The Best Ramen

If you’ve only been eating 15 cent grocery store bought Ramen packages, with foam noodles, and you’ve never had Ramen made fresh in a Restaurant or at home with egg noodles, you’ve been missing out. There’s nothing like a fresh bowl of gourmet cooked Ramen made right because it’s packed with carbs, proteins and all kinds of vitamins and nutrients; especially if it’s made with Bone Broth. Real Ramen recipes have this and they’re delicious.

Cooking Pork Belly

The most important thing about cooking pork is making sure it’s cooked all the way through. But, you don’t need to worry about that when you’re braising because the slow and low process goes above and beyond the safety measure temperatures and breaks down the enzymes in the meat to the point of absolute tenderness. In this recipe, I encourage you to poach the pork belly pieces for no less than 20 minutes. This will delicately cook the meat all of the way through before braising in my secret sauce.

Making this Noodle Soup

It’s always a good idea to use the freshest ingredients when making this dish, however, some substitutions can be made and I’ve made a few. I do teach you how to make Beef Bone Broth from scratch and it’s great in this recipe if you want to spend 3 hours making it. If not, Knorr’s Bouillon is a fantastic alternative and I use their Beef, Chicken and Tomato recipes often(not affiliated, I just like it).

It’s also nice to have fresh noodles on hand and you can either Make them yourself, the way I show you “How to make Pasta“, purchase the oriental style Yaka Soba noodles, which I use in this recipe, or just use a plain cheap package of Ramen noodles. All will work just fine for this recipe.

Vegetables are always a fine addition to practically any soup and this dish is no exception. You can add what ever you like but my recomendations for this recipe 3 simple greens; fresh spinach, baby bok choy and scallions. Celery, carrot, cilantro, bean sprouts, red onion and corn are also other great alternatives and additions.

As far as proteins go, boiled or poached eggs are very common in Ramen bowls, chicken, instead of pork belly if you prefer or even beef brisket is great.

Braised Pork Belly with Noodles

1 lbs Frozen Yaki Soba Noodles (my favorite)
3 cups Beef Broth, to cook the noodles in and use as soup
2 to 3 lbs Pork Belly, cut into cubes

Vegetables
8 oz Spinach
10 Baby Bok Choy
2 Green Onions, chopped

Hong Shao Rou Braising Ingredients
2 Fresh Ginger, sliced (size of a quarter)
1/4 tsp Anise
1 tsp Pickling Spice, ingredients below
1 pinch Chili Flakes
1/4 cup Soy Sauce
1/4 cup White Wine
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
Top off pork belly with water in pot (2 to 3 cups)

Bring to a boil then simmer and cook, with a lid, for 1 1/2 hours.

Serve with 8 oz of cooked noodles, 5 to 6 cubes of Braised Pork Belly, 2 to 3 ladles of beef broth, 3 oz of Hong Shao Rou sauce, Garnish with Spinach, Baby Bok Choy and Green onion.

Pickling Spice Ingredients:
2 tbsp Mustard Seeds, whole
1 tbsp Allspice Berries, whole
2 tsp Coriander, seeds
1 tsp Red Pepper Chili Flakes
1 tsp Ginger, ground
2 Bay Leaves, crumbled
2 Cinnamon Sticks
6 Cloves, whole

Please watch the video tutorial and I’ll show you exactly how to make this Ramen with Braised Pork Belly.