Homemade Tantanmen
Is ramen addictive? I think it maybe is. There is something about the deeply savoury broth, slippery noodles and fresh toppings that results in me having withdrawal symptoms if I don’t indulge at least once a week. I’ve had conversations with Weepix along the lines of ‘Well we could move back to the UK, but where will we get decent ramen?’. Suffice to say I’m a bit of a ramen junky.
Before I even came to Australia I was drooling over blog posts about Sydney ramen shops and noodle bars. Ryo's Noodles in Crow's Nest became almost like a second home when I lived just round the corner. It was right between my apartment and the library; not much can compete with the double pleasure of a new book and a deep bowl of miso ramen.
Alas we've now moved away from Crow's Nest and Ryo's isn't as regular occurrence as it once was.......so it's just as well that my office is five minutes from Ichi Ban Boshi in Galaries Victoria. I take it as a good sign that both Ryo's and Ich Ban Boshi have long queues outside them every single day without fail. A restaurant must be doing something right if people are prepared to wait for an undetermined period before being allowed in. I've got to say it's a master stroke in heightening the anticipation; there we stand waiting for our number to be called, the smell of broth and tapping of chopsticks nearly driving us crazy. As soon as you're called there is an instantaneous change of mindset from 'hurry the hell up!' to 'I'm going to savour every minute of this and who cares about those still waiting'. If you want to witness basic human nature then simply observe the queue outside Ichi Ban Boshi.
Despite the current quality noodle abundance I'm still worried that at some point in the future I may have to do without. The only solution is to learn how to make some of the best dishes myself. At Ichi Ban Boshi I'm a freak for the Tantanmen. A quick Google search results in about a hundred definitions and recipes for tantanmen, but basically it's a spicy pork ramen (often tonkotsu) with sesame, pork mince and various veggies. It's actually a Szechuan dish but usually served in Japan as ramen.
The recipe I used was a bit of a hybrid of many different sources and I've no idea how authentic it is, but the end result was not too shabby.
The Means
Stock:
- 900ml of torigara soup stock (or chicken stock)
- 2 Tablespoons of red miso
The Rest:
- 1 Tablespoon of sesame oil
- 1 minced garlic clove
- 1 minced piece of ginger
- 1 minced dried chile pepper
- 1/2 Japanese long onion, minced (substitute scallions)
- 200grams minced pork
- 1/2 of a small bamboo shoot, minced (I missed this out)
- 1 teaspoon tobanjian (Chili bean sauce)
- 2 teaspoons tenmenjian (Chinese sweet black miso)
- Noodles
The Method
First cook the noodles, drain, rinse well in cold water and set aside. Then prepare the stock, add in the red miso, give it all bit of a stir and let simmer for a while.
Next you need to heat up the sesame oil and stir fry the garlic, ginger, chili and scallions. Give them a minute or two and add the pork mince. Stir fry until the mince browns and add in the tobanjian and tenmenjian and about 200ml of the stock. Let it simmer for about ten minutes or so, until the mince is cooked through.
To serve put the noodles in a deep bowl with your favourite toppings (I like corn, boiled egg, pak choi, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots....not generally all at once though). Pour over enough stock to cover the noodles and then add a few spoons of the pork mince.
I'm afraid my lack of skill as a photographer is evident with these shots but the final dish was damn tasty. It didn't have the depth of flavour of the store bought tantanmen but then they actually know what they are doing and simmer stock for hours. I might try to make some genuine (free range!) pork stock next time and report back how it goes.
