The 10 mistakes that make your ramen only noodles soup

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Do not add flavor condiments to the base broth or think that any noise is some of the most common failures

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Marijo Jordan

The Ramen, one of the most famous Japanese dishes, is originally from China, a country with a culture of ancestral noodles as indicated by its name: ra (stretch) and men (noodles).He arrived in Japan at the beginning of the 20th century by the hand of Chinese immigrants, and there it evolved becoming a national delight that is located in all corners of the country.Even if it is a fast and hot food - in 1958 instant ran was invented - it is not just a soup with things.

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3.Not knowing the measures and forms

Ramen noodles can have different thickness.The way to distinguish what size are we going to buy is to look at the number that appears in the package.“The noodle paste is made in strips of a width of 3 cm, which are about 30 mm and from here they are cut in the machine or stretching the noodles.If you manage to make 26 noodles of this strip, each of them will have a millimeter and a little more thickness, it will be fine as a thread, similar to the Sōmen noodle, and if you cut 22 noodles, these will be almost a millimeter and a half, a littleWider, ”says Ortuño.As the number decreases, the thickness of the noodle increases.The 22 would be fine, and the 26 very fine, and if, for example, we find a 15, we can get the idea that the noodle is already much rough.But although these chūkamen are thick, they will never be as much as, for example, the UDON noodle, which can reach 6mm.

Ramen's noodle can also be more or less round, even pulling square, and having different thicknesses, since diameter and shape are interchangeable.In addition, we can also find them straight, curved or twisted.The choice is closely linked to regional preferences."In Tokyo, for example, the wavy, more chubby," says the expert.The right ones are finer and the curves "somewhat more gummy, intense and tasty".

I do not recommend doing them at home, because it is very difficult to get them well, and make 'Kansui' is complicated

Roger OrtuñoDirector del portal comerjapones.com

"Do not worry about the shape and size, since if the noodles are good, they carry kansui and the soup is well done, you already have the basis of everything else," says Kenshiro Uki, owner of the prefabricated noodles Sun NoodleIn the precious and didactic cookbook in comic format ramen (dome) of the gastronome medium American half American Hugh Amano and the illustrator Sarah Becan.

4.Thinking to do them at home is simple

Doing ramen at home has more complication than preparing Italian paste, since the dough is much more dry and difficult to work (it contains about 40 grams of water per 100 g of flour), and also to do it well you have to have on hand tooKansui.The Food Science Guru Harold McGee explains that a domestic version bakend sodium bicarbonate at 120 degrees, but cannot touch with your hands because it would irritate them.And also you have to adjust the cooking times to the amount of sodium bicarbonate.It can even be toxic if consumed in excess or swallows directly from the container.In Eastern stores you can find Lye Water, an alkaline solution that can replace it.

If we want to make homemade noodles we will also need wheat, water and salt flour, in addition to a special pasta machine to get the desired thickness and be able to stretch them correctly.You have to work a lot: hydrate them, compress them, rest ... "I do not recommend doing them at home, because it is very difficult to get them well, and do Kansui is complicated, but you can buy good in Japanese stores," says Ortuño and reminds usthat there are fresh (in specialized store freezers) and even dry snapshot noodles since Momofuku created them in 1958.

“Some carry the broth and the TARE or accessories to add them included, but you can discard them.Use only the noodles and make yourself the other two components of the ramen ".If they are made at home, in the recipe book Ramen of Amano and Becan they recommend following these points to simplify the process: buy prepared noodles, focus on the simple- there are recipes with many, perhaps too many, components- prepare a lot of brothor tare (condiments) and freeze them to have them ready every time we want to do ramen, and not use an excess of utensils to not get rid of.In the restaurants they even hang the noodles of the pot in some baskets (tebo) to better control cooking.For the broth, we can use pressure pot.

5.Ignore the basic broth funds of the ramen

The broth is fundamental in ramen.They are usually of long cooking and worked over high heat, especially the so -called kotteri, thick and creamy, where the animal is releasing its fat and collagen slowly and the gelatinous sensation in the mouth is essential.The two basics to know are the Tonkotsu Ramen, made with pork bones -it needs many hours of cooking -and the chicken broth (Torigara Suppu) "that is made by cooking a whole chicken", although at home we canPrepare with fewer pieces (housing and wings, for example).

The 'Kaeshi' is so important that it can even name the resulting ramen, as is the case with the 'Shōyu'

The fat can be graduated by foaming it, straining it or even withdrawing it, but a fato mantle must always be kept to have a tasty ramn."We can throw galesa or onion to absorb fat," explains Roger Ortuño.In the book-comic Ramen, the expert chef in this dish Ivan Orkin confirms that the tasty soups loaded with collagen and fat, which they loved when he began to investigate this elaboration, are difficult to digest and make you feel “tired and swollen all of the whole weather".That is why he fell in love with the Shio Ramen (chicken base and seaweed algae), and recommends the fineness of light soups.Although you can always play to balance ingredients."For example, combine 75% pork broth and 25% chicken," explains Roger Ortuño.

If we opt for the lighter soups, we can talk about the asssari broths, with more vegetables and with fish or bones that have cooked less time."We can even add a totally vegetarian broth version, without fish or meat, with soy milk or miso to thicken," says the author of the Japanese Gastronomy Oishii dictionary.Carme Ruscalleda, with a restaurant in Japan from star Michelin, throws to the broth of his shōyu ramen (ramen with soy sauce, vegetables and chicken broth and pork) soft ingredients that are very close to us: carrots, leek, garlic chafadoWith skin and a peeled onion.

In this section we cannot forget the Dashi, which is considered a broth background by many experts, and is one of the bases of Japanese cuisine.In addition, it is very easy to make with Alga Kombu and flakes of Katsuobushi (beautiful and dry).It is advisable."An express pot can be used without problems," says Ortuño.

6.Do not add flavor condiments to the base broth

In addition to the choice of the type of broth, the personality is going to be given the so -called Kaeshi or Tare, that is, the condiments with which we are going to season or season the elaboration.We must not confuse these dressings with the ingredients we throw in the pot to make the broth.The kaeshi is incorporated into the bowl before serving the base broth or the combination of base broths looking to give an extra touch of flavor."For example, to a chicken broth you add a kaeshi of soy sauce and give it a master touch," says Ortuño.In general, it always predominates or soy sauce or salt or miso, because they are dressings that provide intense taste with salty background.

Miso ramen is made by adding to the broth a pair of tablespoons of miso so that it is more tasty and dense

The Kaeshi is so important that it can even give the resulting ramen, as is the case with the shōyu (soy sauce, soy sauce with mushrooms, mirin, rice vinegar, sesame oil and water), the shio (its tare is salty: carries sea salt, mirin, rice and water vinegar) or miso's."The Miso ramen is made by adding to the broth a pair of tablespoons of miso - a paste of legumes or fermented cereals - so that it is more tasty and dense".Pork broth admits any desired Tare, depending on the seasoning can acquire different flavor nuances.

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They are fine fast cooking noodles with pork broth.It was for street vendors to prepare them in a short time for their customers.They made small rations because it is easy for them to go from cooking."On the other hand in Tokyo a lighter broth with chicken and dashi is stated, with a soy sauce tare," says Roger Ortuño.

8.Forget the Gu (the Tappings)

The guid.The most common are Chāshū, Naruto and Menma, and fit all soups.Chāshū is of Chinese origin.It is preparing rostizing or roasting a piece of pork skewered in the oven after marining it in a sweet red sauce.In Japan they transformed him into a piece of bacon rolled on herself roasted in a sweetened soy sauce: “Wears soybeans, sake, mirin, brown sugar, and has an alcoholic and very sweet point.I recommend it because it is very tender and very rich, it almost gets rid, ”says Roger Ortuño, who loves preparing it.It is cut very fine to decorate the ramen bowl.

Naruto is fish paste with starch that is steamed and is usually bought.Its appearance can remember that of the crab sticks, "it is very decorative because it is like a pink spiral, but it is more beautiful than tasty, because it is actually quite bland".The menma are crispy bamboo outbreaks that you can do at home or buy events in specialized stores.There are rules for some dishes, such as the Hakata Ramen, which carries Chāshū, Menma, chopped onion and ducky ginger strips.In general, we can be creative and put what we want, as long as it links with the rest of the ingredients.Among the most usual are kikurage mushrooms, sweet corn, soy sprouts, wok vegetables, crispy chicken skin, benishōga (ducking ginger), low temperature cooked egg ... or also Japanese meatballs.

Ruscalleda in his Shōyu Ramen places the bacon that has golden in a pan and reserved in the fridge (so that "take tender texture and can be cut"), the carrot that has boiled with the broth and a split egg in half.And above it throws the final result chopped chives, tender chopped fresh garlic, sprouts of germinated soybeans and crumbled algae.

9.Fried egg

Ramen usually carries egg, but never fried.It is an ingredient that decorates many ramen bolts of all kinds, although we do not always find it prepared in the same way.The most common is to cook at low temperature "to get a creamy yolk," says Roger Ortuño.Ruscalleda boils eggs only 6 minutes with a salt and vinegar point, then cools them, part in half and place one by bowl.The yolk is very delicate.If we upload the time at 8 minutes the yolk is still soft but acquires a firmer consistency and is easier to cut.

The texture of the yolk can range from an almost liquid point to the hard egg.The egg called Ajitsuke Tamago is an egg passed by spiced water: it is marined in the chāshū cooking liquid (bacon) or simply with soy sauce.The onsen Tamago is a climbing egg inside his peel.Traditionally an egg basket was taken to a thermal water source to fill it with hot water and cooked in it.

10.Mount it badly in the bowl and cool

By mounting the ramen in the bowl we have to follow an order of placement of the various elements that form it for a practical and aesthetic issue.We place the kaeshi and the broth before the noodles "so that we are not soak up too fluid and soften us," says Roger Ortuño.About 375 ml of broth are thrown by bowl seasoned by the kaeshi and enriched with fat resulting from cooking that we can add at this time to flavor and keep the temperature of the hot bowl.After the noodles, add the bacon or meat and the egg supported by it.

The gu or topings are placed lastly with care and care to complete the dish along with some aromatic or seasoned oil dress.And in the end we can place a Nori algae leaf on one side of the bowl so that it does not sink and falls apart.Except in some timely exception, the ramen must be taken very hot.It is considered an individual pleasure - it eats in silence, enjoying all its nuances - and can sip to taste broth and noodles without fearing reproach looks.

It is not bad education to do it.In what we should pay attention if we take them in a restaurant in Japan it is in small details, such as passing to stick to sticks, which is considered from bad omen, because it remembers the method of incineration of the deceased;or leave the chopsticks in the bowl, since it would seem an offering to an ancestor."When disposable sticks are used, it is frowned.To round the gastronomic pleasure of a good range of ramen, heavy drinks are not recommended.You just need water, sake or a light beer.

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