Tonkotsu style ramen

Serves 4

Ingredients:

For the pork marinade:

* 400 g pork steak (preferable one piece)

* 1 tablespoon sake

* 1 tablespoon soy sauce

* 1 teaspoon oyster sauce

* 1 tablespoon honey

* 1 garlic clove, chopped

* Salt

* Pepper

For the soup:

* 1 liter stock (any kind will do, but I used dashi)
* 0.5 liter soy milk

* 1 tablespoon soy sauce (or more to taste)
* 1 teaspoon sugar

* 1 thumb sized piece of ginger, grated

* 2 garlic cloves, grated

* Noodles

* Optional: Sesame oil

For the topping:

* Pork
* Narutomaki (I used "normal" fish cake since I couldn't find it where I live)

* Spring onion

* Bamboo shoots

* Whatever you like

Preparation:

Sprinkle the pork with salt and pepper on each side and heat up a skillet with some oil.
Fry the pork on each side until brown and set aside. Don't cook it through!

Now let the pork cool down and mix all the ingredients for the marinade. Put the marinade in the skillet and let it simmer until the alcohol from the sake is evaporated. Meanwhile cut the pork in slices. You will notice that it is probably still red on the inside, but this is ok.
Put the pork in the skillet with the marinade and fry until the pork sucked up some of the marinade, or, like I did, until a bit crispy.

Take out the pork and set aside. Now we start boiling our noodles while we prepare the soup.

Heat up a pan on medium heat andboil the stock. Add the rest of the ingredients and slowly warm the soup. Don't let it boil! Put in a teaspoon of sesame oil if you have it to enhance the flavour. Mix thoroughly and lower the heat to the lowest setting to keep the soup warm.

When the noodles are done, pour the water and rinse with cold water. Put the noodles in a bowl and pour the soup over them until they are almost under. Now add your favourite toppings in any way you like and enjoy your soup!


Mike & Leda