Today's Noodle Monday is all about Ramen!!
History of ramen noodles
ra•men [RAH-mehn] [rä'mən]
1. Asian instant-style deep-fried noodles that are usually sold in cellophane packages, sometimes with bits of dehydrated vegetables and broth mix.
2. A Japanese dish of noodles in broth, often garnished with small pieces of meat and vegetables.
3. The Japanese version of the Chinese noodle soup dish called Lamian.
The origin of ramen : Noodles originated from China over 4000 years ago and reached the Japanese culture much later on. In fact, we had to wait up to 19th century, in the Meiji period, for ramen to become widely known in Japan. The Japanese dish was originally called “Lamen”, but will be later referred to as “Ramen”, since there is no distinction between the 'L' and 'R' sounds in the Japanese language and it was a more popular way to express the word.
After the Second World War came an intense food shortage in Japan, a turning point in the history of noodles. Ramen were perfect and greatly helped Japan, they were cheap and a great source of needed calories. A bit later, in 1958, Momofuku Ando, founder and chairman of Nissin Foods, invented the instant noodles, which are a lot closer to what we eat today. Named the greatest “made in Japan” invention of the 20th century, in front of the karaoke and headphone stereos, in a Japanese poll made by the The Fuji Research Institute Corporation, instant ramen became a Japanese cultural icon.
Today, 4000 years after the origin of the first noodles, ramen are known worldwide and are part of over 85 billions meals every year.
Lamian : La (Chinese) = Pulling and stretching.
Mian (Chinese) = Noodles.
Ramen : Men (Japanese) = All kind of noodles made of cereal flour.
and today's noodle recipe is an authentic Shoyu Ramen!!
Shoyu Ramen
Ingredients: (for 4 servings)
1kg chicken bones for 1.5 liter chicken soup, 1 white onion (leek), 30 grams ginger, 2 liters water, 4-5 tablespoons soy sauce, 3 tablespoons sake, 1/3 teaspoon salt, a little pepper and sesame oil, 4 balls of Chinese noodles, 8 pieces yakibuta (Chinese pork ham), 4 pieces naruto, 1/2 bunch spinach, 1/2 sheet nori, 1/2 green onion, a little shinachiku (Chinese flavored bamboo shoots)
Preparation:
Soup:
1. Clean chicken bone, remove fat and sinew, wash well. Then cut it into large butsugiri.
2. Boil water in pot, put bones in it. Boil bones until the color of the bone changes. Place bones on strainer to drain water.
3. Prepare a large deep pot with water (1.5 liter), leek, ginger and bones together. Start to boil on a high flame.
4. When it comes to a boil, skim the scum.
5. Continue heating for 1 hour with mid-low flame, while skimming the scum often.
6. Filter it on the bowl by strainer with thin cloth or kitchen towel on top.
Toppings:
1. Wash spinach, place it in a pot of boiling water from stem, then boil. Cut spinach into 5cm length.
2. Cut nori into quarter sizes.
3. Slice green onion into thin koguchigiri (thin slice), soak in water, then dry with cloth or paper towel.
How to make:
1. Heat up soup stock, add soy sauce, sake, salt, pepper and sesame oil.
2. Boil water in a large pot, boil noodles.
3. Set serving bowls warm, pour soup, put noodles.
4. Add yakibuta, naruto, spinach, shinachiku and nori on top.
5. Shake pepper and garnish with green onion as desired.
This most common way to make Shoyu Ramen. To make it much easier use ready made soup sock. If yakibuta is not available, make it as follows:
Set 600 grams of pork block tied with cotton string in tsukejiru soup for a while. Tsukejiru (1 teaspoon grated ginger, 3 tablespoons of each sugar, soy sauce and sake, a little pepper). Put oil in a Chinese frying pan, fry the block of meat until it browned, add rest of tsukejiru in to pan and heat with low flame until it cooked well, while pouring liquid over the block of meat. Oven can be used with tsukejiru to make block of meat to shine.
With that I will wrap things up for today! I will be back tomorrow with a couple more book reviews! Have a great day and until next time...TATA!!
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