Background: Most of my life, I’ve been a poor graduate student or underpaid staffer at a university. Ramen was never a staple for me because I didn’t like the flavor packets that came with the noodles. It wasn’t until high-quality ramen shops came to my town in the early to mid aughts that I realized that ramen wasn’t just freeze dried noodles and packets loaded with sodium and trace amounts of dried vegetables. High quality tonkotsu ramen is difficult and time-consuming to make, and I respect a good bowl of ramen. This is not that and it is why I don’t call it “ramen.” This is “I have three minutes to get dinner on the table and it’s the end of the month” soup made with ramen noodles. I stash the flavor packets away in the event of an apocalypse, like ya do, and I do these moves instead for the broth:
- Get some good quality ramen noodles. I use organic, vegan, non-GMO noodles. The noodles themselves only have sea salt and organic wheat flour.
- Get an white onion, a bunch of garlic cloves (raw are fine), a thumb of ginger, two giant handfuls of green onions or Wild Onions, and some mushrooms. Reserve the green tops of the onions and chop everything else as rough or fine as you want.
- Keep Vegetable Stock or Slower-But-Still-Quick Chicken Stock on hand.
- If you did, in fact, freeze the trim from your Pork Tenderloin in Soy Sauce, add it to the stock and bring to a boil. If you did not freeze the trim, consider trimming, cooking, and serving a Pork Tenderloin in Soy Sauce along with these moves. Throw the trim in the stock as you go.
- Start a tea kettle of water boiling and bring a small amount of water to a boil in a pan that fits the amount of ramen you are making. Add the tea kettle water to the boiling water in the pot. Repeat the tea kettle process until you have enough boiling water to just barely cover the noodles.
- Add the noodles to the water.
- Cook the noodles until they are just tender enough to gather together in a spider strainer.
- Strain the broth into a pitcher for serving.
- Put the broth and noodles on the table with any or all the following condiments: chopped green onion tops, All Purpose Crunchy Vegan Topping (with mod no. 1), miso, soft boiled eggs, soy sauce, toasted sesame seeds, Dry Slaw (with mod no. 3), and something spicy like fresh peppers, toasted chilies, or your favorite chili sauce.
Why It Works
- These work fine. Better might be high-quality packaged “fresh noodles” if you can find them.
- Really, any combination of alliums and ginger will be fine. Work with what you’ve got, and tailor what you have on hand over time depending on what you like and what’s available.
- Pork stock would work even better, if you have it. If I’m being honest, most of my stock is a combination of whatever meat and bones I’ve been saving from the past few weeks.
- You could go a step further if you have frozen trim or ground pork and make meatballs and throw them in the stock to cook.
- I’m still convinced this method boils water faster and I still haven’t done a scientific test to determine the truth.
- Set a timer for two minutes.
- This is going to go fast.
- This is so you can easily pour the amount you want over your noodles.
- Also, this is just the beginnings of suggestions using things that I tend to have on hand. You know what you like in ramen.
Mods:
- Save real leftover tonkotsu ramen broth in the freezer when you order takeout ramen. You can use it in this move to stretch the flavor and use up your stock.
- Serve with shredded baby bok choy, nappa cabbage, and arugula.
- Serve with a runny fried egg on top instead of soft boiled eggs.