Ramen, which originated in China, has become a popular Japanese dish. This dish is so comforting, flavourful, and delicious that most individuals rely on packaged instant ramen. Whenever visiting a Japanese eatery, people mostly order authentic ramen. Though ramen is available at Japanese eateries and supermarkets selling instant ramen, most food enthusiasts crave homemade ramen. Are you also among those who crave homemade ramen? If you say yes, this will be the most engaging blog post. Making homemade ramen is adventurous and rewarding. However, it is time-consuming and tiring, requiring precision, culinary skills, and concentration. So, are you prepared to experience this rewarding culinary adventure?

The Making of Ramen

Before starting with the recipe, let us unleash the four key ingredients that will make your dish a showstopper:

• Chashu (pork belly)
• Tare and dashi
• Nitamago (marinated eggs)

Note: Do not skip these ingredients if you aspire to treat yourself with the best ramen.

Ingredients

Yields up to four servings

For Chicken Stock

• 16 dried shiitake mushrooms
• 20 grams of dried bonito flakes
• 30 grams kombu
• 8 cups chicken broth

For Chashu and Tare (Pork and marinade)

• 1 lb pork belly
• ¼ cup sugar
• ½ cup sake
• 1¼ cup mirin
• 1¼ cup soy sauce
• 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
• 3 green onions
• 2 Inches ginger
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1½ cups water

For Marinated Eggs (Nitamago)

• 4 large eggs (Chilled)
• 2½ cups tare-chashu liquid

For Chilli Oil

• 2 teaspoons sesame seeds
• 1 Tablespoon ground chilli (You may also use 1½ Tablespoon red pepper flakes instead of ground chilli)
• ½ cup canola oil
• 8 garlic cloves

For Each Serving

• 1 green onion
• 1 marinated egg (halved)
• 2 chashu slices
• 2 shiitake mushrooms
• 2 teaspoons la-yu
• 3 Tablespoon tare
• 4 oz ramen noodles
• 1½ cups chicken dashi
• Nori (Optional)

Directions to Make Ramen

Let us begin by making dashi as our first step.

• Place chicken broth in a pot and boil it. Once it heats up, remove the chicken and let it cool.
• Place kombu (kelp) and mushrooms in the broth for around five minutes.
• Dip the bonito without removing the kombu and mushrooms, and let it sit in the broth for about ten minutes.

• Drain it. Do not discard the solids. Use it while serving or during the nitamago process.

Note: Refrigerate the dashi. You can use it for up to five days.

• Your dashi is now ready to serve.
• Now, it is time to prepare chashu and tare. For this:
• Add water to a saucepan, and mix sugar, mirin, soak, soy sauce, onion, ginger, and garlic. Let it boil for some time, and reduce the flame to low.

• Place another saucepan in the gas, and add water and pork. Boil it for some time, remove it from the water, and wash the pork belly.
• Transfer the pork to a tare pot and simmer it. Once it heats up, cover the lid and slow-cook pork belly for up to 1.5 hours.
• Remove the pork from the pot on softening and set aside the liquid. Refrigerate the pork and the liquid, and slice it before serving.

Preparing Nitamag

• Boil water in a pan. Piercing the rounded ends of the eggs, drop them in boiling water with a spoon. Reduce the gas flame and cook those eggs properly.
• Once cooked, drain boiling water from the eggs and place them in ice for around eight to ten minutes. Then, gently crack that outer covering and again keep it in ice. Taking out from the ice, peel it gently.
• Place these eggs in a bowl and add refrigerated marinated pork liquid. Now, place kelp above the eggs to keep them soaked in that marinaded liquid and refrigerate it for up to six hours.

Preparing Garlic La-Yu

• Keep the gas flame low, and slow-cook garlic in oil until it turns aromatic.
• When turned aromatic, remove garlic from the gas and instantly add chilli. Let the chilli stay as it is, and after two minutes, add sesame.

Serving Ramen

• Your homemade ramen is almost ready. Before serving, boil ramen in salted water. Use chopsticks and stir ramen so that it gets cooked properly. Now, strain off the water you used to boil ramen.     
• Heat shiitake mushrooms and dashi for up to one minute.
• Combine dashi, noodles and tare in a serving bowl, and top your homemade ramen with nitamago, green onion, chashu, and a spoonful of garlic La-Yu.