RAMEN part II

Part two: Chashu Pork!  

Chashu pork is marinated and braised pork that is often sliced and added on top of tonkotsu ramen. It is actually really easy to make.  I made two versions mostly because I wanted to. Traditionally it is made with pork belly. I made a version with pork belly and pork loin. Believe it or not it is very difficult to find pork belly in North Carolina!  Well at least in Boone. After going to three grocery stores I finally found a stand alone butcher that happened to have some.  I caught him at the perfect moment.  It was bacon making day!  If I had arrived an hour later it would have already been in the smoker turning into bacon.  

Ingredients:

1 - 1 1/2 pound pork belly

Aji-Mirin (sweet cooking rice wine)

Geejeikan-Sake (Junmai-Shu/Pure rice sake)

Good soy sauce (I used organic)

Amakuchi Shoyu (Sweet soy sauce)

Garlic (10 -12 cloves)

Green onions (six or so)

Ginger
1 large shallot

Step one: gather your ingredients.  I like to have everything prepped and ready in front of me.  It wasn't too hard to find all of this at the local grocery store.  You don't have to use the sweet soy sauce but you will have to add sugar to the recipe.  The pork is supposed to be sweet and salty.   I had a one pound piece of pork belly and a 1.5 pound piece of pork loin.  The mixture of liquid was roughly 1 cup of sweet soy sauce, 1/4 of the small bottle of mirin (probably around one cup) 1/4 cup of sake and about 4 tablespoons of regular soy sauce. 

Step two:  Peel garlic.  So there is a trick I learned. There is also a trick to the trick.  If you want to peel a boat load of garlic at once you can do it all in one go.  First separate the cloves from the bulbs.  Try to get all of the excess paper off. Find two stainless bowls that next into each other.  I happen to have two perfect bowls.  They don't have to nest.  You can hold onto the edges to keep them shut.  

Step three:  Hold the two bowls together and shake.  Shake like you have never shaken
 before.  You want to hear the cloves banging around inside the bowls. It should make a loud rattle.  Shake for about two minutes solid.  Be careful the bowls do not become separated. When the smoke clears you will have a big bowl of paper and a bunch of peeled garlic.  You may have to try it a couple of times to get it right.  

Step four:  Cut up the rest of your ingredients.  Rough cut your green onions.  Peel and slice your garlic. Slice up your shallots

Step five: Get your pork ready.  The photos I have are of the skin on pork loin but you basically repeat the recipe for the pork belly.  You want to pour all of your liquid into a large sauce pan start to heat it up.  Wait for it to simmer and then add your vegetables.  Wait at least ten minutes and then add your pork. 

Step six: After about thirty minutes or so check the pork with a thermometer.  If it is ready take it out and throw it in the fridge.  Keep the mirin mixture.  I actually just put the pork belly in and did a second round.  After the pork belly was done, I tried to make soft boiled eggs.  Failure.  They were far too overcooked.  I cooked them for exactly five minutes.  Then I let them soak in the mirin for about an hour.  I think the extra heat from the mirin cooked them further.  

Step seven:  Once the pork is cooked and the eggs are cooked I took the pot off the stove and threw in a few ice cubes.  When it was cook enough, I put the meat and the eggs back in the mirin and threw the whole thing back in the fridge.  When the ramen broth was ready and I was getting ready to plate, I cut the pork belly and the eggs to throw on top  (more in part three)