Go to the Recipe: Ultimate Shoyu Ramen
Sho, what restaurants in the US make ramen this good in your opinion?
Cafe Mochiko in Cincinnati, Pickerel in Providence; Akahoshi Ramen is starting to do a chintan that is similar to this, too (their misos are very good, but different style entirely).
Ramen Ishida in New York makes a crazy good shoyu, and it's definitely a blended stock, but I'm not entirely sure what Yohei Ishida is doing. It also has truffle somehow incorporated into it, which is (I think) well done, but ymmv, depending on how many truffle fries you ate in the 90s/2000s.
Menya Hosaki in DC does a shoyu with blended stock, but I don't think they do a triple blend (it's quite good, however). And I've heard great things from knowledgeable ramen geeks about Menya Rui in St Louis and Ramen 512 in Austin.
Sho, I just picked up Homemade Ramen and have been deep into reading it. Loving it so far! Do you have any general recommendations for converting recipes to pressure cooker versions?
Thanks! In the book, most recipes should have alternatives for stovetop vs pressure cooker. Generally speaking, I hedge my bets on pork parts, which are typically larger, so I call for 2 hours pressure cooking and 7 to 8 hours if simmering on a stovetop. Chicken/poultry I call for 1.5 hours pressure cooking and about 6 hours for stovetop.
Sho, this looks amazing! When I make broth at home there is life left in the bones after an hour of pressure cooking, especially with pork (as in not all of the gelatin has been cooked out). Do you have any ideas or recipes for the leftover pork and/or bones - a remouillage or maybe a secondary extraction paitan?
You can definitely make a second stock with the "spent" bones and meat; it'll be much weaker in flavor, but it will (probably) gel. I'd recommend doing a paitan, but the process is quite messy. Here are my suggestions for making a secondary paitan: Submerge the cooked bones/meat in cold, fresh water as soon as it comes out of the pot. Refrigerate the water and bones/meat until you're ready to cook, but no more than a couple days. Pressure cook it for ~2 hours with some ginger and garlic, just to tame the funk. Use an immersion blender to blend the bones and meat in the stock while it's hot. Strain the stock, pressing firmly on the meat mash to extract as much liquid as possible. Bring the strained stock up to a simmer, shut off the heat, and steep aromatics/kombu into it, just as you do with the first stock. Strain and chill. Since the flavor is pretty insipid, I either will add fresh meat to the pot for secondary paitans OR I'll turn it into a gyokai by adding a bunch of dried fish and simmering it until it reduces by about 1/4 to 1/2. Hope this helps!
I made this using a double stock from the Super Soup Ramen Stock recipe having omitted the optional pig foot. The dashi was very simple to make and I will use the extra for some miso soup later this week. I was surprised by how much aroma and fresh flavor was added to the stock by soaking uncooked aromatics at the end of the stock making. I would have been happy to use as is without the dashi for the final dish if I wanted to streamline my soup. The noodles were perfect for me, a bit slippery and with a bite to them. I added a bit more pork fat ( I had a jar in the refrigerator) rather than lard and preferred the extra aroma and flavor it added. My plating of the final dish needs work and I forgot to add the ajitsuke tamago until after I took the below photo and started eating. The pork belly was purchased sliced and I cooked it sous vide for 8 hours, marinated it as directed and pan fried the slices before hitting it with a torch for a few seconds before serving. The chicken breast was from a Costco chicken. All the recipes that contributed to this dish were easy to follow, but as you need a few days to make the dish, it's likely an occasional treat. Thanks Sho for opening up the world of Homemade Ramen to us!
Looks great!
Sho - I don't see any instrunctions for using a Instant Pot to make the broth. I understand that they don't reach the 2 Bar level but I've also been told that their Soup/Broth setting is fine for making a broth from bones. What do you think?
An Intant Pot is just a pressure cooker, and it's soup/broth setting will work perfectly well. The main hangups I have with them is they can be on the small side, and since they don't hit the same amount of pressure, I tend to hedge and let the cook time ride a little longer, like 30 minutes. Since they are insulated, as well, for the steeping step, I'd transfer the contents of the pot to a large mixing bowl or another pot, just so the temperature drops enough that the kombu doesn't start leeching "off" flavors into the stock.
Ouch! (Thanks for getting back to me so fast! I'm glad to have this happen on ChefSteps! ) I sure shouldn't have asked this question BEFORE I made my first batch of broth! (I had a 6qt Instant Pot. I had to top the good looking stock I made with plain water at the end. I guess that's like Starbucks Ice Tea in principle)
While not ideal, since the stock is so fortified, it's totally *fine* to top it off with water!
