6spring onions roughly choppedplus extra sliced for garnish
1head of garlichalved
5cmpiece gingersliced
Cooked ramen noodlesto serve
Pork cookingliquid to taste
1tbspMSG
For the pork (to be made in advance)
90mlmirin
90mlsake
Neutral cooking oilfor shallow frying
4cmpiece of gingersliced
4garlic cloveslightly crushed
4spring onionsroughly chopped
1.5kgrolled pork belly
250mlsoy sauce
70ggranulated sugar
For the soy eggs (to be made in advance)
2soft/medium boiled eggspeeled
TogarashiJapanese 7 Spice, to taste
Pork cooking liquid
Instructions
Begin by preparing the pork, ideally on the day before.
Preheat oven to 120C/Gas ½.
In a bowl, mix together the soy sauce, sugar, mirin and sake.
Place a large oven proof dish on the hob, over high heat. Sear the pork on all sides until browned, around 2 minutes per side. Pour over the soy sauce mixture. Add the ginger, garlic and onions. Then top up with extra water until at least half the pork belly is submerged. Cover with a lid and cook in the oven for 3 hours, turning the pork every half an hour.
Leave the pork and cooking liquid to cool then transfer to fridge and chill overnight (minimum 6 hours).
Once completely cooled, remove the fat from the top of the cooking liquid. Transfer the pork to a cutting board. Remove the string and slice into thin pieces. Before serving heat the pork slices in a non-stick frying pan until golden.
Also make the soy eggs in advance. When chilling the pork, add the eggs to the cooking dish to soak overnight, if there isn’t space decant some of the liquid into a smaller dish. If possible, flip the eggs after a few hours.
To prepare the ramen, preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 6. Cut the chicken wings through their joints into smaller pieces. Spread the wings, carrots and brown onions out in a large roasting tin and cook for 45-60 minutes in the oven or until golden brown, flipping hallway through the cooking time.
Over high heat, transfer the roasting pan to the hob and pour in around 500ml of water. Use a wooden spoon to scrape up all the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Then transfer the contents of the pan to a large stockpot.
Place the stock pot over a high heat and add the kombu, shiitake, spring onions, garlic and ginger. Top up with 2.5 litres of water. Bring the stock to a simmer then reduce the heat to low and simmer gently for 3 hours, skimming the surface every so often.
Remove and reserve the shiitake mushrooms. Remove and discard the chicken and aromatics. Strain the broth through a fine mesh sieve. Pour the broth into a clean saucepan. Season the broth with MSG add some of the pork cooking liquid to taste. (I use around 230ml).
To serve, place the cooked noodles in serving bowls. Ladle over the soup broth. Top with the fried pork slices. Slice the reserved shiitake mushrooms and add the mushroom slices to the bowl. Add half an egg and sprinkle over the spring onion and some togarashi onto the eggs.
Notes
Cook the noodles in separate salted water. Cooking in the broth will add starch making the broth cloudy.