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Lockdown Cooking - can you make tonkotsu ramen at home?

2021.05.31

Like many people, I really love ramen. I have visited lots of restaurants from Kyushu to Hokkaido and tried many kinds of soup. I even have an application on my phone that shows me where all the best shops are. Therefore, when were told by the government to avoid crowded places because of the pandemic, I started to panic. I began to wonder if I could make delicious ramen at home.

 

I like cooking. It’s a fun hobby, a great stress relief, and I usually cook for my family when I can. However, I believed making a proper tonkotsu soup at home was the only possible in restaurants, in steaming kitchens where busy chefs understood the magic of the bubbling broth. However, after doing a little research, I found there are lots of people who love ramen and many of them live in countries where it isn’t easy to buy it in restaurants. There are plenty of recipes available in different languages, some by Japanese people and some by international ramen lovers. I also found videos showing the technique of making the broth, the tare, the noodles, and the toppings. It took time, but I learned a lot. Once I felt confident, I combined some recipes and began shopping.

 

What kind of ramen would you try to make first? I like several styles, but there was no question for me. I wanted a thick, tonkotsu broth with the background flavor of seafood – a kotteri gyokai tonkotsu, if you want to be precise. Finding the ingredients was not difficult. There are many places that sell pork bones online, but I could find a butcher in a local shop with everything I needed. My family was surprised to see me come home with five kilograms of pork bones and feet, but I was quite excited. I made chashu that evening, a rolled-up pork belly cooked very slowly in soy sauce, mirin, sake, water, and a little sugar. I put my soft boiled eggs in some of the extra sauce to give them flavour. I cleared up and put everything in the fridge. The next morning, I began the main task! Making a simple tonkotsu soup is not so difficult, but it takes a very long time and your whole neighbourhood will smell like a ramen shop. After preparing the bones, my soup boiled for about 11 hours in a large pot, although I was free for most of that time. For the first few hours, I regularly added water. Later, I let it reduce to concentrate the flavor. From five kg of bones and ten litres of water, I ended up with three litres of very thick white soup. To serve it, I started with a gyokai tare of dashi, sardines, soy, mirin and bonito flakes. Then I added the soup, hot noodles and finally my toppings of chashu, egg, bamboo shoots, nori, and green onion. It was a long job, but it tasted like a real ramen from a popular shop. My family and I were delighted.

 

Making proper ramen at home is fun for those who like to cook, but it takes some time and effort. If you want to try, I would recommend you first read some online information boards and watch videos about the technique. Personally, I think making effort makes the achievement more enjoyable, so it is something I would definitely recommend. As for me, my wife recently bought me a book of ramen recipes as a present. My life as an amateur ramen cook may be just beginning.

 

 

 

 

Blog Quiz

1. Why did the author decide to cook ramen at home?

2. Why was the author's family surprised?

3. What does the author believe about making effort?

 

 

 

Scroll down ↓ for the answers to the quiz.

 

 







 

 

 

 

 

 






 

 

Quiz Answers

A1. Because the government recommended people avoid crowded places

A2. Because he came home with a lot of pork bones and feet.

A3. It makes the achievement more enjoyable

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