 Ramen has become a popular
food staple in Los Angeles.
And personally, one I love.
There are so many different ways
to customize your ramen so it
is exactly how you love it.
Whether you add soft-boiled
eggs, pork belly, or both,
ramen is a great afternoon meal.
The pros can spend
days on their broth,
but my recipe starts
with a pork belly
and ends in a delicious meal.
First, we're going to add the
sugar onto the pork belly.
So I just rub it in.
And kind of give the
pork a little massage.
And try to get
the sides as well.
Then, same thing with the salts.
Same thing with the pepper.
And then, place it skin
side up in an oven-safe pan.
The sake gets poured on top.
And I'm going to pop
this into the oven at 275
for about an hour and a half.
And then, we crank
up the heat to 450,
just to caramelize
it at the end.
When I think of LA
cuisine, the things
that come right off
the top of my head
are tacos, sushi, Korean
BBQ, and definitely ramen.
To make our broth,
it's pretty simple.
A little bit of bacon goes
into the bottom of the pan.
Mirin, the soy sauce,
and some roasted onion,
ginger, leeks that have been cut
in half, green onion, and then
some fresh garlic cloves.
And that adds really
fabulous green flavors.
It adds a little
bit of brightness,
kind of punches it up.
So I'm going to bring
that up to a boil,
and then to simmer for
about 2 hours at minimum.
Up to 4 hours if you really
want to have those flavors
come together.
But that's a quick version
of getting a really
great ramen broth on the go.
So it's time to put
everything together.
And this is my favorite
part because this
is where the fun is.
So you can either
strain the soup
and have the broth on hand.
Or if you're lazy like me,
you can just put the strainer
in your ramen bowl.
So next, I'm going to top it
off with the ramen noodles.
So with the ramen noodles,
I just cooked these the way
the package said.
I definitely undercooked
them ever so slightly
so that they didn't get gummy
in the broth after I added them.
Going to layer the pork belly
right on top of the noodles.
And then, I'm going to add
nori, also known as seaweed.
And what I like to
do with this here
is actually toast it
over an open flame.
So it actually
crisps up the nori
and brings out this really
fabulous nutty flavor.
I'm going to add a sprinkling of
green onion across everything.
A touch of hot sauce
because I love spice.
And then honestly, my favorite
thing, the soft-boiled egg.
What I love most about ramen,
especially traditional ramen,
is it's like a little
bowl of history.
The ramen noodles are
actually Chinese in origin
because of the influx of wheat.
The amazing broth, that sort of
is representative of whatever
part of Japan it's in.
So this is definitely not
your traditional ramen,
but it is my twist on it.
And I think it tastes
really delicious.
All right, this is
going to get slurpy.
It's going to get messy, but
I feel like we're friends
now, so I think it's OK.
All right.
Here we go.
