In this complete guide we will see everything about ramen, its types, ingredients, curiosities, recipes, composition, dough and everything you need to know about the traditional Japanese noodles in the broth that conquered the world.
The ramen or ramen [拉麺] is a Chinese dish that was enhanced in Japanese cuisine, having different ingredients and recipes, but keeping the same preparation base. This noodle soup is one of the most popular and consumed dishes in Japan.
What is a ramen?
Ramen is a simple dish consisting of a noodle soup with a variety of ingredients and flavors. Restaurants usually make their own pasta used in the dish, as well as under the and udon.
There are a multitude of types of ramens. They can have beef, seafood, miso soup, vegetables and some go further and are prepared with exotic ingredients. There is even charred and black ramen.
Difference between Lamen and Ramen?
Ramen or Ramen, which is the right name? – In Japan there is no letter “R”, so it’s kind of like the traditional Chinese name lamian turned ramen when exported to Japan. There is no right or wrong, so we use both forms randomly in the text.
In English it is more common to find ramen. But we believe that ramen it's the right way in refer to the Japanese dish. Lamen, in general, refers to the way in Chinese preparation, but both are bowls of hot broth with noodles.
The name "ramen” means stretched mass [拉] (there) and noodles [麺] (men). He is therefore the protagonist of the dish. Flour, egg and water, are the three basic ingredients that produce this variety of noodles.
History of Ramen in Japan
Some claim that the ramen was introduced to Japan by Chinese immigrants in the late 19th century. A simple Chinese-style sliced pork noodles with broth. It is unknown if this idea has been used before.
It wasn't until the end of World War II that the dish really became popular in Japan. The scarcity of food along with the abundance of wheat flour and lard has made thousands of restaurants in ramen appeared all over Japan.
Ramen was sold at food stalls called yatai for low prices, making it a great post-war salvation. In 1980 it was already a fever with each region of Japan having its own ramen.
In Brazil the dish was also popularized at this time with the immigration of Japanese to Brazil. In São Paulo there were already ramen since 1950. It's a shame it hasn't spread to other regions without a high concentration of Japanese.
How is ramen made?
Ramen is usually made as a spice, there are even experts who investigate ramen restaurants across the country looking for the perfect flavor. Its preparation consists of two important things, the pasta and the broth.
How is the ramen noodles?
An important feature is that it uses wheat flour as raw material instead of buckwheat as the under the. In addition, an alkaline solution of salt called brackish water is added, which differs the dough from the other traditional ones from Japan and the West.
Generally, the noodles of the ramen houses are homemade, some use a machine to cut and manufacture it, but some are totally handmade, others are industrialized, but the real ramen factories do it in a homemade way.
Noodles can also be classified according to thickness as “thin noodles”, “medium thin noodles”, “medium thick noodles”, “thick noodles” and the like. Macaroni crimping is also considered.
The main dough is usually based on wheat flour, salt and water, where the shapes change in thickness and texture. can also be used man (thinner), only (made with just wheat and water), under the (made with buckwheat) and udon (thicker).
If you are interested, we recommend reading the article about types of japanese noodles.
How is the ramen soup?
the soup of ramen is called "suupu” [スープ]. Soup is a very important factor that determines the flavor of ramen, and most wail they use an elaborate and time-consuming soup. Soup is usually made with several ingredients.
Vegetables, soy sauce, bonito flakes and chips, chicken bones, pork, beef, trimmings and seaweed, vegetables, leeks, ginger and garlic are usually used. Everything will depend on the type of ramen, but the possibilities are great.
The sauce to be seasoned has a fragrance that floats and changes flavor when heated for a long time, so dashi and sauce are prepared separately. There are also commercial soups that allow you to speed up this sauce production process.
Basic aromatic seasonings (miso, salt, soy sauce) spices and seasonings (sugar, salt, umami, mirin, sake, vinegar) and other ingredients (vegetables, seaweed, fruits, a mixture of paste and powder or extract) are also used. of meat).
Flavoring oil that emphasizes richness and umami can also be used. Garlic-based oils, spicy oils, lard, chicken oil, shrimp oil, vegetable oils with strong characteristics such as olives and sesame, herbs and flavors.
Differences between ramen and noodles
Noodles is an industrial instant noodle that promises to bring the taste of ramen to your home. The truth is that even though it is very popular, Noodles are far away when it comes to ramen which is an artisanal noodle.
The ramen handmade takes hours and hours to be ready, while the noodles are made in just 5 minutes. And even if we put ingredients in the noodles, it will never even come close to a ramen.
The ramen it has a totally different texture, aroma and flavor, a completely unique sauce and not that sachet of seasoning that comes with instant noodles. not even the Cup Noodles comes close to one ramen.
There are sauces wail that take about 20 hours to get ready. A professional ramen cook needs a degree if he wants to make a wail Perfect. Never! never compare a wail with noodles.
Types of Ramen
There are types of ramen found in different restaurants. Although each place has its own unique flavor, we can categorize the main ones as:
Shoyu ramen
Shoyu ramen [醤油ラーメン] or soy sauce soup ramen is considered the staple flavor of ramen. Depending on the broth that is combined, it is divided into a wide range of types, from light, refreshing soups to thick, cloudy soups.
There are many types of ramen that reflect regional characteristics, as seafood soup stock and soy sauce are sometimes boiled together with mirin. It's tasty without being cloying. One of the main types of ramen in Japan and the most balanced.
Soup broth is made by boiling chicken and other ingredients for several hours, but there are several ramen shops that also use pork or beef bones as ingredients for soup broth. Most local ramens are soy sauce based.
shio ramen
The shio ramen [塩ラーメン] has the broth based on salt. But do not imagine that he is simpler than the others. Although salt is its base, the flavor goes much further and so does the amount of ingredients.
The characteristics of soup broth are more likely to appear than in the wail of soy sauce, that's because the sauce itself has a lighter flavor than the others, your soup is not cloudy because it doesn't boil strongly like the others.
The soup is usually seasoned with chicken sauce and pork bones. As the name says, its base is salt, so expect something salty, but nothing that Brazilians are not used to. Some add pepper and even soy sauce.
Miso Ramen
The miso ramen [味噌ラーメン] or miso soup lamen is characterized by the miso scent and more depth in the broth. There are several types of miso, there are many that have a rich flavor, others even use baked miso.
The miso ramen was invented in Sapporo in the year 1955 by Morito Omiya, the owner of the Aji no Sanpei restaurant in Sapporo. It is very likely that others miso ramen emerged in Japan without Sapporo's influence.
Other Ramen Grades
We have seen the top 3 ratings of wail from Japan, but there are many other types that we will briefly summarize. It is also worth mentioning that ramen can be classified by ingredients, meat and even the type of broth (we saw the base of the broth).
white hot water soup – paitan [パイタン] – It has a cloudy color and can be used with pork or chicken, along with vegetables and fish bones. White broth is called sayu [白湯] while the traditional broth soy sauce [清湯].
soup broth – jingtan [チンタン] – Dashi soup without cloudiness, egg white is used to remove the cloudiness. It usually has a more refreshing taste compared to white hot water soup broth.
curry soup – karedashi [カレー出汁] – Shops that specialize in curry ramen often use spices to match the curry. Many have claimed the creation of the broth of wail curry base, but its origin is uncertain.
Remembering that the soups and broths above are used together with base broth that can be salt, soy sauce or miso. There are other types of ramen or noodle recipes that can be mentioned below:
Tan Tan Men – Ramen that originated in China, well seasoned, for those who like stronger and spicy flavors. tanmen is a savory noodle soup made by boiling soup and noodles together with other base ingredients.
Tsuke Men – Ramen where the noodles are served separately and you have to dip them in the thick sauce while eating.
- Chāshūmen [チャーシュー麺] noodles with lots of chāshū, pieces of roasted pork;
- Wantanmen [ワンタン麺] wonton noodles popular in other countries;
- Paakoomen [パーコー麺] with fried ribs or fried meat, some serve boiled ribs;
- Chanponmen [チャンポン麺] made from fried meat and vegetables with eggs;
- Amatsumen [天津麺] made with crab balls served with thick bean paste;
- Gomokumen [五目麺] from the Kanto region that uses various ingredients;
- cantonmen [広東麺 uses Cantonese noodles;
Typical Ramen Toppings
In addition to broth and noodles, we have other traditional ingredients that are present in almost every ramen dish, see below a list of main ingredients that serve as toppings for ramen:
Menma (fermented bamboo shoots)
Menma are fermented bamboo shoots. Its pleasant crunchiness provides an additional textural element when eating ramen. Some restaurants also make their own menma.
CharSiu (pork slices)
charsiu or chāshū are slices of roasted or boiled pork, usually seasoned with soy sauce. It is one of the main ingredients that attracts the attention of carnivores and is present in most ramen dishes.
Kamaboko and Naruto (Fish Cakes)
Naruto-maki are steamed cakes made from processed fish paste, shaped like a swirl when cut into cross-sections. Its name is said to be due to the whirlpools that form in the Naruto Strait in Tokushima Prefecture.
These fish balls are also called kamaboko or surimi and they can have different shapes and colors, but naruto is the most common to be used. It's the same as that one kani that we found in Brazil.
Moyashi (bean sprouts)
These edible legumes are artificially grown without being exposed to sunlight, creating vegetables rich in nutrients like vitamin C. bean sprouts from western Japan are thin and long, while those from eastern and northern Japan are thick and crispy.
Wakame and Nori (seaweed)
Nori are thin, edible leaves of seaweed. Its crunchy texture and aroma are also used in sushi. They provide high mineral and nutrient content and a sea scent. If you want to know more, we have a article about nori.
wakame is a variety of kelp that is quickly boiled and used as a topping for ramen. O wakame It has a firm texture, pleasant fragrance and high nutritional value. There is also kuki wakame ramen, which uses wakame stalks as a topping.
Beni-shoga (pickled ginger)
Beni-shoga, or pickled ginger, is a must-have in any tonkotsu ramen bowl, providing a layer of contrasting flavor. Ginger is pickled in salt, or dried in the sun and then in plum vinegar.
Kikurage (sliced mushrooms)
These black mushrooms grow on fallen trees and dead branches from spring to autumn. They are mostly eaten in East Asia and as a topping for ramen bowls in Japan.
In addition to the Japanese ingredients mentioned, we also have:
- onions;
- Leek;
- Boiled eggs;
- Corn;
- Butter;
Products to make Ramen
Before making your ramen recipe, you need to have the necessary ingredients. Some can be purchased on Amazon Brazil. I will also leave some original instant ramens from Japan, which are far superior to Brazilian noodles.
Gourmet Lamen – Learn to make your Ramen
You will find ramen recipes in abundance on the internet, but it is difficult to make perfect ramen like ramen restaurants in Japan. It is also very difficult to find a ramen restaurant in most cities in Brazil.
With this in mind, the Lamen Gourmet course was created, which teaches the creation of professional ramen for your own consumption or to set up your own restaurant, or increase the menu of your sushibar. Whatever your intention, we recommend Lamen Gourmet!
The Lamen Gourmet course will teach you how to make the 5 most popular types of ramen in Japan. You will learn how to make Shio Lamen, Shoyu Lamen, Misso Lamen, Tantan Lamen and Tsukemen.
The course will teach you step by step from the choice of ingredients, the initial preparations and the ideal side dishes. As a gift, he will still teach you how to make the famous karaage, unique japanese fried chicken.
Ramen is not as easy to prepare as some might think. Sometimes hours are spent preparing ingredients, not to mention the difficulty of finding such ingredients. That's why we recommend accessing Lamen Gourmet using the button below:
Miso Ramen recipe
Making ramen is not an easy task. Some specialize for years to prepare the perfect ramen. Making ramen can be more complicated than becoming a sushi chef, so you might want to learn with a course. Lamen Gourmet.
Recently I've been inventing to make my own ramen. While searching the internet I came across a lot of different recipes, so I kind of ended up inventing my own recipe using the ingredients I had here.
If you want the exact measurements of the suggested ingredients, right after this recipe we will mention a recipe for Shoyu Ramen. You can follow it from base because both are similar. I'll try to explain in my words how I did it.
First I fried the miso paste with ground beef (pork is recommended) until very consistent, then I added water and other seasonings like onion, hondashi, ajinomoto and a little soy sauce to taste.
I cooked this broth for more than half an hour, it ended up evaporating a lot, but its taste reminded me a lot of traditional Japanese ramens. The rest is to put the broth in the cooked noodles and add the ingredients that embellish the dish.
I didn't have any pork slices, nori, or naruto or other traditional ingredients to add to the ramen. I just put slices of boiled egg and a kibbeh (lol). Still, it was a simple, easy and delicious recipe. If you don't have the ingredients, make it up!
What dictates the taste of ramen is the cooking time of the broth. That's why there are restaurants that boil the broth for hours and hours, others even leave the broth black, but surprisingly the taste is delicious and nothing related to something burnt.
Shoyu Ramen recipe
Now let's leave a recipe for you to try to prepare the most common type of ramen based on soy sauce:
Ingredients for the paste:
- 1/4 onion
- 4 whole garlic cloves
- 1 stalk of chives
- 4 slices of ginger
- 1 celery stalk
- 7 tablespoons of Mirin Kenko Sake
- 3 tablespoons of Sakura Light
- 3 tablespoons of Kenko Sesame Oil
- 1 tablespoon of Seasoning for Sushi Kenko
- 2 tablespoons powdered chicken stock
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- Black pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon of powdered fish stock
- 20 g pork lard
Ingredients for the broth:
- 3 cups of water (tea)
- 1 tablespoon of powdered fish stock
- 1 tablespoon of Sakura Light
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- Black pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons of the paste
Ingredients for assembly:
- 200g cooked ramen noodles
- chopped chives to taste
- Kamaboko (fish noodles) sliced to taste
- Boiled egg cut in half to taste
- Wakame (seaweed) to taste
- Moyashi (bean sprouts) to taste
- Burnt chives (chives fried in a little oil) to taste
Preparation mode:
1 - To prepare the paste, put in a blender: onion, garlic, chives, ginger, celery, Mirin Kenko Sake, Sakura Light, Kenko Sesame Oil, Kenko Sushi Seasoning, chicken broth, salt, black pepper and fish broth. . Then, bring this mixture to the fire, add the lard and boil for 5 minutes or until the broth is consistent, a paste. Reserve.
2 – To prepare the broth, in a pan heat the water, add the fish broth, Sakura Light, salt, black pepper and the paste. Mix until dissolved. Turn off the heat and set aside.
In a large and deep bowl, place the still hot noodles, add the hot broth and finish with chives, kamaboko, boiled egg, wakame, moyashi and burnt chives. Serve immediately.
Finally, let's leave the recipe video below:
How to eat Ramen?
There is a whole culture behind the consumption of noodles in Japan, you need to suck the noodles and make noise with taste to show that you are enjoying the dish. Of course it's not to swallow the pasta, chew it and enjoy the flavor.
Usually the ramen bowl comes with chopsticks to get the noodles and a spoon to take the soup along with other ingredients like egg. You can also drink the ramen broth straight from the bowl without any problem.
Eating ramen consists of enjoying a little of the noodles, broth and ingredients that cover the dish. In case it is a tsukemen the noodles and broth are served in separate bowls. Just dip the amount of noodles you are going to put in your mouth into the broth.
