The char siew - I usually prepare a few days in advance (usually weekend when I have more time)
1. I like to buy pork collar from cold storage coz the butcher near my place look very unhygienic. Not all wet market like that but that one near my place is speechless. I get the butcher to slice the middle part open like a book, which means not completely slice off.
2. I grate ginger and garlic as shown in pic and roll it up and tie with string.
3. I will use a cling wrap to wrap it up for a few hours and leave in fridge (my idea is to hold it up and hold it into shape for me)
3. After a few hours, I will boil about 1 litre of water, 2 tablespoons of mirin, 2 tablespoons of kikoman sauce, a dash of sake, some cloves of garlic and a few stalk of cut spring onion
4. After boiling the solution, add pork (take out cling wrap but leave the string alone). After boiling, simmer in low fire. At some point, I may add more water because the liquid is drying.
The recipe above is personal taste. So you may want more sweet than you add more mirin or more salty then add more sauce.
Once I am satisfied, I usually leave it in the pot and keep in fridge after it is cooled down.
Only take out on the day when I want to cook ramen and heat up again
The egg is best to cook the night before
1. When water is boil, turn to low fire and add cold egg and leave it for about 7-8 minutes depending on the size of the egg.
2. Take out and transfer to a bowl of ice water immediately
3. Once it is cool down, I peel the shell very gently because it still feel wobbly inside.
4. I will leave the egg where the pork is in the fridge over night
The soup - I would do nori and bonito if I have time but this is usually my weekday meal (means no time). I found this quick fix in pic thar I bought from cold storage, about 11+ for 20 bags. I normally use 2 bags for a pot of soup good for 3 big bowls.
1. Boil water, add two bags and leave it simmer for 10 or 15 minutes it fine while I chop onion and prepare noodle
The noodle is the secret which my japanese gf told me not to tell years ago. What can a jap do in overseas when they cannot find good ramen and they cannot do from scratch? The answer is angel hair pasta
1. Boil water, add salt and BAKING SODA (a tsp will do)
2. Add pasta and cook it to the texture you like
Assemble
1. Pasta put in individual bowl
2. Put soup and stir with noodle to loosen the noodle up.
3. Add kikkom to taste
4. Add pork, spring onion and egg
Side note about pork and egg. While I started cooking soup base, I will take out the pot with pork and egg. Before i heat up, i will takeout the egg first then start the fire. When it is boiled, i off the fire the add the egg back to give a little warming while i take out the pork to slice and set aside.
This dish need preparation in advance and may seem complicated. But once you have the hang of it and break up the components to do separately, it is quite ok.