andrejthechef
JapanNoodlesDinnerDairy-free

Tonkotsu Ramen

Real tonkotsu ramen: milky pork broth boiled hard for ten hours, chashu belly, marinated eggs and fresh noodles. A weekend project that earns it.

prep
1 h
cook
10 h
total
11 h
serves
4
level
hard
Bowl of tonkotsu ramen with chashu pork, marinated eggs, nori and spring onions

Tonkotsu is the ramen that cannot be faked. The creamy white broth is nothing but pork bones and water at a hard rolling boil for the better part of a day, until the collagen and marrow emulsify into something closer to silk than soup.

It is a weekend project with a plan: broth and chashu on day one, eggs overnight, and a five-minute assembly whenever you want the best bowl in town. Almost everything keeps and freezes.

Ramen is one of the world's classic dishes from 67 countries.

method

  1. Blanch the trotters and chicken in boiling water for 10 minutes, drain, and scrub each piece clean under running water. This is what keeps the broth clean-tasting instead of funky.

  2. Return the bones to the pot, cover with fresh water, and keep at a hard rolling boil, lid ajar, for 8 to 10 hours, topping up with boiling water as it drops. The violent boil is what turns the broth white.

  3. Meanwhile make the chashu: roll and tie the pork belly, brown it all over, then simmer it gently in the soy, sake, mirin, sugar and a splash of water, turning now and then, for 2 hours. Cool it in its liquid.

  4. Make the ajitama: boil the eggs for 6.5 minutes, ice bath, peel, and marinate overnight in half the strained chashu liquid.

  5. Add the ginger, garlic and spring onion whites to the broth for the final hour. Strain it; you want about 1.5 liters of thick, milky broth.

  6. To serve: 2 tablespoons of the remaining chashu liquid (this is your tare) in each warmed bowl, then 350 ml of hot broth. Taste and add more tare for salt.

  7. Cook the noodles 60 to 90 seconds, drain hard, and add to the bowls. Top with sliced seared chashu, a halved egg, menma, spring onion greens, nori and a few drops of sesame or garlic oil.

chef's tips

  • A rolling boil, not a simmer. Simmered bones make clear broth; boiled bones make tonkotsu.
  • The broth freezes perfectly, so one long Sunday funds five future ramen nights.
  • Warm the bowls with hot water first; ramen dies cold, and the noodles only get 90 seconds.