"Homemade" Rokurinsha Ramen (Tsukemen)

When asked by Eater Boston to "describe 2012 in one word" as part of the Friends of Eater interview series, my answer was simple: ramen. 

Ramen has taken Boston by the storm. Ever since Guchi's Midnight Ramen made its debut just under a year ago, (wow, has it only been a year?), various restaurant have started serving ramen to try to meet the serious hunger for this dish. Yume wo Katare just opened at the end of 2012, and still boasts lines that average an hour or more. Uni Sashimi Bar started serving midnight ramen, as did Myers + Chang, Pigalle, and even Strip T's.

Though I've been to Japan countless times, I've mostly focused on sushi during my previous visits, and thus am woefully a noob when it comes to ramen.

My last visit to Japan I finally had a chance to see what the hype was about in Japan (where people have been lining up to eat good ramen for decades). I visited Rokurinsha, one of the most popular ramen places in Tokyo.

This post is not about Rokurinsha. You can read all about that experience here.

Instead, this post is about their "ramen kit" that I bought at the store. It's about how that one package of their specialty ramen kit catapulted me onto this crazy cooking journey where I ended up using both a sous vide machine as well as a pressure cooker in order to execute this "packaged" ramen.

Definitely one of the most time-consuming and elaborate "instant" meals I've ever made.

Rokurinsha sells ramen kits and vacuum sealed roasted pork right at the restaurant. That way, if you want to make their ramen at home, you can make a pretty good approximation. Since I was bringing this back to the U.S., I knew I couldn't bring the packaged pork. However, I did buy one package of the ramen kit so that Bryan could try it.

In Japan, it's not unusual to find "half-dried" noodles in the market. They aren't exactly fresh noodles, but they aren't quite completely dried either. I find these noodles to taste more al dente and chewy than traditional fully dried noodles. They typically have a shelf life of about 1-2 months, so you do need to cook them soon after you purchase them. They do dry out.

The Rokurinsha package came with these half-dried noodles, which I cooked for about 10 minutes in boiling water.

It's gorgeously al dente, and I would highly recommend that you pick some up if you are in Japan.

The soup base part of it was pretty straightfoward. Although the instructions were purely in Japanese, I was able to use a combination of the pictures, my crude knowledge of Japanese, and my medium knowledge of Chinese characters in order to figure out what the instructions said.

But it can't be that easy, can it?

Of course not! It wouldn't be on this blog if it were that straightforward. In order to bring this "instant" dish up several notches, the first thing I decided to do was to add a sous vide "onsen" egg. Onsen literally means "hot springs" in Japanese, and refers to these barely cooked eggs which still have a slightly gelatinous yolk. They are decadent and easily made in a sous vide machine.

Just dial the sous vide machine to around 63 °C (146 ° F) and cook for about 45 minutes (in the shell). Crack open the shell (just once using a sharp jab with a fork), and break open, releasing the velvety egg right into the soup.

I also made chashu pork shoulder using my nifty new pressure cooker, which resulted in beautiful, tender meat after cooking for only about 1-2 hours. Please click here for the recipe.

Finally, inspired by multiple sources, I decided to make 48-hour sous vide pork belly. According to the Modernist Cuisine at Home, pork belly can be cooked sous vide within a number of different temperature ranges and time (anything from 12 hours to 48 hours!) The resulting pork belly was gorgeously soft and tender, infused with soy, aromatics, and spices. Please click here for the recipe.

For an "instant" dish, this entire bowl of ramen took me three days to compete. There was a heck of a lot of planning, and (of course), lots of waiting.

The final product was awesome. Of course, we all know that the broth is the most important part, and in this case, I "cheated" because the broth was provided by one of the most famous ramen shops in Tokyo. However, having insanely tender pork belly, super soft and flavorful pork shoulder, and a luxuriously velvety egg didn't hurt one bit.

French Lentil Soup (lentilles du Puy) with Bacon and Fennel

I confess.

I haven't really been cooking that much.

Or, at least I haven't been cooking "blog-worthy" stuff for awhile. Perhaps it's the busy-ness of life, or maybe I need motivation, and there hasn't been anything as epic since Project Food Blog to really motivate me to stretch my imagination and creativity.

I've realized I'm a goal-oriented person. If there's a specific person, event, or . . heck, competition for which I'm cooking, I'll easily go all out. My brain's creative juices go crazy, and I dream up wild ideas with food. Left to my own devices, however, I'm actually quite boring.

So it's a new year. And I want to bring some fun cooking back to this blog. Thanks to an awesome birthday gift from Bryan last month, I think I may just be adequately motivated to start cooking really cool stuff again.

For my birthday just a little over a month ago, Bryan got me the coolest combination of "toys": Nathan Myhrvold's Modernist Cuisine at Home and a Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker.

You may have heard of the original Modernist Cuisine, a six volume, 2400 pages ($600!) set of books that explores modern cooking techniques. The book explores all sorts of different techniques, from water baths and homogenizers to centrifuges and liquid nitrogen.

This past year, they came out with a whittled down home version. Instead of requiring esoteric ingredients and strange lab equipment, you can pretty much execute most things in the Modernist Cuisine at Home if you have two major pieces: a sous vide machine and a pressure cooker. Since I already had the sous vide machine, Bryan got me a really nice pressure cooker with the book.

I decided to start easy. After all, I've always been scared of pressure cookers. The idea of scalding liquid under extreme pressure exploding in my face has always made me steer clear of pressure cookers.  I've had my share of lab accidents back when I used to be a chemist, and I'd sure as rather not re-visit those days.

One of the first dishes I decided to make was a twist on the traditional lentil soup. Instead of using normal mirepoix (carrots, onion, and celery), I switched out the celery with fennel root, which is a bit sweeter. I also added bacon because . . . well, bacon makes almost everything better.

Finally, I used French lentils (lentilles du Puy). These lentils are greenish in color and have a much more intense flavor than normal lentils. They also have less starch and cook up more "al dente" and less mushy, which I like.

I sauteed chopped bacon straight in the pressure cooker, and then added the carrots, fennel, onions, garlic, and the like. After it had all softened, I just dumped everything else in (lentils, herbs, broth), and closed up the pressure cooker. I monitored the pressure, turning down the heat whenever it looked like it was getting a bit high.

After about 13-14 minutes, I pressed down on the valve on top, which released the steam inside. It took about 1-2 minutes before it completely released. I think I actually ended up using tongs to press down on the button because the steam became very hot very fast! 

Finally, I opened up the pot and seasoned the soup to taste with just salt and pepper.

It was so easy. I couldn't believe I made such a gorgeous soup in less than 40 minutes.

Let me just say that the Kuhn Rikon works like a dream. I'm still flabbergasted at how much time I can save making soups, braised meats, etc. Bryan did a lot of research before buying this gift for me, and he claims it's the "Mercedes Benz" of pressure cookers.

I've just begun playing with it, but so far, I have to agree. This thing is really easy to use. The pot is really well aligned with two principles that are dear to my heart: saving time and saving energy. This does both.

Stay tuned as I begin a new Modernist/Pressure Cooker series on various dishes I make with these new toys.

Happy New Year!

Bacon & Fennel French Lentil Soup

Ingredients
3 strips of bacon (about 2-3 oz)
1 carrot, finely diced
1 small onion, finely diced
1 cup of green lentils, washed
1 small fennel bulb, finely diced
1-3 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
4 cups chicken broth (or enough to cover lentils by 2 inches of liquid)

Cook bacon over medium heat in the pressure cooker until fat is rendered, about 5-6 minutes. Add carrots, onions, and fennel and cook until soften, about 10-15 minutes. Add broth, lentils, and herbs and cook for about 10-14 minutes at around 0.4 bar (5.8 psi). serve!

Notes: this recipe works fine with celery in place of fennel root. The flavors are a little less complex, but still perfectly enjoyable. Although I've never tried it, I'm guessing you can switch out the chicken broth for vegetable broth if you want to make this dish vegetarian.

"Creamy" Kabocha Soup (with a kick!)

I have a new toy and I'm in love.

Actually, I've had it for awhile, but I've been so busy with the move to our new place, it has sort of sat neglected on the counter for weeks.

Now, finally, as we're slowly settling in, I'm starting to really use my kitchen again (finally!).

Right before we moved, Bryan ordered me a new blender. I had dropped and destroyed old blender about 6 months ago, but was just too lazy to get a new one. I'd been getting by quite alright, making blended soups using my hand blender, which I also love.

Despite the convenience of the hand blender, I found that I could never really recreate the beautiful creamy soups that I enjoyed at restaurants. My soups always had just a bit of texture that separated them from what the pros made.

My new toy has totally solved that problem. After tons of research, Bryan decided to buy me a Blendtec blender. And boy, has that changed my life.

I've been having so much fun making different kinds of healthy drinks. In the past, I never really used my juicer that much because I felt guilty throwing away all that fiber. Now, all of a sudden I make really really smooth "smoothies" that taste really creamy, but are in fact fat free and full of vitamins and fiber.

Alas I digress.

What I wanted to share with you today was a delicious soup that I made using this blender.

I'm a huge fan of kabocha squash, and I can eat roasted kabocha cold out of the refrigerator at any time point during the day (yes, lately I've been roasting up whole squashes and just keeping stockpiles of the roasted stuff in the fridge).

Because I love it already so much by itself, I was pretty convinced that you wouldn't need to add too much more to make a delicious tasting (and healthy!) fall soup.

If you already have roasted kabocha squash on hand, this recipe is a piece of cake. You just saute some aromatics (I used about 1 small onion, diced) in olive oil for about 5-8 minutes until it's soft. Add 2 cups of roasted kabocha squash, and then 1/2 cup of broth (I used chicken broth). Put in your super powerful blender and blend! (I used the soup setting on the Blendtec).

Of course, you can use a hand blender too. The results won't be as smooth, but it will still taste just as good. :)

For a fantastic kick, add a splash of sriracha sauce!


Creamy Kabocha Soup (with a kick!)
serves 2
The amounts in this recipe are estimates and are quite flexible. Feel free to increase or decrease almost any of these ingredients depending on what you have at home. 

2 cups roasted kabocha squash
1 small onion, sliced
1 T olive oil
2 cups chicken broth
Sriracha sauce (optional)
salt & pepper to taste

1. Saute onions in about 1 T of olive oil over medium heat until soft and slightly caramelized, about 5-8 minutes.

2. Add squash and broth and bring to a boil.

3. If using a hand blender. use the hand blender to puree the soup right in the pot. Otherwise, blend in a blender (ideally a really powerful one like a Blendtec or a Vitamix) and puree.

4. Add salt and pepper to taste (both are optional depending on how salty your broth and roasted kabocha squash are!).

5. Add a splash of Sriracha sauce for a kick (optional).

Enjoy!

Serve hot! (though I must confess I loved this soup so much I ate it cold for breakfast one morning. It was still soooo good)

Wintermelon Soup II

Oh the weather outside is frightful!

Boston just had its first real official blizzard in five years (yes, since 2005!) the day after Christmas. Though travel was a nightmare for many (thankfully we were able to fly back with only a 2-hour delay), for others it was a chance to curl up at home and watch the white powder slowly cover the city in a thick blanket of silence.

To be honest, I love snow storms.

I love how everything comes to a halt during a snowstorm. Schools and businesses close. Busy city streets become eerily quiet. You're forced to slow down from the craziness of everyday life and just wait the storm out.

It's also the perfect opportunity to cook up something warm, restorative, and delicious.

I had winter melon left over from when I made the stop motion animation of Boston out of vegetables (our winter melon slice acted as the Longfellow Bridge!)


I'm not exactly sure why it's called a winter melon, but doesn't the melon look like it's covered with freshly fallen snow?

You can get winter melon at Asian supermarkets. Because the melon is so gigantic, stores typically sell it by the slice. One slice is enough to make a nice big bowl of soup to serve at least four.

In the past, I have always made this soup using pork bones to make a pork-based broth (which is the tradition Asian way of making it). While that version is delicious, it does take more time. Furthermore, it's not that easy to find pork bones all the time. (I couldn't find it at Whole Foods last time I checked).

Stuck with the ingredients I had on hand at home, I made this new, simplified version that uses chicken broth and also adds bacon to the mix.

I loved this new version! The winter melon gives the soup a nice, clean flavor. The bacon adds a nice smokiness to the overall broth, which accentuates the chicken broth nicely.

The recipe below is just a guide. In general, winter melon soup is rather forgiving. As long as you have a soup base, winter melons, and some sort of umami ingredients (e.g., bacon, dried squid, shitake mushrooms), the soup will taste pretty good. I did not add aromatics, but I think a small bit of ginger or chopped scallions would also make this soup taste pretty good.

Winter Melon Soup

about 1 T dried squid, cut into 1-2 cm pieces

6-8 slices of bacon, cut into 3 cm pieces

1 large slice of winter melon, cut into 1-2 cm pieces (1-2 lbs)

4 cups chicken broth

salt and pepper to taste

Other optional ingredients
shitake mushrooms (sliced)
cilantro (garnish)
chopped scallions  (garnish)
ginger (1 inch piece, sliced or julienned)

Saute dried squid and bacon (and optionally mushrooms) with about 1 T oil for about 3-4 minutes, or until the bacon begins to render its fat and turns translucent. Add winter melon and fill up the pot with chicken broth. Bring to a boil and then back down to simmer. Cook at low heat for 30-40 minutes, or until the winter melon is nice and soft. Add salt and pepper to taste. Optionally add garnishes.

Serve!

Stay warm!

Maple Butternut Squash Soup

This soup is part of a larger meal "A Taste of Autumn" where every single dish was made using "edible" or natural "bowls." That post is my entry for Project Food Blog Round 6. You can check out the post and vote for me here.

Can you believe it was 70° F in Boston yesterday? I feel almost funny posting about a warm, autumn soup. Perhaps it's time to go back and have a duck confit salad or gnocchi with summer tomatoes.

Dream on. This warm weather is only temporary, and by the time the weekend rolls around, we will be back to having our cool and dry fall weather again.

Slightly nippy fall weather is perfect for autumn squash soups. In general, I love blended fall soups. They are easy to make, present beautifully, super healthy, and  soooo satisfying on a chilly fall evening. For all these soups, the basic technique is the same, yet the variations and possibilities are endless, giving you the freedom to be as creative as you want.


In this case, my twist was the addition of maple syrup, which added a nice, caramel sweetness that I think deepened the flavors of the soup. I also added a bit of salt, and that's it! Of course, you can add whatever flavors you like in your soup. Maybe some cinnamon or nutmeg in a pumpkin soup?

Here's the general technique for the "base soup."

Key Ingredients
1. Squash - cut up into manageable chunks (about 1-2 inches)
    Examples: butternut, pumpkin, kabocha
2. Aromatics, chopped
     Examples: onions, leeks, shallots
3. Broth
     Examples: chicken broth, vegetable broth
4. Oil or Butter
5. Flavoring Ingredients (your choice!)
     Examples: salt, pepper, maple syrup, cinnamon, cumin

That's it! Saute aromatics in oil or butter until soft. Add squash and broth and cook until the squash is soft. Blend and add flavoring ingredients to taste. So easy!

You can serve the soup in its own shell. This is not only economical and environmentally friendly, it's also beautiful and totally fits the season!

I don't really use a recipe, but for those of you who like having a real recipe, I've included below a short write up of what I usually do.

Maple Squash Soup

1 butternut squash, cut up into 1-2 inch chunks

1 onion, sliced

1 T butter or olive oil

2 cups chicken broth

Saute onions in about 1 T of butter over medium heat until soft and slightly caramelized, about 5-8 minutes. Add squash and broth and bring to a boil. Cook at medium heat for about 15 minutes, or until squash is soft. If you have a hand blender, use the hand blender to puree the soup. Otherwise, in small portions, blend in a traditional blender. Add maple syrup and salt to taste. Serve hot.

All gone!!!


Other related posts:
Rainbow Carrot Ginger Soup
Celeriac Apple Potato Soup
Inside Out Apple Pies
Fall Foliage: A Taste of Autumn

Spring Pea Soup

Yes, I know it's not spring yet.  And the snow we've been getting lately seems to indicate that spring is nowhere nearby.  Yet the weather has been getting a little warmer lately, and guess what? It's already March!   Time really flies.  Christmas really felt like just yesterday.

I whipped this up tonight because I wanted vegetables for dinner yet I was too hungry and tired to stop by a supermarket.  Instead I supported my local tiny urban convenience store and picked up 2 packages of frozen peas.

I like this soup because it's so simple yet so flexible at the same time.  Unlike its cousin, the hearty split-pea soup, this soup is light, fresh, and totally reminds me of spring.  You can really taste the natural sweetness of the peas, which I love.

Ingredients
1 onion - sliced
2 packages of frozen peas
4-8 strips of bacon
1 cup broth (or water)

Cook bacon over medium-low heat in a skillet until the bacon is nice and crispy (6-10 minutes).  Remove the bacon.  Pour off most of the bacon fat, leaving about 2 tablespoons in the pan.  Saute the onions in the bacon fat until the onions are soft and slightly browned (about 15 minutes).  Add peas and 1 cup of broth and cook at medium heat until the peas are soft (about 5 minutes).  Blend with a hand blender, and salt to taste.

Bacon is optional, but it really adds a nice crunch and smokiness to the dish.  Crumble the bacon and sprinkle on top of the soup.  This can also be enjoyed chilled.

The secret to keeping the pea soup this gorgeous bright green color?  Just a touch of acid (Vitamin C!) to prevent oxidation (which leads to browning) from occurring. I threw in a splash of lemon juice.  You can also crush up a Vitamin C tablet and throw it in after you've blended the peas.  For a nerdy science lesson, scroll to the bottom.  :)

I would treat this "recipe" more as a guide than an actual recipe.  I personally did not actually measure out anything.  You can play around with this recipe.  Try using different broths, or different aromatics.  I bet shallots or leeks would also taste good.  You can also experiment with herbs, such as mint, basil, or parsley.  Some people like add heavy cream, which makes it less spring-like, but still delicious in a very different way.  Experiment!  And have fun.  :)


Nerdy Science Lesson

Many fruits and vegetables can turn brown upon contact with oxygen because of certain "defense" compounds (1- and 2- ring phenolic compounds) in the plant's cells.  When the cell wall is bruised, the phenolic compounds escape, reacting with plant enzymes and oxygen.  You can reduce or eliminate browning either by 1) killing the enzymes (boiling/high heat) 2) chilling the food below 40° F, 4° C to slow down the oxidation or 3) Adding a bit of acid to slow down the oxidation process.  Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) inhibits browning in two ways.  It's a strong reducing agent (undo-ing the oxidation that's occuring) and it's also an anti-oxidant, scooping up oxygen so it can't react with the phenols in the plant.

Disclaimer
This post is being submitted for a chance to win Foodbuzz's BACONALIA challenge
 

Spring Pea Soup

Yes, I know it's not spring yet.  And the snow we've been getting lately seems to indicate that spring is nowhere nearby.  Yet the weather has been getting a little warmer lately, and guess what? It's already March!   Time really flies.  Christmas really felt like just yesterday.

I whipped this up tonight because I wanted vegetables for dinner yet I was too hungry and tired to stop by a supermarket.  Instead I supported my local tiny urban convenience store and picked up 2 packages of frozen peas.

I like this soup because it's so simple yet so flexible at the same time.  Unlike its cousin, the hearty split-pea soup, this soup is light, fresh, and totally reminds me of spring.  You can really taste the natural sweetness of the peas, which I love.

Ingredients
1 onion - sliced
2 packages of frozen peas
4-8 strips of bacon
1 cup broth (or water)

Cook bacon over medium-low heat in a skillet until the bacon is nice and crispy (6-10 minutes).  Remove the bacon.  Pour off most of the bacon fat, leaving about 2 tablespoons in the pan.  Saute the onions in the bacon fat until the onions are soft and slightly browned (about 15 minutes).  Add peas and 1 cup of broth and cook at medium heat until the peas are soft (about 5 minutes).  Blend with a hand blender, and salt to taste.

Bacon is optional, but it really adds a nice crunch and smokiness to the dish.  Crumble the bacon and sprinkle on top of the soup.  This can also be enjoyed chilled.

The secret to keeping the pea soup this gorgeous bright green color?  Just a touch of acid (Vitamin C!) to prevent oxidation (which leads to browning) from occurring. I threw in a splash of lemon juice.  You can also crush up a Vitamin C tablet and throw it in after you've blended the peas.  For a nerdy science lesson, scroll to the bottom.  :)

I would treat this "recipe" more as a guide than an actual recipe.  I personally did not actually measure out anything.  You can play around with this recipe.  Try using different broths, or different aromatics.  I bet shallots or leeks would also taste good.  You can also experiment with herbs, such as mint, basil, or parsley.  Some people like add heavy cream, which makes it less spring-like, but still delicious in a very different way.  Experiment!  And have fun.  :)


Nerdy Science Lesson

Many fruits and vegetables can turn brown upon contact with oxygen because of certain "defense" compounds (1- and 2- ring phenolic compounds) in the plant's cells.  When the cell wall is bruised, the phenolic compounds escape, reacting with plant enzymes and oxygen.  You can reduce or eliminate browning either by 1) killing the enzymes (boiling/high heat) 2) chilling the food below 40° F, 4° C to slow down the oxidation or 3) Adding a bit of acid to slow down the oxidation process.  Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) inhibits browning in two ways.  It's a strong reducing agent (undo-ing the oxidation that's occuring) and it's also an anti-oxidant, scooping up oxygen so it can't react with the phenols in the plant.