Ramen: What It Is and How to Make It Yourself

Eating ramen opens up a wide and plethoric world of tastily rich, complex bowls of goodness!

But what exactly is ramen? Essentially, ramen is a Japanese noodle soup dish, with Chinese-style egg or wheat noodles that are served in a very rich broth that is then cooked with sliced pork, fresh scallions, and on occasion, a slightly-more-than-soft-boiled egg.

Not to be confused with the Vietnamese pho dish - a lighter broth, rice noodles, and beef as opposed to pork, ramen gives you variations that are endless.

Ramen restaurants will generally all classify their bowls in terms of flavouring; the sauce that's added to the master broth. Four of the main examples are as follows:

· Tonkatsu: This refers to the pork bone-based broth, steeped with aromatics and slightly thickened. Often regarded as the best introduction to the world of ramen for beginners.

· Shoyu, or soy sauce: Added to more intense. (You can buy Japanese shoyu here)

· Spicy ramen (shio, or salt): a lighter style that highlights the broth itself.

· Miso: The fermented soy bean paste, often used in vegetarian-style ramen for more umami.

Now that we have your taste buds tingling, why not try making some ramen for yourself, at home?

How to make a healthy ramen from scratch

The recipe we have here for you to follow will teach you how to cook true ramen from scratch. This recipe will involve you making slightly more effort than with the less authentic version, but it’s most certainly worth doing right and you will reap the rewards when it comes time to eat!

Ingredients

Serves 6

· 400g all-purpose flour

· 100g warm tap water

· 100g cold tap water

· 100g baking soda

Method

1. Spread half a cup of baking soda on a foil-lined sheet pan. Place this in a 120 Celsius oven for approximately one hour.
2. Next, you need to pour the warm water in a large mixing bowl. Dissolve four teaspoons of the baking soda in it, then add in the cold water. Follow this up by adding the flour, stirring and mixing as you go, to form a crumbly mixture. The aim is not to have a perfectly nice dough here.
3. Place the crumbly dough onto a flat work surface and knead it together, ensuring you work the dough over for a minimum of five minutes.
4. Wrap the dough in plastic and leave it rest at room temperature for 20 minutes.
5. Knead again for a further five minutes. (We promise, it really is worth it!) Rewrap the dough and place it in the fridge for a minimum of 60 minutes.
6. Once removed from the fridge, you can then divide the dough up into portions. Roll each portion out using a pasta machine. Progress through the thickness settings one by one. The final thickness of the noodles is ultimately your choice, and likewise with the width. The shape can also be decided by you when you are cutting them. It’s worth remembering to keep the noodles well- floured, to prevent them from sticking.
7. Cook the noodles in a deep pot with plenty of water. Noodles cut on the thinnest setting will only need two and a half to three minutes to cook. Check the noodles regularly while they’re cooking and should they begin to stick together, rinse them under cold water straight away once you have strained them from the pot; this will prevent them cooking any further and will also rinse off any excess starch.

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Now you are ready to get to the broth and meat, which we will show you how to make in the recipe in the next blog post: found here