How to do ramen: landscape on a plate

I don't know anything about Japanese food . Nothing at all. I can't even tell the difference between two types of sushi, and I mean it. I obviously didn't know how to make ramen either.

What I do know (and this is more from observation than anything else) is that cooking in Japan is an aesthetic exercise.

Then I throw out that phrase, and of course, everyone thinks I know what I'm talking about. Try it. Next time you have the time, say it: "Japanese cuisine is more than anything an aesthetic exercise." You'll look great.

My experience with Japanese cuisine can be summed up in three key points:

1. My dad, whose kitchen he painted a few years ago, makes sushi . I think it comes out really well.
2. Canal Gourmet guy 's show several times . But I never stick with any of the recipes because I never have the ingredients and because I spend my time watching him decorate the dishes .
3. When Coquito was a few months old and the Doctor and I were in the "diaper head" stage, a good friend decided enough was enough. He plotted a perfect ambush, found someone to babysit Coquito, and told us: I'll expect you here Saturday night, no excuses, you already have a babysitter. 

He and his girlfriend took us to the best and most exclusive Japanese restaurant in Barcelona. We sampled 10 dishes. One more delicious than the last. One more beautiful than the most beautiful yet. It was a wonderful evening, which of course ended with such finesse by getting drunk in a bar in the Gothic Quarter and talking to strangers. Because that's how Barcelona nights work. Even for those lucky enough to have visited Koy Shunka that same evening.

Since this last experience, an image has haunted me: a soup with a landscape that they gave you in a very delicate bag. It was like looking into a fish tank, a tiny underwater world on your plate.

Today I woke up determined, not to attempt such beauty, but to start putting Japanese-looking landscapes on my plate. Determined and stubborn, because neither the lack of mirin nor the absence of sake stopped me. I looked up how to make ramen , did a little research, and adapted it to what I had. It was delicious, but above all, beautiful!

Note for Heavy People

I know mirin and sake have nothing to do with sweet wine and vodka, I KNOW THAT . But I looked up the corresponding penance in that little book you guys use and I fulfilled it on my own initiative. It wasn't easy kneeling on corn for six hours, let alone getting the Sailor Moon costume. So please don't remind me of this grave heresy because I've already paid . In the recipe, I tell you how to make ramen correctly and the substitutions I used.

Ingredients

2 servings and maybe a little more

• 1 Leek (green part only)
• 1 small onion (or 1/2 large)
• 4 slices of fresh ginger
• 1/2 Carrot
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 eggs
• 1 Pork rib (can be another part)
• Rice noodles (can be others)
• 1 glass of soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sake (me: vodka)
• 3 Tbsp mirin (I used sweet white wine)
• 2 tsp. of sugar
• 1 green onion
• Salt

How to make Ramen

a thousand steps, but the result is worth it

1) Separate the pork ribs from the bone. Place the bone in a pot of boiling water. When it changes color, remove it and rinse it with cold water.

2) Place the pork rib bone, the leek (reserve one of the leaves), 3 crushed garlic cloves, 3 slices of ginger, the onion, and the carrot in a pot with water . Add salt. Simmer for 1 hour.

3) Brown the pork ribs (boneless) in a pan on both sides. Once browned , add them to the pot and cook for 10 minutes.

4) Boil the 2 eggs . Let it sit for a total of 6 minutes... no more! Cool and peel.

5) Place the soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and sake in a separate pot. Add the crushed garlic clove, the slice of ginger, and the reserved leek leaf. Simmer over low heat and turn off when it comes to a boil.

6) Marinate the pork and the whole, peeled eggs in this sauce for at least 1/2 hour.

7) Cook the pasta as directed on the package.

8) Plate : Place 3-4 tablespoons of the soy sauce marinade on the plate. Add the noodle portion in the center and add the soup broth to fill half the plate. Place the pork, cut into thin strips, on one side. On the other, place an egg split in half (the yolk should be almost runny). Drizzle with the finely sliced green onion . Why "sliced"? Because it's Japanese, of course. And you know that Japanese cuisine is above all an aesthetic exercise.

How to make Ramen: this is how it looks

a real beauty

Source : I got the inspirational ramen recipe from Taka . It's my favorite Japanese cooking blog. Check it out.