Cookbook review: ‘Simply Ramen’ makes soups worth the work

Quick Look: Ramen’s all the rage. But not the kind we had in college. Making it from scratch – not a cheap packet – is a lot of work. This cookbook demystifies the process with step-by-step instructions and some 70 recipes.

What’s Inside: Goodbye blocks of hard, dried noodles for cents on the dollar.

Hello homemade noodles and savory soup bases topped with fresh vegetables and ingredients such as paper-thin slices of beef and marinated, half-cooked eggs.

Build your own ramen bowl from scratch – with help from this easy-to-follow guide. Bases and noodles can take several hours to make. So be sure to block out plenty of time or make the base and noodles a day or two before you plan to prepare and eat the soup.

Recipes are simplified and flavorful. They might also require a trip to the closest Asian market for ingredients such as kombu, nori and miso.

Don’t worry about being a ramen virgin. Recipes are identified by degrees of difficulty – levels one through three – so ramen novices can tell right off the bat which ones they might want to try first. A pasta machine or pasta-making attachment for a stand mixer is necessary if you plan to make your own noodles, which is recommended. A stand mixer with a dough hook would also be helpful.

Recipes are divided by soup bases – there are six, including spicy and cold – then continue with toppings, such as a Japanese omelet, braised pork belly, pickled ginger and roasted seaweed. They end with sides, including fried rice, cucumber salad and shrimp gyoza. In the middle, recipes are divided by type of ramen or main ingredients: pork, chicken, beef, seafood, spicy, vegetable, cold and specialties. Look for Kalua Pork and Cabbage Ramen, Furikake Salmon Ramen, Spicy Tofu Ramen and Lobster Ramen. (It’s a specialty.)

This 176-page hardcover book is generally well-organized, although the “Rameducate Yourself” essay in the back of the book might’ve been better suited as part of the introduction, along with the beginning’s “How to Build a Bowl of Ramen” instructions.

The author is a fourth-generation Japanese-American and mother of three who runs the Easy Peasy Japanesey food blog at www.easypeasyjapanesey.com. She lives with her family in the San Francisco Bay Area.

What’s Not: The “Ramen Tour of Tokyo” section in the back of the book spotlights only six restaurants. And each one is afforded a short paragraph at that. It feels like this section needed to be expanded or entirely left out.

Furikake Salmon Ramen

From “Simply Ramen” by Amy Kimoto-Kahn

This level-one (for easy) recipe is great because if you don’t have the ramen soup base or fresh ramen noodles ready, you can eat the salmon on its own with some rice and a vegetable.

1 (24-ounce) salmon fillet, skin on (ask for thickest part)

1⁄4 cup mayonnaise (preferrably Japanese mayonnaise that you can find at Japanese grocers)

1 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)

1 teaspoon sesame oil (such as the Kadoya brand, which is quite strong)

1⁄4 cup furikake (Japanese condiment made from sesame seeds, seaweed and salt)

Ramen noodles, made in advance (See recipe below)

Shoyu base, or your base of choice, made in advance (See recipe below)

1 1⁄2 cups mushrooms, julienned (preferrably shiitake; 1⁄4 cup per serving)

3⁄4 cup chives, chopped (2 tablespoons per serving)

Marinated half-cooked egg, made in advance (See recipe below)

1 1⁄2 lemons, quartered (1 quarter per serving)

Set the oven to broil. Place the salmon, skin side down, on a baking sheet lined with foil or a non-stick liner. In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, shoyu and sesame oil. Using a spatula, evenly spread the mixture in a thin layer over the salmon. Evenly sprinkle furikake over the salmon to lightly coat it.

Broil the salmon for about 8 minutes, or until just done; this varies depending on the thickness of the fillet (do not overcook). Remove from the broiler and slice into 4 even portions, about 1 1⁄2 wide. Remove the salmon skin.

Boil a pot of water for your noodles. In a separate saucepan, bring 12 cups of shoyu base to a boil, then lower the heat and let simmer until it’s ready to serve. Right before serving, crank it back up to boil.

Boil the noodles – if fresh, boil for about 1 minute; if packaged, boil for about 2 minutes. As soon as they’re done, drain well and separate into serving bowls.

Pour 2 cups soup over each bowl of noodles. Top with furikake salmon, mushrooms, chives, and a marinated half-cooked egg. Squeeze the lemon on right before eating, and enjoy while it’s piping hot!

Yield: 6 servings

Ramen Noodles

From “Simply Ramen” by Amy Kimoto-Kahn

If you do venture down the (level-three) homemade noodle path, then keep this in mind: a perfect noodle has a yellow hue, should be cooked al dente, and have a chewy and elastic, yet firm texture that holds up to the soup without getting soggy, all the way until the very last slurp.

2 teaspoon “baked baking soda” (See recipe below), or kansui powder

1 1⁄4 cups water (if you are hand-kneading, change water quantity to 1 1⁄2 cups)

3 1⁄2 cups bread flour, plus extra for dusting

1⁄2 cup cake flour

1 cup wheat flour

1 tablespoon salt

Cornstarch, for dusting

In a small bowl, combine the baked baking soda or kansui powder and water until it dissolves.

In a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the flours, kansui water, and salt. Mix for 10 minutes on the lowest speed until the dough forms little pellets. If you need to, add up to 5 additional teaspoons of water. The dough is ready when it still feels dry but comes together when squeezed with your hand.

Tip the dough onto a floured board and knead into a ball for at least 10 minutes. Alternatively, you can put your dough in a plastic zip-top bag and form it into a ball so that it is easier to bring together and knead.

When you are ready to make your pasta, set up your pasta machine so that it is stable and won’t slip from your work surface.

Cut your dough ball into 8 equal-sized pieces and use one piece at a time, keeping the rest wrapped tightly with plastic wrap or sealed in your zip-top bag and refrigerated.

Roll out one piece until it resembles a flat, long shape. Sprinkle with some cornstarch so it doesn’t stick to the pasta maker. Pass it through your pasta maker on the largest setting—it will be a bit rough at the edges, but don’t worry about how it looks. Fold it over on itself and pass it through the machine again.

Reduce the machine width to 2 and pass through. Fold it over on itself and pass it through again.

Reduce the machine width to 4 and pass it through only once. You will now have one long strip of dough. Cut this strip in half vertically.

Reduce the machine width to 6 and pass through one of the halves twice. Repeat with the other half. Now your dough is ready to run through the noodle cutter attachment.

The two strips will yield enough noodles for 1 bowl of ramen. Repeat steps 6–8 for the remaining dough pieces from step 5. Sprinkle each batch of noodles with additional cornstarch, lifting up the noodles to separate and lightly coat them, then pack them individually in plastic wrap. Let them sit in the refrigerator for at least a day before using. If you are planning to use them later, put them in individual zip-top bags and store them in the freezer for up to one month.

Cook the fresh pasta in a pot of boiling water. Depending on the number of portions, cook for 1–2 minutes. Shake out all excess water and lay a portion in your bowl of hot soup by folding them over onto each other so they do not look messy. Then add the soup and toppings.

Makes: 8 servings

Note: “Baked Baking Soda” replaces a Japanese ingredient known as kansui that is often difficult to find and that gives ramen noodles their signature yellow hue and firmness. Harold McGee, the king of kitchen science, discovered that by baking baking soda, you could get the same effect as the kansui. Spread 1⁄4 cup baking soda on a foil-lined baking sheet and place it in an oven preheated to 275 degrees for 1 hour. As this recipe only calls for 2 teaspoons, you can save the remainder in a zip-top bag. Just fold up the baking soda in the foil to make it easier to put in a storage bag.

Shoyu Base

From “Simply Ramen” by Amy Kimoto-Kahn

With this level-two recipe, Kimoto-Kahn has slow-cooked oxtail sections within her broth in a good crock pot, which helps render the fat from the bones without having to constantly stir. You could also make this in a slow cooker, large Dutch oven, or heavy-duty pot.

4 tablespoons bacon fat (recommended), ghee, or coconut milk

2 medium-sized carrots, peeled and cut into large dice

1⁄2 onion, peeled and cut into large dice

3 green onions, cut into thirds

1 apple, cored and quartered (with skin on)

2 celery stalks, cut into thirds

5 garlic cloves, peeled and left whole

5 dried shiitake mushrooms, broken up into small pieces

1 whole organic chicken

4 medium oxtail sections, roughly 2 inches long

1 lemon, quartered

2 quarts low-sodium chicken stock

3⁄4 cup high-grade soy sauce

4 teaspoons dashi granules (Japanese stock)

2 tablespoons salt

1⁄2 teaspoon white pepper

1 bay leaf

In a crock pot, slow cooker, large Dutch oven, or heavy-duty pot, combine the bacon fat, carrots, onion, green onions, apple, celery, garlic and dried shiitake mushrooms.

Add the whole chicken, oxtails, and lemon, then pour over the chicken stock, followed by the soy sauce, dashi, salt, pepper and bay leaf – the stock should almost cover the chicken.

Set the crock pot or slow cooker to high and let cook for 10 hours. If using a large Dutch oven or pot, bring to a boil over a high heat and set in an oven preheated to 200 degrees for 8-10 hours. When the oxtail meat easily falls off the bone, your soup is done.

With a slotted spoon, remove all of the larger solids and discard. Strain the remaining solids with a finer sieve into a large pot. You should have a light brown, glossy, and fat-rich soup. At this point the stock can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks or frozen for 1 month.

In a separate saucepan, bring the Shoyu Base to a boil, then lower the heat and let simmer until it’s ready to serve. Use about 2 cups per serving. Right before serving, crank it back up to a boil.

Pour 2 cups soup over each bowl of noodles. Top each bowl with desired toppings.

Yield: up to 12 servings

Ajitsuke Tamago (Marinated Half-Cooked Egg)

From “Simply Ramen” by Amy Kimoto-Kahn

1 cup shoyu (soy sauce)

1 cup sugar

1 1⁄2 teaspoon grated ginger

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1⁄2 cup mirin (sweet rice wine)

6 eggs, at room temperature (see note)

1⁄2 cup bonito fish flakes

In a medium saucepan over high heat, whisk together the shoyu, sugar, ginger and garlic in a medium saucepan. Once the mixture starts bubbling and the sugar dissolves, remove from the heat. Make sure it doesn’t bubble over. Stir in the mirin and cool to room temperature or refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. With a slotted spoon or a Chinese strainer, gently add the eggs to the boiling water, and immediately set a timer for 6 1⁄2 minutes.

While the eggs are cooking, prepare an ice-bath for them. When the eggs are done, immediately transfer them to the ice bath. Let them cool in the ice bath for about 10 minutes, then remove the eggs and peel them.

In a shallow container that is deep enough for the eggs to be covered in liquid, combine 3 cups water and 1 cup of your scratch-made teriyaki sauce. Add your eggs; cover them with a paper towel by pressing the paper towel down so it’s touching the top of the eggs; and pour the bonito fish flakes over the paper towel – the weight of the paper towel will help the eggs marinate on all sides and the bonito flakes will flavor the eggs. Let marinate in the refrigerator for 2 days.

Remove the eggs from their soaking liquid and cut each one in half with a very sharp knife.

You’ll end up with a beautiful half-cooked egg filled with liquid-gold goodness, ready to complete any ramen recipe!

Makes: 6 eggs and 2 cups teriyaki sauce

Note: Eggs should be brought to an even temperature in a warm bath before boiling so that cooking times do not vary. Also, poke a pin-sized hole in the bottom of the shells of the eggs for easy peeling later.