32 years of imagining, and then converting into one of my hobbies... I hope you'll enjoy it... (^.^)/ , by Marina

July 3, 2012

Tonkotsu Ramen #4: Toppings

The final step - Toppings! And your Ramen is ready to be enjoyed.
Based on your liking the topping can vary from the whole range of vegetables, cheese, eggs, nori, mushrooms and so on.
Even thou one could add many different ingredients, it is still important to keep track of the flavours, trying to stick with one or two dominant flavours, and arrange the rest to fit it.

In this case the dominant flavour is the meat. Second to it are the shitake mushrooms, the rest just completes the palette ;).

Tonkotsu Ramen #3: Meat

Among all the toppings in your Ramen, one is surely very important - the meat.
A bite of a tasty piece of meat can change the whole experience when eating Ramen. For this reason I prefer slow cooking my meat, allowing it to drink up all the juices and taste.

Professional chefs surely know how to accomplish it in an instant. I'm not such, so I rather go the old fashioned way :).

Tonkotsu Ramen #2: Noodles

This is the second step in making a great Ramen - homemade ramen noodles.

Very easy to make, this recipe gives you smooth, tasty, tender noodles. A much better option in comparison to the ones you buy in stores.

They can be used immediately, prepared a day ahead or even dried out for future use. Whichever suits you the best!

Tonkotsu Ramen #1: Soup Stock

This is the first step in making a great Tonkotsu Ramen (or Pork Bone Ramen) - the soup stock.
Taking up to 6h of your time, it is the base and thus non avoidable step. However, since the soup will be cooking for at least 5h while needing little attention, you can use those hours to prepare the other ingredients, or on the other hand.... just do whatever you wish to. (^.^)

It's Ramen time!!!

Mmmmm...Ramen dattebayo! Ever since I started watching Naruto I got intrigued by this dish, who wouldn't when that little clumsy ninja never says no to one. :) Well, can't blame him - a big pot full of soup and other delicious ingredients just can't be bad right? And it definitely is not! After trying it in Toronto I got the Naruto fever and decided to make my own :).

Now, this is not a quick recipe, it's the old fashioned make it from scratch - soup stock and all.
If you want to make it easier you can use dehydrated soup stocks (dashi) and ready to use noodles, but those will be taken into account in another post ;).
This one is a long, delicious, homemade ramen :) , soup base: pork.

(divided into a couple of posts to make it easier to read - let me know if you want me to combine them into one)