Japanese Ramen Soup – the Hot New Chick on the Block!

Ramen
Ramen- the new soup from Japan

Do you feel weak? Then eat ramen! Ramen is pure energy!

My favorite netflix series totally took me by surprise when they reported about Ivan Orkin. He opened a Ramen restaurant in Tokia as an American and later one in New York.

I hadn`t heard of ramen yet. My mouth was watering. I had to try this soup!

The next day, I went to the Japanese restaurant Takumi in Munich and ordered my first ramen soup. My expectations were succeeded.

I exploded with energy. Culinary magic! The flavor is unique.

The chef told me that chicken as well as pork is cooked for about 4-5 hours.

I immediately ordered the ramen cookbook by Ivan Orkin, which was somewhat disheartening because some of the ingredients are very hard to prepare or not available.

That`s why I decided to make a Bavarian version of the ramen soup. I replaced the pork with beef because pork doesn`t smell very good while it`s cooking.

Follow me into my culinary lab and remember to look shiny while cooking!

Here are the ingredients for this wonderful dish:

For 4 poeple you need:

  • about 2kg of boiling meat, chicken and beef. I went for 3 large chicken thighs and a large beef shank.
  • 1 large onion
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 3 l of water
  • some butter or olive oil for frying

later you add:

  • 3 tbsp Mirin (Japanese rice wine, which is slightly sweet), oder 3 tbls white wine and 1 tbsp honey
  • 2 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 4 tbsp soy sauce
  • 3-4 dash of Tabasco
  • about 1 cm ginger root
  • 2 carrots
  • Fresh spinach
  • 4 tbsp mung bean sprouts
  • a 3cm long piece of celery
  • 250 g ramen noodles
  • 4 eggs

For additional seasoning to taste:

  • Tabasco
  • soy sauce
  • sweet and hot chili sauce
  • hot chili sauce

Finely chop the onion and sear it in butter or oil with the beef. Add the water and the garlic and cook for about 1h. Then add the chicken, it doesn`t take as  long as the beef to get done. Boil everything together for another 2-3 hrs.

Boil the noodles separately as well as the soinach, which is shortly poached. Hardboil the eggs separately.

Sample the broth and season to taste.Pour the broth into the soup plates  through a strainer. Add the noodles, the egg halves, the spinach, a slice of the shank and the bean sprouts on top.

Enjoy and good luck!

Yours truly,

Christina