Tonkotsu Ramen Soup

A Japanese dish I came to love during my stay in Japan. And I love all kinds of meat based soups.

I have seen so many YT videos from people who visited Ramen shops in Tokyo and the different kinds of soups that are the base to this dish. They vary a lot and some are a bit unusual for my taste.
They cook the easiest one with dashi stock and soy sauce, then they have the ones based on the miso paste, others are fish stock and chicken stock, some are creamy others are clear. Then they serve the hot Ramen dishes with lots of chili paste in. People start to sweat all around you.

The shops with the Tonkatsu soup simmer their pork bones and meat for sometimes up to 30 hours. Huge pot simmer in the back for the next couple of days with lots of pigs heads and other pieces of the animal.


I bought a lot of pork belly and pork bones yesterday together with a kilo of vegetables. And after 6,5 hours on the stove, the endresult was awesome.
I just chopped some fresh veggies, cooked some eggs and soaked them in a mirin/soy sauce liquid and cooked enough noodles to eat with my friend at work tomorrow at lunch break.

I had to dilute the stock with water, it was too concentrated otherwise.

recipe:
1.3 kg pork belly with bones
3 marrow bones
1 kg soup veggies like carrots, celeriac, leek
1 large red onion
5 cloves of garlic
1 large piece of fresh ginger
1 fresh chili
1 tbsp peppercorns
1 1/2  tsp salt
3 bay leaves
2,2 l water

270 g organic Ramen noodles
200 g Daikon radish
100 g sugarsnap peas
1 spring onion
3 eggs soft boiled
soy sauce and mirin
Noori sheet
Char chou or pork meat 


In a huge pot in some water cook the bones and the pork belly until the impurities come out, with a slotted spoon and a bowl of water scoop all the muck out. It will take about 10 minutes until everything is gone.
Add the veggies and season and add the rest of the water.
Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to  simmer and cook for 3,5 hours.
Let it cool down completely and get it into the cold over night.
Scoop out most of the white fat sitting on top of the soup.
Bring it back to the stove and simmer it for 3 more hours.
Cook the eggs until they are done on the outside but soft in the middle, cool them in cold water. Mix soy sauce and mirin and put the peeled eggs in. Put a glass on top so they wont float.
Let it cool down a bit, scoop out meat and bones on one plate and the veggies on to an other. Discard the veggies. Use a knife to seperate the meat from the fat and bones of the pork belly and set aside.
Cook the noodles about 4 minutes and wash them in cold water. Heat up some of the stock, add some mirin and soy sauce 8from the eggs) and enough water to your taste, put the noodles in and warm them up again.
Chop the veggies and scoop the eggs out of the dark liquid and bring everything together in a bowl .
Half the egg and place a piece of Noori at the edge.
If there is still stock left, it is easy to freeze it or store it in a twist off glass for 2 weeks to enjoy an other time.