Sunday, January 31, 2016

Pork Ramen

Depending on where you live there may be ramen restaurants popping up all over town.  In Omaha, we have just two but that doesn't stop the city from being crazy about ramen.  Last summer there was a ramen festival, I can't remember the exact numbers but over 10,000 people attended.  It's funny, ramen reminds most of us of the ramen of our college days.  Those noodles are the base for ramen dishes today.

When I looked on Wiki for a definition of ramen, here's what I found
Ramen (/ˈrɑːmən/) (ラーメン rāmen?, IPA: [ɽäꜜːmeɴ]) is a Japanese noodle soup dish. It consists of Chinese-style wheat noodles served in a meat- or (occasionally) fish-based broth, often flavored with soy sauce or miso, and uses toppings such as sliced pork (チャーシュー chāshū?), dried seaweed (海苔 nori?), menma (メンマ menma?), and green onions ( negi?). Nearly every region in Japan has its own variation of ramen, from the tonkotsu (pork bone broth) ramen of Kyushu to the miso ramen of Hokkaido

The soft boiled eggs are missing from this recipe.  Tim doesn't care for them, I attempted to soft boil one for my ramen.  The result ... fail, the egg wouldn't peel and hadn't reached the soft boil stage.  Despite this, the dish was delicious and quite filling.  My ramen didn't follow the above definition exactly but we both really enjoyed it for a weeknight dinner.


Spicy Pulled Pork Ramen

Ingredients:

10 to 12 ounces pulled pork shoulder (I used leftovers)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
12 ounces shitake mushrooms
2 garlic cloves, minced
5 cups low-sodium chicken stock (or veg stock, or even beef stock!)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
2 blocks dried ramen noodles, seasoning packets removed
4 scallions, sliced
1 seedless cucumber, thinly sliced
2 (or 4) eggs, soft boiled or poached
2 tablespoons chili garlic paste
2 teaspoons black sesame seeds
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

Directions:

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add the butter. Once melted, add the mushrooms and garlic and toss. Cook until the mushrooms are soft and juicy, about 5 minutes. Set aside.
While the mushrooms are cooking, bring the stock to a simmer. Stir in the soy sauce and hoisin sauce. Cook your eggs too! I like to soft boil mine - but poaching is good too.
Place the ramen blocks in two large bowls. Add the pork, scallions and a few cucumber slices to each bowl. Pour the stock over both blocks evenly and let sit for 2 to 3 minutes before stirring. Add mushrooms to each bowl and stir in a few more cucumber slices. At this point you could separate into two more bowls if you want 4 servings. Stir in the chili garlic paste (I do about a tablespoon per bowl for SPICY!) and add your egg and nori sheets. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and drizzle with toasted sesame oil. Serve immediately.

4 comments:

  1. I love a good ramen. I don't think where I live we have any ramen restaurants. I know we have a couple of pho restaurants.

    Yours looks really good!

    Velva

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  2. Sounds like a very flavorful meal:@)

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  3. I do love ramen and would rather make my own than get it from a restaurant too. Everything sounds delicious in this recipe! The soft boiled egg would be the 'frosting on the cake' for me :)

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  4. Looks excellent - and sounds like ramen is a huge hit in Omaha!

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