Ramen or Something Like It

For lunch today my boyfriend, Peter, and I took a trip to the grocery store to find something to eat. We came home with the ingredients to make an easy version of one of Peter's favorite meals: ramen.

Traditionally, ramen is made with pork broth but the store we went to didn't have any so we made do with chicken broth. If you're making it at home you can use whatever broth you want. This dish is also very easy to make into a vegetarian meal by using vegetable broth. I only eat fish and chicken so it worked out well for me to use chicken broth!

I started by making a dashi with 1 cup of broth, 1 cup of soy sauce, 5 cloves of minced garlic, the white parts of two green onions sliced, and 1/2 tsp of crushed red pepper. If you want to make it more or less spicy, you can add as much or as little crushed red pepper as you want. 

I browned the pork loin while the dashi was reducing. 

After letting the dashi reduce by half, I braised the pork loin for about 10 minutes. 

I added the remaining dashi to the rest of the chicken broth, 4 cups of water, and 1 tbsp of sweet soy sauce. If you don't want to use sweet soy sauce or can't find it you can omit it or substitute with sugar. Cook the soup for about 20 minutes, tasting and adding seasoning or more water if you need to.

While the soup is cooking boil 2-4 hardboiled eggs. I didn't want any so Peter made 2 for himself.

We couldn't find any ramen noodles so we bought yakisoba and udon noodles. I really like udon noodles, but Peter wanted egg noodles so he chose the yakisoba. Ramen noodles would have been the best option for this recipe, but we both agreed that the udon noodles were the next best choice. 

In the last 2 minutes of cooking the soup we cooked the noodles according to the directions on the package and added the eggs and the bamboo shoots to the soup and let it finish cooking.

My finished bowl of noodle soup.

Ramen soup is garnished with meats, veggies, and eggs. Ramen is usually served with pork belly, but we found pork loin on sale so that is what we used. Peter sliced his pork, green onions, and hardboiled eggs to top off his bowl of noodles.

Peter's finished bowl of noodle soup.

Ramen on a budget:

32 oz. chicken/beef/pork/vegetable broth
1 cup soy sauce
5 cloves of garlic, minced
about 4 green onions
1/2-1 tsp crushed red pepper
2-4 hardboiled eggs
pork loin or pork belly
4 cups water
1 Tbsp sweet soy sauce (optional)
bamboo shoots and/or bean sprouts
ramen noodles

Add 1 cup of broth, 1 cup of soy sauce, garlic, the white parts of 2 green onions, and crushed red pepper to a small saucepan and let reduce by half, about 15 minutes. This is your dashi. While the dashi is reducing brown the pork. When the dashi is reduced, add enough dashi to the pan with the pork to come up the pork about halfway. Cover with a lid and braise for 10 minutes, flipping once halfway through. After 10 minutes the dashi should be almost or completely reduced.
Add the remaining dashi from the saucepan to the rest of the chicken broth, 4 cups of water, and 1 Tbsp sweet soy sauce. Let it simmer for about 20 minutes, tasting and adding seasoning or more water if you need to. Add the hardboiled eggs and bamboo shoots in during the last 2 minutes of cooking. If using bean sprouts you can add them now or into your bowl depending on if you like them soft or crunchy. 
Cook your noodles according to the package then place them in your bowl. Top with soup and garnish with pork, eggs and veggies.
Makes about 3-4 servings.