Chinese-style Spicy Eggplant Casserole

(serves 4-6)
As Chinese New Year nears, I’ve been cooking more Chinese dishes, such as this Spicy Eggplant Braised in Clay Pot. In the winter time, it’s hearty nature will help warm up the whole family. The Eggplant in Clay Pot is a relatively common Chinese dish, as popular in restaurants as it is in the home kitchen, so it’ll be a good dish to try if you are cooking Chinese for the first time. It’s not complicated at all. Although this recipe involves quite a few Chinese sauces, they are the common and inexpensive ones, easy to find in the Chinese section of any large supermarket or any Chinese food store. 

Ingredients

1. Minced Pork (200g)
2. Eggplant (1)
3. Garlic (6 cloves)
4. Scallion (4 sprigs)
5. Anchovies in Oil
6. Toban Sauce
7. XO Sauce
8. Soy Sauce
9. Oyster Sauce
10. Chinese Wine
11. Sesame Oil
12. Corn Starch

note: Claypot is part of the name of this dish in Chinese (鱼香茄子煲) but you can easily cook this in any deep or large frying pan, and a claypot is not actually required.

Preparation

1. Marinate the minced pork in a mixture of 1t soy sauce, 1T Chinese wine, 1T sesame oil and 3T of water.
2. Peel and mince 6 cloves of garlic. Juliene the scallion, keeping the white bits separate from the green bits.
3. You’ll need the long type of eggplant for this recipe, as some skin is best left on every piece to prevent the flesh from disintegrating when it is cooked. After removing the top, divide the eggplant into 4 cylinders. Slice each cylinder like you would a pie, the ones with a larger diameter into 8 segments, and the smaller ones into 6.
4. On high heat, stir fry the eggplant in a large claypot (or pan) with 4T of oil until they begin to soften. As eggplants really like to absorb oil, you may need to add more oil halfway. Temporarily remove the eggplant from the claypot.
5. Spoon 3t of anchovies in oil into the claypot. Add 2T of oil and under medium heat mash the little fishies until you get a paste. Add the minced garlic, the white bits of scallion and 2 heaped t of Toban sauce.
6. Stir fry until everything is nicely combined, then add the pork and continue to stir fry until the minced pork falls apart and begins to shrink.
7. Turn the heat down. Stir 1t of corn starch into 1/4 cup of water, making sure the starch is completely dissolved. Next, stir in 1T of Oyster Sauce and 1t of sugar into the water as well and then pour the starch mixture into the claypot.
8. Stir occasionally to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom. After a while you should end up with something that looks like spaghetti bolognaise, as shown on the right. This is when you put the egg plant back into the claypot. Add 2 heaped t of XO sauce and simmer with the cover on until the egg plant is soft as shown in the top picture. This will take perhaps ten minutes.
9. When the dish is done, turn off the heat and sprinkle the green bits of the scallion over the top as a condiment. Put the cover back on and serve everything in the claypot itself.

 Notes

• You are not supposed to eat this Spicy Braised Eggplant by itself and it is traditionally served with steamed rice to balance out its strong taste, but if you are not into cooking rice, some egg noodles like fettuccine tossed in the sauce is a good alternative.
• Here is some background on this casserole: The dish has its origins in Szechuan Province as a common stir fry dish, hence the use of Toban Sauce as its base. However, when the dish finds its way south to Hong Kong, the chefs there adapt the recipe to local tastes by cooking it in a wetter style inside a clay pot and adding bits of Cantonese salted fish to enhance its flavour. While not obvious to others, this is a really crazy combination, like putting sauerkraut in risotto, but it works. And that’s the story of this the Spicy Eggplant Casserole.
• Cantonese salted fish is a rather exotic ingredient to expect of a Western kitchen, which is why I have substituted it with anchovies.
• Some people like to add some corn starch to the pork marinade as well, which makes the pork softer. Personally I prefer more bite to the minced pork, but the jury is still out on whether this is better.
• There is no need to soak the eggplant in salt water. It’s supposed to remove the bitter taste? But honestly I haven’t tasted a bitter eggplant in my entire life.

 

Szechuan Mapo Tofu (Bean Curd)

(serves 4)
Mapo Tofu is one of the easiest Chinese dishes to make and one of the first dishes I learnt to cook when I was a teen. It doesn’t require the finesse that comes with experience in cooking Chinese food, and it doesn’t require any Chinese cooking equipment. As long as you use the specified ingredients, the recipe is basically fool-proof and it also comes like it was made in a professional restaurant every single time.    

Ingredients

1. Minced Pork (250g)
2. Hard Tofu (500g)
3. Spring Onion (5 stalks)
4. Garlic (3t, minced)
5. Toban Sauce
6. Chili Sauce
7. Tahini
8. Peanut Butter
9. Sesame Oil
10. Corn Starch
11. Soya Sauce
12. Chinese Wine

Preparation 

1. In a bowl stir 3T cold water with 1T soya sauce and1T Chinese wine. Add 1t corn starch and mix until the corn starch dissolves. Pour the mixture into the minced pork and mix well, followed by 1T sesame oil and a second round of mixing.
2. Allow the meat to marinate for about fifteen minutes while you dice the spring onions into 1/8th inch pieces.
3. Prepare a mixture of 3/4 cup cold water, 1T corn starch and 1t sugar. Set this aside for later use.
4. Heat up 2T of Sesame Oil  in a large pan and stir fry the pork. Don’t put the meat in until the pan is really hot. Press down on the meat to make sure there are no large clumps. When the pork is cooked push the meat to the sides of the pan.
5. In the hole at the centre of the pan add 1T of Sesame Oil, and 3t of minced garlic. When the garlic splutters, add 4t Toban Sauce and 2t Chili Sauce and mix in a circular motion.
6. Next incorporate 4t of tahini and 2t of peanut butter into the Chili-bean-garlic mixture.
7. Pour in the corn starch water you prepared earlier and stir everything together, including the pork. When the contents of the pan begin to boil, turn the heat down to low and allow the mixture to simmer.
8. Cut the tofu into 1/4 inch cubes. Add this to the pan. Add the spring onion at this stage and continue to simmer, stirring lightly once in a while. When everything has boiled down to a rich sauce turn off the heat.  Taste to check if you need to add soya sauce or sugar, then leave the pan covered for a while while the dish matures.
9. Reheat and serve with steamed white rice.

Notes

• On the top left is the Toban Sauce, or Doubanjiang in anglicised Chinese. Its a paste of fermented beans and chillies that you must use to get the Mapo flavour right. You can find it at any Chinese grocer.
• On the top right is the Chili Sauce I used, but you can use other types. Just make sure that its not the type that comes in a bottle and looks like ketchup. What you want is a pure sauce made from chilies with no starch or tomatoes added.
• Tofu will come in blocks and it is best to just flip the tofu from the container onto your palm over the sink, discarding all the water that comes with the Tofu. Then cut the Tofu on your hand, with a butter knife. If you use a cutting board, some of the tofu is bound to disintegrate.

 

Singapore-style Prawn Ramen

(serves 5)
Singapore’s Hokkien Prawn Noodles is a favourite of mine, and so is the Shio-Ramen of Hakodate in Japan. In fact they can be considered distant cousins. Both these types of noodles use seafood, pork and salt to flavour their soup so I thought why not try a fusion combination of the two styles. The good thing about prawn stock is you don’t have to boil it for hours and hours for perfection, for extracting the full rich flavour of prawns is a relatively simple process. This makes this Ramen recipe a great option for home cooking.   

Ingredients

1. Large prawns (8=600g)
2. Fish Cake (400g)
3. Noodles or Ramen (5 servings)
4. Shallots (8)
5. Bean sprouts (2 cups)
6. Garlic (1.5 bulbs)
7. Coriander (100g)
8. Chinese Wine
9. Chicken Stock Cube (2)

Please note: the ingredients for Chashu Pork must also be procured but they are not listed above. Refer to the link just below.

Preparation 

1. The night before you have to oven-stew the Chashu Pork according to this recipe. Use only 2T instead of 1/4 cup of soya sauce but otherwise follow the recipe faithfully. Leave the Pork to soak overnight in the cooling oven and the following morning, place the meat(wrapped in clear film) and stewing liquid separately into the fridge.
2. On the day itself, julienne the shallots and put the peeled cloves of 1 bulb of garlic through a press. Fry them together in a pan on low heat in 1/4 cup of oil until they are slightly caramelized. Strain the oil into a bowl and then pour the oil back into the pan, leaving the fried material on the strainer.
3. Cut the heads off the prawns. Heat up the pan again and stir fry the heads in it. When the heads are red, pour in 3T of Chinese wine. Then add  1 cup of water. Cut the heads up with a pair of scissors while they are in the pan and leave to simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Strain the liquid into a large pot and add a fresh cup of water (without wine this time) to the pan. Bring to a boil again, then simmer for 5 minutes, then strain the liquid into the pot again. Repeat for a third time. This is the secret to a rich bright red prawn broth, the hallmark of a quality Singapore Prawn Noodle. Discard what is left of the mashed prawn heads.
5. Shell and devein the prawn bodies. Add as much water as you need so that you end up with five bowls of broth. Bring the broth to a boil and place the prawns into the pot and cook them until they curl up. This will not take too long. Remove the prawns into a bowl and allow them to cool. Reduce the heat to a low simmer.
6. Julienne the top half of your coriander. Tie the stems into a knot and throw them into the pot of broth. Add half of the fried shallot garlic mixture to the pot. Add half the chopped coriander as well. Retain the remaining coriander and fried garlic/shallot as condiments.
7. Add most of the stewing liquid from the pork into the pot followed by 1t of sugar and 2 chicken cubes. Stir and then add salt 1t at a time until the taste is right. Broth that is served with noodles has to be saltier than plain broth, remember this as your are taste testing. Remove the coriander stems at this point.
8. Slice the pork, prawns and fishcake. Keep the sliced pork wet by drenching it with the remaining stewing liquid. Fishcake comes cooked so there is no need to cook it again. Keep the slices covered in the fridge.
9. Boil the bean sprouts in plain water with 1t of salt. When they are limp, drain the water and keep the bean sprouts into a bowl. You can reuse the pot for boiling the noodles.
10. To serve, boil your noodles in a separate pot until they are al dente. At the same time bring your broth to a boil. Divide the noodles into 5 large bowls. Arrange the bean sprouts and various meats over the noodles. For each bowl, pour boiling stock into the bowl and then drain the stock back into the boiling pot – this is to warm up everything. Add broth a second time and garnish with the condiments.

Notes

• Large prawns are quite expensive if bought fresh. It is ok to use frozen prawns. The size of the prawns is important, do not substitute with smaller prawns or the broth will be very weak (soup is not red).
• Most of the greyish stuff in the ‘spine’ of the prawn is roe. When deveining the prawn, you really only want to find and pull out the alimentary canal.
• Besides Ramen, you can use any type of Asian noodles you like, fresh or dried. Do not use pasta or instant noodles.
• I sometimes make chicken stock with chicken feet to add more body to the soup.
• For a more Japanese feel, instead of the stock cubes in step 7, you can use a heaping T of Miso. Japanese Prawn ramen usually has a generous topping of Sakura Shrimp. You can also try adding some to your noodles for that added wow factor. 

 

Oven Cooked Creole Jambalaya

(serves 12)
Jambalaya is an all-in-one rice dish specific to the American South-east. If I’m not mistaken Jambalaya means Ham-Rice.  While some consider Jambalaya a spicy version of its cousin the Spanish Paella, I tend to think of it as a heavier meatier version, as is the way with all things American, and that’s the way I make mine, with lots of smoked or cured meat. I use a special extra ingredient, minced pork sausage filling, this flavours the rice really nicely. I also grill the chicken and seafood separately first, this flavours the fresh meats really nicely.       

Ingredients

1. Clams in Shell (600g)
2. Prawns (16 large)
3. Chicken Legs with Thigh (3)
4. Smoked Pork Belly (400g)
5. Breakfast Pork Sausages (400g)
6. Chorizo Sausages (250g)
7. Onion (2)
8. Capsicum (2)
9. Celery (2 cups, chopped)
10. Diced Tomatoes (1 can, 400g)
11. Raw Jasmine Rice (4 cups)
12. Chicken Stock Cube (1)
13. Whisky
14. Cayenne Pepper
15. Paprika
16. Cumin
17. Oregano
18. Thyme

Preparation

1. Soak and agitate the clams in cold water.
2. Boil about 7 cups of water in a pot with one chicken stock cube. Cut the heads of your prawns just behind the carapace and snip off all whiskers. Place the heads into the boiling stock pot. Add 1T cayenne pepper, 1T oregano, 1T thyme, 1t salt, 1t sugar. Keep the stock on a low simmer.
3. Shell and then devein the prawn bodies and cleave each prawn in half if they are big. Marinate in a bowl using 1T paprika, 1T cumin, a pinch of salt and a dash of oil.
4. In a second larger bowl rub 3 chicken legs with 1T paprika and 1T cumin and 1t of salt. Grill the chicken for 5 minutes and then the add the prawn and grill for another 5 minutes. Dissolve any left over marinade and the drippings in hot stock and then pour the liquid back into the stock pot.
5. Dice 2 cups of celery, 2 onions and 2 capsicum (i.e. bell pepper).
6. Debone the cooled grilled chicken and cut it into large chunks. The chicken bones can go into the stock pot.
7. Dice the smoked pork belly. Cut the lard portions into smaller pieces (10 o’clock) and the meat portions into larger cubes (8 o’clock). Slice the Chorizo into slices (4 o’clock). Remove the skin of the pork sausages (2 o’clock) and mix the filling with 1/4 cup of water to loosen it.
8. Spoon 4T of vegetable oil into a large frying pan. Add the pork belly and Chorizo and fry on medium heat till their lard renders. Next, add the sausage filling as well and stir fry until the minced pork browns.
9. Remove the meat. Reserve 4T of the flavoured oil leaving the rest in the pan. Stir fry the celery and onion in the same pan until they are limp. Then add 4 cups of rinsed jasmine rice and stir fry for a further minute.
10. Transfer the rice into a Dutch oven (i.e. a baking vessel with a cover). Open the can of diced tomatoes, pour the liquid into the stock pot and the tomato pieces over the rice.
11. Preheat your oven to 200^oC (390^oF).  Throw the clams into the stock pot together with 1/4 cup of whisky and bring it to a boil for a minute .
12. Ladle boiling stock over the rice until the liquid is level with the rice. Follow this with all the cooked meat and the diced capsicum. Mix well. Add the prawn heads and clams (only those that opened) from the stock pot.
13. Place the Dutch oven in the oven with its cover on. Reduce to 150^oC (300^oF) when you can smell the jambalaya cooking. After 45 minutes in the oven, check if the rice (deep under the surface) is both cooked and dry. When the rice is perfect, allow it to rest inside the oven with the cover off.
14. In the meanwhile discard the chicken bones from the remaining stock and add the reserved pork oil to the pot. Boil this down till it begins to thicken into a sauce.
15. Taste the rice and salt the sauce as necessary (i.e. this is your last chance to adjust the taste of the jambalaya). Spoon the sauce over your jambalaya and serve.

Notes

• This is a recipe for a very large amount of food. You can halve the portions if you don’t have that many people. There shouldn’t be any scaling issues.
• Between two baking containers of the same volume, always use the one that is flatter. The Jambalaya will cook more evenly. A Jambalaya more than four inches deep will tend to have wetter rice at the bottom. An alternative is to use two containers. Use foil if your flatter containers don’t have covers.
• Why not just cook the jambalaya on the stove? Because there is a tendency for the bottom of the pot to burn. You can try that after you have perfected the oven method.
• Why do we have to grill the chicken and prawns first? This is a great way to sear some flavour into them so they don’t taste like boiled meat. The high heat will also remove any freezer taste.
• Add more cayenne pepper if you like your jambalaya spicy.
• I used Chorizo sausage as Andouille it is not easily found in many parts of the world. If you can’t find smoked pork belly, use a brined ham hock, salted pork neck or cubed pancetta (but not sliced bacon).  I also left out the customary calamari as squid gets very hard when it is over cooked.
• Use capsicums of 2 different colours for a better visual impact.

 

Singapore Chinese Pork Curry

(serves 6)
Singapore Chinese Curry is a culinary relic of the British colonial era in Singapore. Many of the British officers had previously been stationed in India and developed a taste for curry. The British Army in Singapore however had to rely on Chinese cooks who out of neccesity concocted their own curry recipes. The result was the unique Singapore Chinese Curry which contains many common items of South-east Asian cuisine. In such curries you’ll find strange ingredients such as pork, dried shrimp, bean curd and cabbage. If you are a fan of curry, this is definitely a novel curry variety you must try.  Ingredients

1. Pork Spare Ribs (1 kg)
2. Yeo’s Minced Prawns in Spices (2 x 140g cans)
3. Cabbage (1 small head)
4. Firm Tofu (2 standard blocks)
5. Fried Bean Curd Puffs (2 cups)
6. Fishcake or Fishballs (200g)
7. Glass Vermicelli (50g dry weight)
8. Coconut Milk (300ml)
9. Chinese Wine
10. Five Spice Powder
11. Cumin
12. Chicken Stock Cubes (2)

Preparation

1. Begin by pressing the tofu as explained here. You cannot use soft tofu as it will completely disintegrate and disappear.
2. Open two cans of minced prawns in spices into a large pot. Add 1kg of raw pork ribs and allow to marinate for at least an hour.
3. Dissolve 2 chicken stock cubes and 1 t sugar in 2 cups of hot water. Add the stock, coconut milk and fish balls/cake to the pot and heat to a low simmer.
4. Sprinkle in 1T of five spice powder and 1T of cumin and simmer for 90 minutes. Top up with water as necessary.
5. Cut your cabbage into quadrants and manually break the quadrants into individual leaves. Cut the pressed tofu into large cubes, about 8 per block.
6. Add the cabbage, fried bean curd puffs and pressed tofu cubes and simmer for about 15 minutes before turning off the heat.
7. Before serving, soak the vermicelli in cold water for 7 minutes and then drain away the water. Bring the pot of curry to a simmer again add the vermicelli and 3T Chinese wine. Simmer for 10 minutes before serving.
8. This dish is best served with steamed rice or egg noodles.

Bean Curd Puffs and Dried Vermicelli

 Notes

• This recipe is pretty easy if you can get all the semi-prepared ingredients as they are listed. If not….
• The spiced minced prawn a.k.a. prawn sambal is a key ingredient but unfortunately its not that easy to find in some parts of the world. You can order Yeo’s Minced Prawn in Spices from Amazon. One other option is to make your own. If you have access to a Chinese food store, buy some dried shrimp. Soak a cup of the shrimp in cold water for half an hour before mixing in half a chopped onion, 4T chili paste, 2T Oil, 1T Five Spice Powder and 1t sugar. Put the mixture in the blender for a few seconds and then finish off by frying in a pan.   
• The other uncommon ingredient is fried bean curd (aka tofu) puffs, also known as Tau Pok in some Asian countries. If you can’t find any bean curd puffs in your local supermarket, you can
  

  Yeo’s Minced Prawns in Spices

  make some yourself. Freeze then defrost 2 blocks of silken (i.e. not firm) tofu. Next dry and cube the resulting spongy tofu and then deep fry them as you would French fries.

• Take note that the vermicelli to be used is the glass type (white when raw and transparent when cooked) which doesn’t get mushy even if it is cooked for quite a while. When in doubt, the ones to get are those made in Thailand.
• Sometimes I also add some baby corn. Its a very flexible dish so experiment with any extra ingredients you fancy.
• There is another similar style of Singapore curry known as Nonya Curry. That is a fusion of Chinese and Malay cuisine while this is a fusion of Chinese and Indian cuisine. The two should not be confused. 

 

 

Japanese Chashu Pork

Chashu is the sliced pork served with Japanese Ramen noodles nine times out of ten. When properly done, Chashu is tender, succulent, infused with taste, the opposite of everything you’d normally expect of pork. The secret is in the recipe of course, and this is where you’ll learn to do it easily, and perfectly. The use of Chashu is not restricted to Ramen. You can also serve it as a main course of stewed pork belly by carving it into blocks or you can do Chashu sandwiches. A useful by-product of cooking Chashu is the stewing sauce, which can be used in a number of different ways.

Ingredients

1. Laminated Pork Belly (400-600g)
2. Shallots (6)
3. Garlic (6 cloves)
4. Ginger (1 slice)
5. Soya Sauce
6. Mirin
7. Sake
8. Sugar
9. Butter
10. Five Spice Powder

Preparation

1. The first thing to do is to choose the right sized bakeware for your pork. For 400g of pork belly, its best to use bread loaf shaped bakeware that is just slightly bigger than your meat. This way the pork will not be exposed while it is stewing.
2. Preheat the oven to 200^oC (390^oF).
3. Pour 1/2 cup of Mirin, 1/2 cup of Sake and 1/2 cup of water into your baking container. Add 1T of Soya sauce for a light Chashu and 3T of Soya Sauce for the dark tasty variety. Stir in 1T sugar and 1t five spice powder. Place the pork belly into the stewing liquid.
4. Peel 6 cloves of garlic and 6 shallots. Also peel a thick slice of ginger about 2 inches long. Fit them into whatever space that is left (see picture). Top off a knob of butter.
5. Cover the baking container snugly with aluminium foil and place it in the oven. Total baking time is 2 hours.
6. When the aroma of the stewing pork is noticeable, this means it is boiling, reduce the oven temperature to 150^oC (300^oF).
7. After the 2 hours are up, turn the oven off. You may remove your Chashu from the oven immediately or leave it in the oven (the preferred option) to cool for several hours. Seperate the meat from the liquid when they are at room temperature and place them both in the fridge.
8. When the meat is chilled, cut it into slices. Place the Chashu on the cutting board with the skin facing up and slice from top to bottom, this solves the problem of the skin being of a different consistency from the meat. You can make the slices larger by slicing diagonally.
9. When the soaking liquid is cold, a layer of lard will form on its surface, you should spoon it out, to discard or perhaps add to your Ramen soup. Put the stewing sauce through a strainer and keep it in the fridge for later use; it should keep for quite a while.
10. To reheat, simply drench the Chashu slices repeatedly with the boiling soup from your Ramen. If you wish to go the extra mile, glaze individual slices with a bit of the stewing sauce in the oven/toaster oven or with a kitchen torch.

Notes

• It is essential that you let the Chashu get thoroughly chilled before cutting or slicing it. It is really tender and will fall apart otherwise.
• The stewing sauce will congeal into a jelly in the fridge, so thats why it needs to be seperated from the meat before going into the fridge.
• The restaurant Chashu you normally see is round. This is achieved by rolling up your pork belly, skin facing out, with butcher’s twine before stewing it. You’ll need a slab of pork belly that is about 1.5 kg and a oval Dutch oven to do this. It is not practical to do this at home unless you happen to be inviting 10 people over for Ramen. If you really want to do this, here are some pictures to help you.
• If you feel very strongly that pork belly has too much fat, the alternative cut to try would be pork shoulder.
• The colour of your Chashu will depend on the amount of soya sauce used and also the age of your mirin. If you want light coloured Chashu, use a fresh bottle of mirin.
• If you are serving your Chashu western style, i.e. in blocks, you can use the braising sauce to cook additional vegetables like brussel sprouts or turnip. The braising sauce is also ideal for making  Ajitama, a seasoned semi boiled egg that normally comes with Ramen and for marinating chicken for BBQ.
• If you are interested in Ramen, you can refer to this post.

 

Types of Ramen, Styles of Ramen

Types of Ramen: Ramen is a noodle in soup dish which originally made its way from China into Japan when the country reopened its borders during the Meiji Restoration. The dish was refined and improved to such an extent over the past century that it has all but overshadowed its original Chinese cousins on the world stage. The world of Ramen is pretty complicated and this post will systematically categorize the different styles of Ramen that are common in Japan along with their various soup flavours, broth types, accompanying meats and toppings. It doesn’t teach you how to cook Ramen, but you’ll know how to order different types of Ramen at a restaurant or recognize the various types at the supermarket.

The word ‘Ra’ means pulled (into) while ‘Men’ means noodles. That’s how the noodles were made in the old days, a single lump of dough was manually stretched and folded in half dozens of times til it formed a bunch of thin noodles. The noodles are machine made today but the dough is still made from the same basic ingredients: flour, salt, normal water and an alkaline mineral water called kansui. It is the kansui which give Ramen noodles their unique bounce and taste and it also makes them yellow even though they contain no egg. As raw ramen noodles are alkaline and have some flour dusted on them, they have to be boiled separately from the soup. If you would like to try making your own ramen noodles from spaghetti I have a recipe here.

Ramen noodles come in many different varieties but they essentially belong to one of two types, low or high alkaline. The low alkaline noodles are thin and straight. They have a stronger taste of wheat, and have a heavier texture. They also tend to get soggy faster. The high alkaline variety are a brighter yellow colour, have a lighter feel and are more springy. They also add a layer of flavour as they have a taste of their own. Wavy ramen and thick ramen noodles belong to this second category. 

There is lots of debate over which type of noodles go best with which kind of soup and many say thin soups should go with the thin noodles cause they have higher surface area etc. , but you needn’t worry too much about this, the Ramen shop will typically pair the noodles with the soup for you and you rarely get to choose. There is a tradition in some shops to allow you to add extra noodles halfway while eating (called kaedama) but I recommend against this as the soup is not really hot enough by this time. Some others allow you to add rice to the left over soup, this I think is the better idea. 

Broths
Basic ramen broth does not have too many ingredients. It is usually made from pork bones, chicken bones or a combination of the two. In certain recipes dashi, which is a consommé made from Bonito(dried salted tuna) flakes or Niboshi(dried salted anchovy) is simmered with Konbu(a kind of kelp) and blended into the meat broth to create a purer clear broth. Fresh seafood may be used occasionally in certain regional varieties, but usually not beef and probably never mutton.

Flavour Types
For Ramen, broth and flavour are distinct and separate. This is one of the unique things about Ramen. Think of it as: broth + flavouring = soup.  A Ramen is usually defined by its flavour which affects its final taste. There are 4 primary types of Ramen soup flavours: Shio, Shoyu, Miso and Tonkotsu.

• Shio (She-Oh)
  means salt and this is traditionally the way Ramen soup is flavoured. All Western broths would be considered of the Shio type. The salt doesn’t affect the appearance of the broth and therefore Shio soup tends to light coloured and clear. Shio flavoured soup will tend to be a tad saltier than the other types.
• Shoyu (Show-You)
  means soy sauce and this is next oldest flavour type. Instead of salt, a sauce made by fermenting soya beans is used to make the broth salty. This sauce is not your regular table soya sauce, but typically a special sauce with additional ingredients made according to a secret recipe. The broth for Shoyu is the only type that tends not to contain pork. Shoyu soup is also usually clear, but is dark coloured and sweeter than Shio soup.
• Miso (Me-So)
  In more recent times, Miso paste has also been used to give Ramen broth its savoury taste. If Miso is used, it is immediately obvious as the soup will be opaque. Shio or Shoyu  flavoured soups merely accent the flavour of underlying broth, while miso leaves a fuller complex taste in the mouth since it also has a strong taste of its own.
• Tonkotsu (Tong-Coats-Zoo)
  is technically not a true flavour since it is contains either salt or soy sauce. It is made from boiling ground up pork bones (ton=pig, kotsu = bones) for 12-15 hours till all the collagen has dissolved into the stock as gelatine (details here). The result is a rich whitish soup that is distinct enough to consider Tonkotsu as a separate fourth flavour of Ramen. To be clear, the use of pork bones does not automatically mean the soup is of the Tonkotsu type. If the pork bones are boiled whole for a relatively shorter period, the result is just regular pork broth.

Meat Ingredients
The most common type of meat served in Ramen is Chashu which is another type of food borrowed from China and subsequently modified over decades. It is basically a pork belly tied into a cylinder, braised and then served in slices. What the pork is braised in differs from recipe to recipe but general ingredients include soya sauce, sake, mirin and sugar. In my humble opinion, the Chashu is the hardest part to get right in a Ramen. Chashu often goes hand in hand with Shoyu Ramen since the braising liquid can form part of the ‘shoyu’. Sometimes the pork belly is braised in its original shape but also sliced. You can refer to my own oven braised Chashu recipe here.

Another item that one finds in their Ramen more often than not is Ajitama, a soya sauce seasoned boiled egg with its yolk still runny. The Chashu braising liquid also comes in handy when seasoning these eggs. Ramen can also be served with fresh seafood, Kamaboko(a bouncy fish cake with a characteristic pink swirl) or with no meat at all. Unlike for soba or udon soup noodles, slices of beef are rarely served with Ramen, although new age Wagyu Ramen has been making an appearance lately.

Toppings and Condiments
Whilst the number of possible ingredients used for Ramen broth is quite limited, a large variety of ingredients are used as toppings to differentiate one Ramen from another. The more common toppings include Nori (a type of seaweed paper), Wakame (a type of rehydrated seaweed), Menma (preserved bamboo shoots), Negi (scallion), Kikurage (black fungus), juliened leek, sesame seeds, fried garlic and pickled plum/ginger.  A lot of Ramen shops will also top off with a proprietary spicy sauce or a ball of spicy miso to give a kick to the soup. This way customers can chose how spicy they have their Ramen is.

Regional Styles
The way Ramen is cooked has more or less evolved over the past century along geographical lines. Tonkotsu is the primary flavour of Kyushu Island in the South while Miso is generally associated with Hokkaido Island in the North. The central island of Honshu is home to the Shoyu flavour. Even within these demarcations, local variations have sprung up and are known by their city or prefecture of origin. Many of these variations feature local produce that is famous nationally. The following is a list of the main varieties (that I have come across anyway) of Ramen.

Tokyo style Shoyu Ramen

• Tokyo style Ramen
  Tokyo style Ramen is the archetypical Shoyu flavoured Ramen. Many Ramen stalls originally served soba in a dashi soup and when the use of Shoyu was introduced, the practice of using dashi was retained. Today chicken stock and shoyu is mixed with dashi to produce the unique Tokyo style Ramen. Tokyo Ramen is usually served with Chashu, Kamaboko, half an Egg, and is topped with chopped leek and preserved bamboo shoots. In Yokohama, the port of Tokyo, pork is used instead of chicken for the broth resulting in the iekei sub-variation.
• Asahikawa style Ramen
  This is a less well know shoyu type Ramen that is distinguished by its use of a combination of dried fish and pork to boil the stock, to moderate the porky-ness of the stock. Like all Ramen from Hokkaido it is designed with cold weather in mind, and in this case it means the use of rendered pork lard to create an oily stock.  The choice of soy sauce as the flavour stems from the fact that in WW2 alcohol was discouraged and the local brewery had to switch to producing soy sauce. Asahikawa Ramen uses roughly the same toppings as shoyu ramen from Tokyo (see above).
• Champon from Nagasaki
  Champon is a specialty of Nagasaki which was invented by a Chinese cook as a Meiji era equivalent of affordable fast food, for the Chinese students who were studying there. It is the most Chinois of all Ramen and today Champon is served at every restaurant in Nagasaki’s Chinatown  The home of Champon is said to be the famous Shikairo in Nagasaki. Champon is practically the only ramen from Kyushu which does not use a Tonkotsu soup. Unlike all other ramen, Champon uses special noodles that are cooked in the soup itself. This ramen is served with a stir fried mix of pork, seafood and cabbage.
• Hakodate style Ramen
  As all ramen was originally Shio flavoured, Shio ramen wasn’t invented in any particular place. However, when one mentions Shio ramen, a bowl of Hakodate style Ramen comes to mind immediately. Hakodate is where the tradition of making ramen soup flavoured with salt has remained unchanged even as new flavours and styles were introduced all over Japan. Hakodate style ramen is usually made with a chicken broth that is skimmed frequently, resulting in a light golden coloured soup. Very often Hakodate Ramen comes with chicken meatballs.
• Hakata style Ramen
  Tonkotsu type ramen originated on the warmer Southern island of Kyushu where most of Japan’s pig farming is done. Hakata is a district in Fukuoka City, the biggest city on Kyushu and the style of ramen from there is universally recognized as the standard version of tonkotsu. Hakata Ramen is usually topped with Chashu, egg, scallion, sesame seeds and pickled ginger.
• Kurume style Ramen
  A close cousin of Hakata Ramen is Kurume(Koo-Roo-Mare) Ramen. This is thought of as the original way Tonkotsu was made before it was modernized into the Hakata style. Its soup is similar but even richer in pork taste (from adding pig’s head, trotters etc. to the broth). The noodles of this variety come topped with fried pig lard bits and dried seaweed.
• Kumamoto style Ramen
  Kumamoto prefecture is in the middle of Kyushu and its style of ramen is yet another variation of the Tonkotsu type. It is served with stewed pork belly, and a generous amount of fried garlic together with the oil the garlic was fried in. Toppings include pickled ginger and julienned leek.
• Kagoshima style Ramen
  Kagoshima is a port at the Southern tip of Kyush. Here the soup is lighter as it is made from a mixture of pork tonkotsu and clear chicken broth. Kagoshima is home to Kurobuta pork, which makes their chashu all the more delicious. Other types of noodles, similar to those from ‘nearby’ Okinawa or Taiwan are sometimes served in place of regular ramen noodles.
• Kitakata style Ramen
  This style of Ramen has a unique shoyu flavoured soup made from pork broth mixed with dashi made from dried anchovies. It hails from the city of Kitakata in Northern Honshu which purportedly has the highest concentration of Ramen shops in the world. Kitakata style Ramen features flat noodles and is typically served with sliced pork belly, leek and fish cake.
• Sapporo style Ramen 
  

  The Sapporo Ramen Story

  The city of Sapporo is in the Northern Island of Hokkaido and it is the bastion of Miso flavoured Ramen. The first use of miso in Ramen soup was by chef Omiya of Aji no Sanpei (the shop is still operating today) in Sapporo in 1954. Chicken or pork bones are used for the broth and when combined with red Miso paste makes for a rich soup, perfect for the cold weather up North. Traditionally, vegetables and minced pork are stir fried in a wok with miso, and the broth is added as a final step. Hokkaido is home to the big vegetable and dairy farms of Japan as well as several fishing ports. Today the inclusion of the top natural produce of Hokkaido in the toppings (butter, corn, leek, roasted scallops) and soup (seafood) in Sapporo style Ramen has become common practice.

  

  Wakayama Ramen with Pork Ribs

• Tokushima / Wakayama style Ramen
  Tokushima style Ramen is the most popular style of Ramen on Shikoku Island, the smallest of the 4 main islands. It uses a combination tonkutsu-shoyu soup which is deep brown in colour. This ramen is served with a raw egg instead of an almost-cooked one. The other special thing is it is served with baraniku, a kind of stewed pork rib. A sub-variation of the Tokushima style is Wakayama style Ramen. Wakayama is on the main island of Honshu, just across the inland sea from Tokushima which is probably why Wakayama Ramen can be described as a Tokyo style Ramen served in Tokushima soup. For instance it will be served with a boiled runny-yolk egg instead of a raw one.

Prawn Ramen

Special Ramen Soups
This next category covers some of those Ramen that are served in non-traditional soups and thus don’t fall under any of the regional styles above. One popular variety is the Ebi Ramen, where a meat stock is fortified with prawn heads, giving it it’s characteristic reddish hue. This prawn soup is unlike any other kind of ramen soup you have ever tasted. Besides the standard condiments Ebi Ramen is also topped off with some unusual ones like deep-fried shallots and sakura shrimp. One famous shop known for this type of Ramen is EbiKin; it is located just outside the (old, not sure if the market has moved yet) Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo. If you would like to try making this style of ramen, I have a recipe here.

Torikotsu Ramen

The other type of nouveau ramen I really like is Torikotsu Ramen. The stock of this type of ramen is made in a way similar to Tonkotsu but using chicken instead. After a long boiling time the resulting soup is similarly milky, heavy with gelatine and strong in meat flavour. This distinguishes it from the Hakodate style soup which is also made from chicken, but is clear. Torikotsu is typically topped with things like fried shallots, cabbage, scallion and perhaps a wedge of lemon. In some cases even the accompanying Chashu can be made from chicken as well. To try this type of less-common ramen, may I suggest a small Ramen chain in the Yokohama area called Matsuichiya. If you would like to try making this style of ramen, I have a recipe here.

Dry Ramen Styles

• Tsukemen (Dipping Ramen)
  This is a form of ramen where the noodles comes dry in a plate. The stock is concentrated into a thick soup and is served separately. The idea is to bathe each mouthful of noodles in the sauce before immediately eating them, which is why Tsukemen is usually translated as Dipping Ramen. There is no traditional flavour to the soup, and this just depends on what soup the ramen shop specializes in. The are two reason certain people prefer tsukemen; firstly the flavour is quite intense (but not more salty) compared to normal ramen and secondly the noodles are sort of lukewarm instead of piping hot when you eat them, so you can eat this really fast.
• Hiyashi Chuka (Cold Ramen)
  Hiyashi Chuka translates as ‘Cold Chinese’ noodles. They are not from China per se, but were first invented by a Chinese restaurant in Japan, some say from the city of Sendai. This type of Ramen is served chilled in a sweet sauce and was traditionally served in summer as a refreshing chilled alternative to hot Ramen in the days before air-conditioning became commonplace. It fact some restaurants still only serve it only in Summer. Thus all the typical ingredients of Hiyashi Chuka, cucumber, ham, omelette and imitation crab sticks are things which taste good chilled. Hiyashi Chuka comes in two main varieties, there is the standard variety that uses a sauce based on vinegar, sugar and soy sauce. The more modern Goma variety uses a creamy sesame sauce. I have a recipe for making the Goma style Cold Ramen here.
• Abura Ramen (Oil Ramen)
  This third type of dry Ramen is not as common as the above two, but is perhaps the best style of ‘dry’ Ramen. The Abura Ramen (also called Mazesoba when it is made with soba noodles instead) is best described as a fusion of Tsukemen and Hiyashi Chuka into a style of noodles that resembles Italian Pasta. Essentially the noodles are tossed in a meaty tsukemen like sauce that is fortified with oil and vinegar. Sometimes a raw egg is added as a sauce thickener, just like you’d see in a Fettuccine Carbonara. The toppings vary, but usually include diced charshu, chopped scallion. The result is a ramen with the taste of soup, but no actual soup. Abura Ramen is served at goldilocks temperature, not chilled like Hiyashi Chuka, nor piping hot like Tsukemen.

Quality Ramen Pack

Supermarket bought Ramen
In this final section I am going to discuss home-cooked Ramen. Quality ramen from the supermarket normally comes in rectangular 2 serving packs. If they are available, they will be found in the refrigerated (not frozen) section. The packing will generally indicate the style (e.g. tonkotsu on the yellow pack) of the ramen. If its a really good product, there will be a picture of a famous Ramen chef whose recipe the product is based on. The noodles are soft, sealed seperately within and the instructions will tell you to cook them separately from the soup. The soup will come in the form of a large pouch containing a condensed soup paste. You’ll need to procure all the meat ingredients and condiments yourself separately, resulting in an authentic ramen. If you don’t have any chashu lying around the house, try pan-fried luncheon meat (please do not quote me on this) and perhaps some seasoned runny yolk boiled eggs made according to my recipe. The easiest condiments to use are perhaps Japanese dehydrated kelp, dried seaweed sheets and sesame seeds. You can pre-combine some as described here.

Soba stick ‘Ramen’

A second type of noodles is the off-the-shelf ramen-style soba stick noodles. Technically buckwheat soba noodles means this is not a true ramen but the soup pack that comes with with them is a concentrated form of a recognized ramen soup. These stick noodles also come in dual servings. The packaging will be flat and long, and typically indicate the regional style (Kumamoto, Kagoshima, Nagasaki from left to right in photo) of the soup, often with a map even. It’s not as good as the quality ramen above but on the plus side, they keep for a long time and don’t need to be refrigerated.

If your pack of noodles is the type where you just boil a hard cake of noodles in water or fill a paper cup with boiling water and add some soup powder after the fact, this isn’t ramen at all; its only regular instant noodles. If the noodles are cooked in the soup and not separately, this is a dead giveaway that you’re not making ramen. Besides being hard to the touch, the other tell-tale difference is these inferior noodles are always made with 1 serving. These instant noodles are dried by deep frying them in oil and the soup powder contains a heavy dose of MSG so this type of noodles is not too healthy. The packaging will neither give a ramen flavour nor style, but will be described by the meat (e.g. chicken, seafood) used to manufacture the soup powder.

 

Cooking with Rillettes

Rillettes (pronounced Re-Yet with no S) is a French potted meat used mainly as a bread spread. The most common types of meat going into a rillettes are goose (rillettes d’oie), duck (rillettes de canard) and pork (rillettes de porc). Back in the old days, before there was electricity or refrigeration, this was one of the best ways to preserve meat without altering its texture or adding a lot of preservatives. Some people call it the peasant’s pâté since it costs a lot less than pâté de foie.   

To make rillettes, raw meat is salted and simmered with some herbs at low temperatures in lard (from the same animal) for a long time, sometimes as much as a whole day. Some recipes call for braising in stock instead of lard, but those are not the real deal. As the meat falls apart, the bones are removed. When the cooking is done the meat is strained, raked with a fork to shred it,  then allowed to cool in jars or pots. After the strained liquid is cooled, any congealed gelatine is mixed back into the meat with some of the lard. Each jar is then topped off with a thin layer of lard to the brim and sealed by placing a piece of wax paper on the lard. The meat is ready for consumption after aging for a few days in the fridge. The final product is a meat spread which contains very tender meat suspended in a matrix of lard and other natural juices. After you open a jar, you can keep it in the fridge for several weeks before it goes off. 

The purpose of this post is to tell you how to cook with rillettes, not how to cook rillettes. One of the easiest ways to cook with rillettes is to spread it on fingers of brioche (or any other kind of thick soft bread) and then toast them in a toaster oven or grill. The fat melts into the bread infusing it with flavour, and you end up with a nice meaty crust on top. I normally serve these delicious fingers of bread as hos d’oeuvres or as a matching side to duck or chicken dishes.

Rillettes can be used to sautee various types of vegetables. The natural oil and flavour of the rillettes is all you need to for the job although you may wish to add crushed garlic and pepper. For this purpose I usually use the rillettes that comes in a huge tub which you buy in scoops at the meat counter. These are cooked in the traditional farmhouse style and have a higher fat content. Have a look at my Sauteed Mushrooms recipe as a reference.

One other way you can use rillettes is in the making of meaty ragout pasta sauces. You can avoid the tedious task of simmering meat for a long time and still end up with a wholesome sauce of nice tender meat. The pre-shredded meat also sticks readily to pasta because it is of the right size. I usually use the rillettes that come in small jars on the shelf for making sauces, as they tend to have less fat. Have a look at my Duck Ragu Pasta recipe for further details.

 

Split-Pea and Ham Soup

(serves 8-10)
Have you heard the phrase ‘fog as thick as pea soup’? This is that soup. Split-pea and Ham Soup is a wholesome soup that has been on the menu in Northern Europe for centuries, if not longer. The Germans, Dutch and Scandinavians all have their own versions where split-peas are simmered till they disintegrate completely, leaving a gorgeous emulsion of peas suspended in ham flavoured stock. Kobi’s version doesn’t require a ham hock, so its particularly easy to make.   

Ingredients

1. Dried Spit Peas (250g)
2. Cubed Ham (150g)
3. Pork Sausages (150g)
4. Onion (1)
5. Butter (25g)
6. Cream (1/4 cup)
7. Pork Stock Cubes (2)
8. Nutmeg
9. Mint Leaves

Preparation 

1. Rinse 250g (1.25 cups) of split peas briefly and then soak them in 2 cups of room temperature water.
2. In a seperate cup of hot water, dissolve 2 pork stock cubes.
3. Cut the onion into 1/4 inch bits.
4. Slice each sausage down the middle and open them like a book face down to remove the sausage skin. Stir 1/4 cup of water into the sausage filling to loosen it up.
5. In a large pot, fry the onion on low heat with a half inch thick slab of butter. When the onion begins to soften after about five minutes, turn the heat up and then add the wet sausage filling. Stir fry till the sausage begins to brown slightly – which means its fat has melted, then add the cubed ham and fry for another minute.
6. Add the pork stock to the pot, followed by 3 cups of plain water, and then the peas including the water they were soaked in. Add 2t chopped mint leaves, 1t nutmeg, 1t sugar and 1t black pepper.
7. Bring back up to a simmer again and maintain this for 90 minutes or so, at which time the peas would have disappeared. You’ll need to stir once in a while to prevent anything from sticking to the bottom. You’ll also need to add water from time to time as it evaporates.
8. Before serving, reboil and stir in 1/4 cup of cream. Add salt incrementally (about 2t by my experience) till you are satisfied with the taste. Pea soup turns into a sludge when it cools down so always serve it piping hot.

Notes

• If you are wondering why I’m using such and odd amount of split peas, its because 240g is half a pound and split peas more often than not come in half pound packs. It also happens to be 3 cups if you want to go by volume. 
• One of the age-old problems with split-pea soup is: the amount of ham required to make a proper stock is 10x more than the amount of ham that should be in the soup when it gets to the table. The traditional way of resolving this is to use a whole ham hock for the stock, with a small part of the hock diced for the final soup itself. When I initially experimented with pork stock cubes, I found them to be too lean and eventually I discovered that adding pork sausage to the mix was the ticket. The sausage contains fat (and other pork parts that I don’t want to discuss) and this with the pork cubes simulates a ham hock stock nicely.
• Pork stock cubes are popular in Asia and you should find them easily in a gourmet supermarket or Thai/Asian food store. If you really can’t find pork cubes, use chicken stock cubes boiled with spam instead. You’ll need to discard the spam before using the stock, but that’s still better than using a ham hock.
• If you can’t find pre-cubed ham, ask for ham from the deli counter that is sliced 1/3 inch thick and criss cross that to get your cubes.

 

Oven Baked BBQ Pork Ribs

(serves 1-2)
I came up with this method of BBQing pork ribs after I had to give up my BBQ stove and it seems every cloud has a silver lining after all. My BBQ ribs are better than ever and I don’t have to keep basting them while they cook. The trick is to cook the ribs as if you are braising them and then dry them out with a second round of baking. I use a hybrid technique with dry rub marination and wet sauce cooking and you know what that means: super succulent ribs that are full of flavour.  

Ingredients

1. Pork Ribs (800g)
2. BBQ Sauce (3/4 cup)
3. Garlic (12 cloves = 1 bulb)
4. Coriander Seed Powder
5. Cumin
6. Paprika
7. Bourbon
8. Oregano
9. Brown Sugar

Preparation 

1. Have the butcher cut your ribs into individual bone sections. You should end up with about 10 large pieces. Cooking the ribs individually gives more surface area for flavour to cling to and makes for tidier eating as well.
2. Mix the following in a bowl: 2t brown sugar, 2t coriander seed powder, 1t cumin, 1t paprika, 1t oregano, 1t salt (each t = heaping teaspoon here except perhaps for the salt).
3. Add your meat to the bowl and massage the mixed spices evenly into the meat. Wait half an hour (or a day if you have the time).
4. Preheat your over to 175^oC (350^oF).
5. Stir together 3/4 cup of BBQ sauce, 3/4 cup water and 2T bourbon. Peel the garlic and add them as whole cloves to the sauce.
6. Arrange your ribs in a pyrex dish such that the meat is only one layer high. Choose an appropriately sized baking dish such that there is no empty space left over, and if required slant the thinner ribs to make more room (refer to the picture). If you don’t do this, you will end up needing more sauce to cover your ribs.
7. Pour your diluted BBQ sauce over the ribs. Cover the entire baking dish snugly with aluminium foil and place it in the oven.
8. After 1 hour and 20 mins, remove the foil and bake for a further 15 minutes to dry up and scorch the outside of the ribs (and this is why the ribs must be only one layer high). After the uncovered bake, the sauce should have also dried down to the right thickness. Serve the ribs with the thickened BBQ sauce seperate in a small bowl.

Notes

• Choose a BBQ sauce that is smoked since you won’t be using any charcoal. Other than that, it doesn’t really matter what brand you pick as a lot of flavour will be coming from the dry rub and meat itself.
• About a quarter of the people tasting my ribs have remarked that it is to sweet. If you think you fall into this category, reduce the amount of sugar a bit in the dry rub.
• This recipe is reasonably scalable, so you can do multiples of the quantities listed above. You’ll need to bake for longer as a larger batch will take longer to come to a boil. If it is really a large batch (see the tray to the right?) there might be a lot of BBQ sauce left when the ribs are cooked; remove the foil earlier and as a last resort reduce the sauce in a pot instead of in the oven.
• You can also use a Dutch oven instead of foil, but it may be harder to find exact right size. When in doubt, you can’t go wrong with foil.
• BBQ pork ribs go well with coarse cut fries and cole slaw.