Truffle Shoyu Ramen

This time I will be making a bowl of truffle shoyu ramen inspired by Tsuta Tokyo, the first ramen restaurant to receive a Michelin star. I visited this ramen shop in 2018 and I remember lining up at 8 in the morning just to try their signature shoyu ramen. It tasted really good and it was very refined. Although this whole ramen-making process requires a lot of time and effort, it was definitely worth it in the end!

Ingredients

Ramen Noodles (~5 to 6 portions)

• 195 g water
• 6 g sodium carbonate
• 5 g salt
• 450 g bread flour
• 50 g rice flour
• 5 g egg white powder
• 5 g vital wheat gluten

Shoyu Tare (~20 portions/bowls)

• 18 g dried shiitake mushrooms
• 675 g soy sauce
• 23 g kombu
• 30 g niboshi
• 22.5 g katsuobushi
• 80 g sake
• 75 g mirin
• 200 g mussel (de-shelled and frozen)

Chicken Soup Base (~20 portions/bowls)

• 5 kg stewing hen
• 2 kg chicken feet
• 800 g chicken carcass
• 500 g chicken thigh bones
• 3 large yellow onions
• 8 Tokyo leeks
• 10 litres of water

Chashu

• 2 pieces of pork loins (I wanted to try something different and used pork loins this time, but you can definitely use pork belly or pork shoulder or whatever you like!)
• Soy sauce and sake at 2 : 1 ratio

For this truffle shoyu ramen video, I had old chashu braising liquid from my previous video in the freezer so I used that.

Truffle Pork Wontons (~50 pieces)

• 600 g ground pork
• 100 g oyster mushroom
• 25 g grated garlic
• 25 g koikuchi soy sauce
• 5 g fish sauce
• 50 g chicken stock
• 10 g corn starch
• 30 g chicken fat
• 10 g oyster sauce
• 25 g truffle paste
• 20 g white truffle oil
• 0.5 g white pepper

Soft Boiled Marinated Eggs (Ajitama)

• Eggs
• Soy sauce marinating liquid

Instructions 

Ramen Noodles

1. First, make the alkaline water by mixing the water and sodium carbonate in three batches. Add the measured salt to the mixture, mix and set aside.
2. Next, measure out the bread flour on a stand-top mixer bowl. Add in the rice flour, egg white powder, and vital wheat gluten.
3. Mix with a dough hook attachment until all the dry components are mixed thoroughly.
4. Slowly pour in the alkaline water as the machine runs.
5. Once the alkaline water has been thoroughly incorporated, take it out of the mixer and move the mixture into a vacuum bag to vacuum pack.
6. Let the mixture rest for an hour.
7. Cut open the vacuum bag. Press and knead until the mixture forms into a dough.
8. Flatten the dough (I used a noodle machine for this one since the dough is lower in hydration percentage).
9. Run it through the pasta machine. Fold and run it through repeatedly until the dough becomes completely smooth.
10. Put on the noodle attachment on the pasta machine and cut the dough into noodles.
11. Let the noodles rest for at least two days in the fridge.

Shoyu Tare

1. Combine the kombu, shiitake, soy sauce, and mirin. Let is soak for 24 hours in the fridge.
2. After 24 hours, measure out the niboshi in a pot.
3. Put the pot on the stove and add oil. Toast the niboshi until lightly browned.
4. Add the sake to the pot and boil for 5 minutes.
5. Add in the soy sauce mixture in step 1. Add mussels and bring it up to a boil.
6. Take the kombu out when it boils.
7. Add in katsuobushi to the pot.
8. Turn off the heat and let it sit on the residual heat for 30 minutes.
9. Strain the tare mixture through a sieve into a container.

Chicken Soup Base

1. Combine stewing hen, chicken carcass, chicken thigh bones, and chicken feet in a big pot
2. Cover with water.
3. Bring it up to heat to 90C and remove the impurities that float on top.
4. Continuously monitor the temperature to keep it around 90C.
5. Add leeks and onions that’s been halved.
6. Cook for 12 hours, maintaining the temperature around 90C.
7. Strain the stock carefully into another pot.
8. Scoop the chicken fat on top of the soup and reserve.

Braised Chashu

1. Tie a pork loin with a butcher’s twine to shape them into rounds.
2. Put into a zip lock bag and add in 2 part of soy sauce and 1 part of sake. (The amount of soy sauce and sake depends on the size of your pork.)
3. Set up sous vide machine at 60C.
4. Cook the pork loin chashu at 60C for 1 hour and 30 minutes.
5. Take out the chashu from the sous vide, and chill in the fridge in the bag.

Truffle Pork Wontons

1. Cut up oyster mushrooms finely. Put it aside.
2. In a bowl, combine ground pork and the minced oyster mushrooms.
3. Add in grated garlic, soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, mushroom truffle paste, white pepper, truffle oil, corn starch, chicken fat, and the cooled chicken stock from above.
4. Mix and combine thoroughly.
5. Wrap filling in wonton skins.

Soft Boiled Marinated Eggs (Ajitama)

1. Bring up water to a boil in a pot.
2. Boil eggs to a soft boil (~6 minutes and 50 seconds for large eggs).
3. Make an ice bath and set it aside.
4. Take the eggs out and shock them in the ice bath.
5. When they are completely chilled, peel the eggs.
6. Put the peeled eggs into a container.
7. Marinate eggs by pouring in the chashu braising liquid from earlier, diluted with water. (Feel free to use the soy sauce egg marinade recipe as well)
8. Let it marinate for at least 24 hours, ideally 48 hours.

Putting Everything Together

1. Cut scallions to your preferred shape for garnish. Set aside.
2. Caramelize whole green onion on a pan. Set aside.
3. Take out chilled chashu from the bag and pat dry. Cut off the butcher’s twine and trim away the bone. Slice it to the preferred thickness and set it aside.
4. Bring water and chilled chicken soup to a boil in two separate pots.
5. Boil the wontons first for 5 minutes.
6. When they are 50 seconds away from being done, add the ramen noodles to a strainer and boil in the same pot. Set the timer to 1 minute. Stir the noodles to prevent them from sticking.
7. Meanwhile, scoop in the shoyu mussel tare, chicken fat, and truffle oil in a ramen bowl.
8. Take the hot chicken soup and pour it into the ramen bowl.
9. Take the wontons and noodles out once they are done. Drain the water well from the noodles and add the noodles into the soup.
10. Give it a stir, and fold the noodles to give it a plating surface.
11. Add the thinly sliced chashu, truffle wontons, caramelized green onion, marinated egg, and scallions onto the bowl.
12. Finish with minced black truffle paste and truffle oil.

Tip: The ramen plating process should be very quick so the noodles don’t become overcooked and soggy. Make sure you have everything organized and all the garnishes ready to go before you put together the ramen! 

My take on Truffle Shoyu Ramen!