About the Recipe
Originally a Chinese dish from the City of Chengdu, Tantan Ramen is a favourite dish all over Japan.
Ingredients
1 pak choi, rinsed
1 white part of spring onion, rinsed
2.5cm / 1 inch ginger, peeled
2 large garlic cloves
200g / 7oz minced beef
2 tsp vegetable oil
1/2 tbsp Toban djan (chilli bean sauce)
2 tsp miso
2 tbsp Japanese cooking sake
for the broth:
2 tsp vegetable oil
350ml / 12floz water
2 tsp vegetable stock granules
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp sesame paste or tahini
2 tsp saoy sauce
350ml / 12floz soy milk
2 packs of instant ramen noodles (only the noodles, you won’t need the seasoning powder that comes bundled in the pack.)
Preparation
cut the white part of a large spring onion longways into shreds. then put the shreds into a small bowl of water. (this is just so they curl up - it’s purely cosmetic.)
remove the root end of a pakchoi. cut in half to separate the green leaves, then slice the white part in half longways. rinse the leaves and set aside.
mince the cloves of garlic and put them in a small bowl.
repeat with the piece of ginger.
heat 2 tsp of vgetable oil in a frying pan. add 1/2 of the minced ginger and 1/2 of the minced garlic. stir fry for 1 minute.
add the minced beef to the frying pan and stir fry for 1-2 minutes. next, add the toban djan, miso and cooking sake. stir fry for about 2-3 minutes until the beef is cooked, before turning off the heat.
to make your soup broth, add 2 tsp of vegetable oil to a hot saucepan. add the rest of the garlic and ginger and stir fry for about 1 minute.
next, add the water, vegetable stock granules, sesame paste, oyster sauce and soy sauce. stir together well and bring to the boil.
turn down the heat and add the soy milk. at this stage, keep the soup broth hot but don’t let it boil or the soy milk may curdle.
bring a large pan of water to boil. cook the instant noodles according to the instructions on the packet (usually 4 minutes.) 1 minutes before the noodles are ready, add the pak choi leaves.
when the 1 minute is up, remove the pak choi and drain the noodles.
to serve, add the drained noodles to 2 serving bowls. then, add the soup broth, the minced beef and the pak choi.
last, garnish with the shreds of spring onion.