for this recipe.

Eggs

  • Boil six eggs for 6 mins and 20 secs
  • Plunge in ice cold water
  • Peel shell
  • Marinade eggs in braising liquid left over from chashu
  • Leave for 6-8 hours depending on how intense you want the flavour
  • Alternate marinade is a combination of dashi, star anise and tea (preferably something smokey like Lapsing Souchong). A friend suggest including a smokey whiskey like Laphroag. Basically, experiment!
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Chashu

  • 2 pound slab of Pork belly (rind removed, rolled and tied)
  • Braising liquid: 1 Cup Sake, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 cup mirin, Garlic - 6 cloves, Shallot
  • 275F four hours
  • Personally, I don't use much if any sugar and go big on the sake.

Toppings

  • I like spring onions, beni shoga and corn.

Noodles

  • Right now I make do with dried ramen noodles from a local Japanese supermarket in SF called Nijiya Market. Fresh would be so much better - either finding a supplier or making myself. One day...

Improvements

Definitely, presentation! In general, I put less focus on the toppings. We added seaweed the next day it was nice. You could turn the kombu into a spicy seaweed mix and add as a topping.

Tom Case