Full Ramen

Serves: 4-6
Time: all day
Source: Serious Eats, Ivan Ramen

To make vegetarian, exclude chashu and use chashu liquid only for eggs. 

• Ingredients
• 1kg pork belly
• 6 leaves napa cabbage
• 30g dried porcini mushrooms
• 160g shiitake mushrooms (and 15g dried?)
• Button mushrooms for roasting
• 1 leek
• 2 x spring onion bunch (Need 18 - to serve, broth, flavoured oil)
• 2 x sweet potatoes
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Onion
• 2 apples
• 2 x Sweetcorn on cob
• 1 x red onion
• Small red cabbage
• Little sake, or white wine
• 50ml mirin
• Soy sauce
• Cider vinegar
• Eggs
• (opt) Menma
• Ramen noodles
• 6 inch kombu
• White or yellow miso paste
• Sesame paste (or tahini)
• veg oil

• Pork Belly Chashu (Allow 100g per bowl, 1kg for leftovers)
• Note: Rolling tying the pork will keep the pork moist, but requires more liquid to submerge. Can oven cook here but try saucepan, snug fit untied
• Up to 1kg deboned pork belly, skin on
• 50 ml sake (or half water, white wine)
• 50 ml mirin
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 15g sugar
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled, rough chop
• 2 inch ginger, peeled, rough chop
• Choose a saucepan that will fit one/two layers pork belly, not precious
• Add all ingredients, bring to the boil and dissolve sugar
• Add pork, fat down, liquid covers the meat (or turn the pork during cooking, and update the recipe to increase liquid)
• Gentle simmer for 2.5 to 4 hours, until pork fully tender, thin knife meets no resistance
• Cool, refrigerate in sealed container (much easier to slice)
• Retain broth for adding to the broth, cooking the eggs, reheating the pork. 

• Broth
• 1 onion, skin on, halved
• 2 heads garlic
• 4 inch ginger, 1/2 inch slices
• 2 sweet potatoes, peeled, chunked
• 160g shiitake mushrooms, wash (swap some button in, keep some shiitake for roasting)
• 15g dried shiitake
• 15g dried porcini
• 1 leek, chunked
• 6 leaves napa cabbage
• 6 spring onions
• 6 inch square kombu
• Oven to highest
• Prep onion, garlic, ginger
• Coat onion, garlic, ginger in a little oil, roast to char (Should be broiler - fry to char?)
• Prep remaining veg
• Oven down to 200C, roast sweet potato in a little oil
• In large stockpot, onions, ginger, garlic, kombu, 15g dried porcini, dried shiitake, shiitake, cabbage, leek, 6 spring onions
• Cover with water, 1 inch, bring to boil, bare simmer, lid on, cook 1.5 hours
• When broth ready, strain broth into a clean pot.
• Cut top off garlic heads, squeeze out garlic. Add to 1/2 cup roasted sweet potato and into blender
• Add one cup stock into blender then gradual blend to high, 1 minute
• Whisk mixture into broth and taste

• Flavoured Oil
• 6 spring onions
• 15g dried porcini
• (opt) 15g dried shiitake
• 1/2 cup veg oil
• In 1/2 cup veg oil, add ingredients medium heat until veg releasing steady stream bubbles. Remove from heat, set aside covered

• Soft Boiled Eggs (1 per bowl)
• 6 medium eggs
• Water to boil in saucepan high heat
• Pierce fat end of each egg with a drawing pin, timer - exactly 6 mins
• Carefully eggs into water
• Prepare ice bath
• Cooked eggs into ice bath, stir
• Roll eggshells on tabletop, peel
• Eggs in a bowl that barely fits, add cold chashu liquid to cover
• Press double layer paper towels on top, press down, keep eggs submerged
• Marinate for 4 to 12 hours

• Sofrito (230g)
• 110g apple, peeled
• 400g onion
• 50g garlic
• 22g ginger, peeled
• 300ml veg oil (note - this seems too much, try less)
• Cut down then blitz apples and onion, small dice, not mush
• Add to oil in saucepan and cook low heat
• Dice garlic and ginger very finely
• When apple/onion halfway to caramelise, add garlic and ginger, then cook to uniformly light brown colour, soft creamy consistency, no burning

• Tare (200 ml)
• 112ml boiling water
• 16g sea salt (3 or 4 varieties)
• 90g sofrito
• Salt in bowl, dissolve in water, stir
• Mix in sofrito
• Crumble in katsuobushi (shaved dried bonito flakes)

• Sweetcorn (2 x 2cm slice per bowl)
• Boil 10m
• Leave to cool a little, slice sharp knife

• Pickled Red Onion and Cabbage
• 1 red onion
• Same amount (red) cabbage 
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 tbsp sugar
• Cider vinegar
• Slice onion and cabbage very thinly
• All ingredients in minimal liquid to cover (half water/vinegar)
• Boil then turn off heat, refrigerate overnight

• 1-2 days before
• Pickled red onion and cabbage
• (opt) Pork Belly Chashu (this can be done on the day, but easier here)
• Flavoured oil from the broth section (can be on day, tastier here)
• On the day
• Broth
• Eggs (needs 4 hours after cooking)
• Sofrito
• Tare
• Sweetcorn
• (opt) Menma
• Prep (1 hr out)
• Everything out the fridge
• Eggs out, add liquid to the broth, to taste
• Slice chashu, and blowtorch
• 6 spring onions chop
• Mince 3 cloves garlic

• Serve
• Bowls, chopsticks, spoons, soy sauce, sea salt, kitchen roll
• Pre warm bowls
• Light reheat sweet potato and roasted mushrooms in oven
• Simmer water for noodles
• Add to each bowl:
• 1 tbsp flavoured oil
• 1.5 tbsp tare (too salty?)
• 1 tsp miso
• 1 tsp sesame paste
• Minced garlic
• Cook noodles until separated. Drain, add to bowl
• Broth
• Half the eggs, add both halves
• Pork belly chashu
• Sweetcorn
• Sweet potato
• Pickled onion/cabbage
• Spring onions