Easy Miso Ramen
Easy Miso Ramen
Serves: 2
My husband loves miso ramen and asks me to make it on cold days occasionally. The hardest part of making this ramen is to make sure that all ingredients, especially the seasonings and condiments, are available before you make this dish. Once you have all the ingredients, the cooking time is very short, especially if you use a small food processor to mince ingredients like garlic, ginger, and green onions together. There are basically three major cooking steps. The first step is to sauté your choice of protein, typically ground pork or chicken, together with other ingredients such as garlic, ginger, and green onions. The second step involves preparing a miso-based ramen broth. The final step is to boil and cook the dried noodles. You can add your favorite veggies like boiled broccoli and add a halved boiled egg on top. Then, this miso ramen is ready to be enjoyed!
Ingredients:
1/2 pound of ground pork or chicken
1/2 TBS tenmenjan (tianmianjiang in Chinese)(sweet flour paste)
1 TBS sesame oil
2 garlic cloves
1 inch of ginger
Broth:
*1 TBS soy sauce
*1 TBS sake
*1 TBS sugar
*1 teaspoon of tobanjiang (Chinese chili bean paste)
*1 teaspoon of dried hot red pepper (“togarashi”), not exactly same as red chili pepper
*2-3 cups of unsalted chicken stock
*A pinch of salt, if needed
2 portions of dried ramen noodles (If ramen noodles are not available, you can substitute spaghetti or angel hair pasta.)
A few drops of rayu (chili oil) or pepper flakes if you prefer extra spice and more heat.
Options:
Boiled eggs and your preferred vegetables - such as broccoli, corn, bean sprouts, spinach, cabbage, or bok choy - can also be added as ramen toppings. I usually boil or sauté these vegetables, but I don’t season them, as the ramen broth is already full of flavor. These toppings will nicely absorb the savory flavors of the broth as you eat.
Directions:
1. Mince the garlic, ginger, and green onions. If you have a small food processor, I recommend using it.
2. Combine all broth ingredients (marked *) in a bowl and mix them well.
3. In a medium size pot, add sesame oil, minced garlic, ginger, and green onions and sauté them over low heat for a few minutes.
4. Next, add the ground meat and tenmenjan paste to the same pot and continue cooking. Using a wooden spatula, quickly mash and break up the meat lumps to achieve more consistent cooked meat texture.
5. Once the meat color turns brown, begin making your ramen broth by adding all the broth ingredients to the pot and simmer the ramen broth at low heat for about 7-10 minutes.
6. While making the ramen broth, begin boiling water in a separate pot to cook the noodles. Noodles should be cooked according to the manufacturer’s recommended cooking time. Do not overcook the noodles.
7. When the noodles are done, quickly drain them well and divide them into two ramen bowls.
8. Pour the warm ramen broth over the noodles and you are ready to serve the ramen. As mentioned earlier, add your favorite toppings to your ramen. If you enjoy spicier flavors, try adding rayu or pepper flakes.
9. Eat the ramen before the noodles get soggy. Enjoy!
