We bought
more
Onomichi
ramen (尾道ラ一メン) from
Amochinmi (阿藻珍味) in spring. They came with different
soup stock. One was a light version of
the regular shouyu soup – ‘Assari!’ – prepared with usukuchi shouyu (light soy sauce 薄味醤油) and half the amount of pork fat. Another was a rich version – ‘Noukou kotteri!’ – made with kogashi shouyu (caramelized soy sauce焦がし醤油). The third was ‘Tonkotsu’ (とんこつ), a white stock of
pork bone and in this case enriched with small fish from
Seto Inland Sea and oysters from
Hiroshima prefecture.
All were very good.
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| Assari! ramen |
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| Noukou kotteri! ramen |
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| Tonkotsu ramen |
We ate them with
slices of home-made chashu, and
sometimes with boiled gyuutan (beef
tongue).
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| ramen with beef tongue |
* * *
Amochinmi has introduced a number of cold ramen for the hot Japan summer. The offerings include chilled lemon (冷やし檸檬ラーメン) and tomato ramen (冷やしトマトラーメン), cold ramen with sesame sauce (ごまだれ)
and sweet vinegar sauce (甘酢だれ), and the spicy hot Hiroshima tsukeramen (広島流つけ麺). Tsukeramen,
originated from Hiroshima, is cold ramen eaten with a dipping sauce that has
been spiced up with red hot chili pepper (唐辛子), nin’niku (garlic) and goma (sesame). We are looking forward to trying all of them
as soon as they are delivered.
* * *
Besides Amochinmi,
we tried a shio koji (塩麴) ramen made by
Menno Shimizuya of Hida (飛騨), Gifu Prefecture (岐阜県).
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| shio koji ramen |
Shio koji, the fermented product of rice inoculated with a mould culture
called aspergillus oryzae (the same starter for sake,
soy sauce and miso), salt and water. It
has been the latest trendy
food ingredient in Japan for
its health benefits. Firstly, it is a probiotic.
Secondly, it contains much less sodium than salt but just as much
umami. It is being
used in place of salt for seasoning and pickling. We
have enjoyed karaage (deep fried
chicken meat) and tsukemono (pickled
vegetables eaten with rice) marinated with shio koji, so we were eager to try this
shio koji ramen. We were surprised that the soup gave us a thirst
for the rest of the day. I could not understand that since one
benefit of shio koji was to reduce
the sodium intake. Out
of curiosity, I read the nutritional information on the back of the soup packet and was shocked that it contained 2,515 mg of sodium, 10%
over the recommended daily limit of 2,300 mg. Incredible!!!
* * *
My not-so-precise recipe for making Japanese Chashu (チャ一シュ一):
Poaching liquid: Put a cup of koikuchi
shouyu (濃口醤油 dark soy
sauce), mirin (みりん sweet cooking sake) and junmai sake (純米清酒 sake brewed without added alcohol) into a pot. Heat up the liquid to a gentle boil. Add sugar to your taste.
Pork for Chashu: The pork should have some fat. Many people use kata rosu (肩口一ス shoulder roast) or bara (バラ pork belly). I use both, and sometimes also sotomomo (そともも pork butt).
Cooking the Chashu: Make sure there is enough poaching liquid to
cover the pork; add water if necessary.
Bring the liquid to a boil. Add
the pork. Let the liquid returns to
boiling. Cover the pot and turn off the
heat. After 15 minutes, bring the liquid
to a boil a second time. Again, turn off
the heat and leave the pork in the covered pot.
Repeat the process a couple of more times for a large piece of pork. Slice
the chashu thinly for ramen. This
quick recipe is very different from the usual ones that simmer the chashu
for a long time until it is tender.
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| Home made chashu |
Save the poaching liquid: The liquid keeps well if you refrigerate it
after it cools down. You can reuse it
for making more chashu or braising other meat.
The liquid acquires more flavors from the meat with each use. You can also reduce the liquid to make a
thick sweet sauce similar to tare for yakitori and teriyaki.
