Ever since we came back from San Francisco last month, I have been craving ramen noodles on a daily basis. Not the dried instant kind, but the kind that you can only get from a real Japanese noodle house. I’ve looked everywhere online, the only one I can find is located at North Houston, it would take about 45 minutes to drive from our house, so I haven’t had the heart to dragged my family on this noodle seeking journey. I did vowed to master the art of making a good bowl of ramen noodle the day we arrived at Houston, though hubby seemed a little scared when I told him. Well tonight was my first attempt, it was a good attempt, but not without injury (maybe this is why hubby was concerned). All 4 fires were going at one time, I was sweating bullets, while transferring the noodles into the broth, I spilled hot liquid all over my arm and newly washed slipper, but hearing how much the family enjoyed the finished ramen made me super excited. Hopefully next time I will be more prepared and less clumsy…
This recipe was from Nami’s blog “Just One Cookbook“, the steps are very easy to follow, with simple ingredients I had on hand. I did switch 1 minor detail, instead of ground pork, I used minced shrimp, which worked pretty well also. Thank you Nami for sharing, there were 3 extremely happy campers tonight because of you!
Ingredients:
2 large garlic cloves, minced/crushed
1 Tbsp. minced ginger
1 shallot, minced
4 cups water
water for boiling ramen noodle
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
½ lb minced shrimp (shell shrimp, bashed them flat with cleaver and chop finely
1 tsp. broad bean paste with chili
Seasonings
3 Tbsp. miso
1 Tbsp. rice wine
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. sesame seeds, ground
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. white pepper
4 servings ramen noodle
Your favorite toppings:
Beef tenderloin, sliced
½ cup bean sprout
1 boiled egg, halved
Green onion, chopped
Directions:
1. Prepare toppings. Fresh ramen noodle will be done cooking in less than 2 minutes. Therefore, you must prepare all of your favorite toppings before you start cooking Ramen.
2. Mince garlic, ginger, and shallot.
3. Grind sesame seeds in mortar.
3. Start boiling water for (a) soup and (b) ramen noodle.
(a) In a small saucepan, bring 4 cups of water to a boil with a lid on. Turn off the heat and set aside until it’s needed.
(b) Fill 2/3 of a large pot with water and bring it to a boil. Turn off the heat and set aside until cooking ramen noodle.
4. Meanwhile, in a medium pot, heat sesame oil over medium heat and start cooking garlic, ginger, and shallot. Add the bean paste with chili and stir evenly.
4. Add the shrimp and increase heat to medium high. Cook until the shrimp changes color.
5. Add hot water from a small saucepan and Seasonings, and bring it to a boil. Right before boiling, turn off the heat or keep it on warm. Please remember, NEVER let the soup boil because miso will lose its delicate flavor.
6. Put the large pot on high heat now. Loosen up the noodles before cooking.
7. When boiling, cook noodle according the package directions. Mine says 2 minutes, so I set timer for 1 minute 45 seconds.
8. Meanwhile, pour the ramen soup base (including ground pork) in the serving bowl.
9. When the timer beeps, quickly check the tenderness of the noodle. When it’s done, drain cooking water well as we do not want to dilute the soup. Place the noodle in the soup, and put toppings of your choice on top. Serve immediately.
Recipe from Just One Cookbook
Weeknite Meals 
Cindy, this looks fantastic! You will be less clumsy as you cook ramen several times. Start cooking noodles after everything is ready to serve (but I still get clumsy). Broth should be hot and ready, all the toppings have to be on kitchen counter all ready to serve, and table setting has to be done. Then start cooking noodles. It’s very important that noodles don’t get overcooked while you take time to put toppings etc. The hot broth will cook noodles and the noodles will suck up all the soup, so after you add noodles in the bowl, you put everything on top and start eating! 😉 I can imagine this shrimp broth is very good… Arh I wish I have a bowl of this ramen!!! I’m happy now you can eat this at home!
Thank you so much Nami, your ramen recipe made us all so happy! I will definitely listen to your suggestion about having everything laid out and ready before cooking noodle. OH I have a question. The big pot of water was boiling when I put the noodles in, but since the noodles were cold, the water temperature dropped and was no longer boiling, I was so worried about overcooking the noodles, I took them out of the hot water in 2 minutes anyway (even though the big pot never came back to boil). Is this accurate?
Can’t wait for the Shoya recipe, I think that’s the broth we had at SF. We ordered the spicy ramen and the broth was clear, with red spicy coloring of course… My mouth is watering again…
Cindy, yes the water stops boiling as you add the noodle. It helps to keep the noodle at room temperature before you cook (I will edit my recipe later). I forget if the water boils back again… but DO NOT overcook by waiting it to be boiling again. Most important part of ramen is soup and texture of noodle. Can’t be too soft. It has to be al dente so the hot soup will cook the noodle a bit after you serve. I have some recipes that I need to work on, but I can start working on Shoyu after they are done. =) Spicy kind is not so common in Japan as we don’t really eat spicy food. Only some ramen store carries it as their speciality. Clear broth can be salt flavor (usually white), creamy (tonkotsu – pork), or soy sauce (dark clear).
Thank you Nami for the clarification, I was so worried about the water not boiling, though the next day I cooked a smaller batch for lunch and the water boiled back again within 2 minuets. All this talk about ramen is making me Miss SF’s Japanese town again. AHhhhh!
Hi Jeno! So you have really made ramen yesterday. It looks delicious. Great idea of substitution too. I also hate making things on several fires at the same time.
Miso ramen is of course on my list too. And when I finally get to know which bone I should buy for the pork stock, I will make the pork bone stock 🙂
Sissi, yes, your posting made me crave noodles so much, so I had to make ramen for dinner. Though thinking it would be a fairly easy thing to do for Game Night was a mistake, the 4 fires going at one time thing is not ideal, I am just not coordinated enough to oversee so many items at one time! Oh do tell us about the pork stock bone once you find out, can’t wait!
Hi Jeno! That’s really a bowl of mouthwatering ramen! I must also try cooking it one day! 😀
So sorry to know that your hurt yourself while cooking it… 😦 Hope your arm is better now.
Thank you Lyn! Actually the burn was not that bad, some bad words came out of my mouth unexpectedly, but no permanent injury! My daughter and I are enjoying some left over ramen, we used the soy sauce pack from the original noodle package as the broth, I added a lot of hot garlic chili sauce, so yummy!
You’re always welcome Jeno! 🙂
Glad to know that the burn is not serious but do be very careful in future. 😉
Errr… I guessed it’s a very natural reaction (bad words coming out from our mouth) when we’re in this kinda situations… Me too will do that but it’s always like mumbling to myself. lol 😛
Oh I’m drooping now! heehee….
Hahahah, I only cuss when I drive (when my little girl is not around). It’s not a good habit but I am like a mad woman while stuck in Houston traffic!
Me neither when the girls are around but I’ll just say it in my heart or w/o sound. lol 😛
I don’t when I drive but only when other drivers don’t show courtesy on the road! I hate this the most esp. when I’ve already signaled for so long, yet the other driver just don’t wanna slow down to let me over-take and still dare to stare at me as if I’m in the wrong! Arrggh! Majorities are either cab drivers or female drivers!
You crack me up Lyn!
No Jeno, this is true and I’ve met lots of time with my girls around in the car too! Recently I met one when we went to the Wild Wild Wet. I signaled and finally got a chance to over-take but this woman, wearing her BIG sunnies, just don’t let me and sped up! Then 2nd time, it was HER AGAIN! I was already fuming and yet she still turned around to look at me, not just a glance! After that we stopped at a traffic light, we were just right behind her, she kept looking non-stop at her rear mirror until it was ready to go! I was so mad & kept scolding her for being no courtesy at all! Here in SG, I feel that lots of female drivers tend to have this kinda attitude problem (think highly & so proud that they know how to drive esp. bigger cars!) coz guys here always say that we, women are stupid drivers, as if they’re really the good ones. *eyes rolling*
That sounds horrible Lyn, Well we get some horrible drivers here also, though now a days I work from the home office, so most of the time I only need to drive my little girl to/from school, or the occasional client meetings. On weekends my husband is our chauffeur, Haha!
Yeah, they never thot of the consequences when both just don’t wanna give way! There’re all kinda people… 😦
I seldom like to drive (so lazy some times and it’s not like when you first got your driving licence, so eager, so excited! lol) only when my hubby is not around or free, otherwise he’s also our chauffeur at all times! hahaha
*I’m a road idiot, just not able to recognize those places and roads… lol 😛
Nami is awsm and I am sure it tastes delicious. You know I never knew of ramen .. i mean the real Ramen dish until I saw the Movie ‘Ramen girl’, I think I will enjoy it too!
Kankana, I never knew about ramen until this year either! It’s been such a great year so far to have met all of y’all wonderful cooks!
I used to love ramen, and that I eat wheat-free and carb-reduced, I sometimes miss them a little. I’ve tried enoki mushrooms as a substitute for ramen because they are so long and thin and liked that. 🙂
I had to look up enoki mushrooms, oh how I love them! My Mom used to put them in soup and I would slurp everything up quickly, the chewiness is fabulous!