Thank you for joining Ramen Class with Hiroko last Friday evening at InternationalCulinaryCenter. Great full class! Chef Deniz and Student Assistants, Cristos, Shidaree and Alejandro, thank you for assisting me to run the class smooth. Everyone was impressed with the texture and flavor of home-made ramen noodles. The use of 
pasta machine made the process of ramen noodle making for students a piece of cake experience. “Oh,…so easy!”, how many students uttered the same phrase during the class? The ramen stock, which was cooked for over 7 hours under specific instructions, produced savory and rich flavor. We enjoyed our ramen in two flavors – one was shoyu ramen, in which ramen stock is flavored with chashu pork cooking liquid, and the other was miso ramen. To make miso sauce for the miso ramen we used traditionally brewed, organic, non-GMO miso from Miso Master Miso. We cooked it with grated ginger, garlic and shoyu. A little history: Shoyu ramen was the creation of the end of the 19th century in Tokyo, and the miso ramen, in Sapporo, Hokkaido, around 1950s. Knowing the history of food – where it came form – always enrich our eating experience.
There was a question from Melissa and Marilyn, class attendees. They enjoyed vegetarian ramen at Kajitsu (https://kajitsunyc.com/). And, they want to know how to prepare the vegetable stock for vegetarian ramen. I have not made it before, but, here is a recipe for a try.
8 qt water
1 large onion
1 1/2 pound cabbage
1 large carrot
2 oz dried shiitake soaked in water overnight
1 1/2 ounce kombu
In a large pot add all ingredients, except kombu, and cook for half an hour. Ten minutes before finishing cooking, add the kombu. Drain the stock, discarding or consuming the cooked vegetables.
For the Gyoza we made the very traditional one – pork, nira scallion and Chinese cabbage. After learning this authentic one, I told the students that they can mess it around to create their own favorite one. Everyone learned that successful gyoza making requires patience and training……Josep had no idea how difficult it is. Anyway, the result was delicious pieces.
