Ginger Pork and Shiitake Ramen
Recipe bySweet salty meat with a little heat, broth made richer with ground toasted sesame seeds, lightly chewy shiitake bursting with umami, and a touch of tang from pickled ginger. All that in a bowl of instant ramen.
Ingredients
Sweet salty ground pork
- 200 grams ground pork with at least 20% fat for better flavor
- 1 teaspoon dashi granules
- ¼ teaspoon grated ginger
- 1 tablespoon mirin
- 2 pinches sugar
- salt optional
Noodle soup
- 3 to 4 dried shiitake soaked in hot water for 20 minutes
- bok choy or other Asian cabbage, as much or as little as you like
- 2 packs instant ramen
- 1 tablespoon ground toasted sesame seeds (you may ½ tablespoon substitute store-bought Asian sesame seed paste)
- salt optional
- pickled ginger (gari) to garnish
Instructions
Cook the pork
- Spread the ground pork in a heated non-stick frying pan.
- Sprinkle in the dashi granules and ginger.
- Cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned.
- Add the mirin and sugar.
- Continue cooking until the liquid has been soaked up and the sugar has caramelized.
- Taste the pork and, if needed, add salt.
Cook the noodle soup
- Cut off the shiitake stalks and discard; slice the caps thinly.
- Cut off the root ends of the bok choy, rinse the leaves and set aside.
- In a pan, boil four cups of water.
- Drop in the noodles and cook for two minutes.
- Drop in the bok choy and sliced shiitake caps, and cook everything together for two to two and a half minutes.
- Drain the noodles, bok choy and shiitake, and arrange in bowls.
- Rinse the pan, pour in the shiitake soaking liquid and enough water to make two cups, and bring to the boil.
- Stir in the seasoning (and dried vegetables, if any) from the instant ramen packet, and the ground sesame seeds.
- Taste the broth and add salt, if needed.
Finish assembling the noodle soup
- Divide the ground pork between the two bowls.
- Pour hot broth over the noodles, bok choy, pork and shiitake.
- Add pickled ginger and serve at once.