4 Levels of Ramen: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious

I'm Bianca and I'm a level one chef I'm Lorenzo and I'm a level two chef hi I'm Eugene I've been around my chef for eight years how often do I make ramen embarassingly enough more often than I should when I want to get fancy and add the chicken maybe a couple of times a month I make this type of ramen which is with a nice broth all right once a month more so during the winter but I like soup oh yeah I wanted to create the ramen that I want to eat every day I'll be combining fresh chicken bones and then also the fish bones we're gonna start off with shredding the chickens I'm just going to submerge my pork belly and fish rectum process starts from removing the pins I'm just taking the scale make sure that the guts are removed please the head as well as this beautiful dove of ginger into our marinade bag sauce rice wine vinegar sugar salt pepper garlic cut the skin take that tail off cut the ribs this level one okay don't judge me it is important to roast the bones at the high temperature so you don't lose the judging that's underneath [Music] this way to enjoy the skiing but underneath is by twisting very quickly look how nice and dark that is I have cornstarch and I also have flour we're gonna easy coat this I'm just trying to crispy outside about six slices for ramen topping now we are chopping up some scallions for my stock I'm going to also prep the scallions for my topping love lemon in soup you want something to brighten it up I really like the flavor of fennel the leaf is so good that it actually doesn't are there any flavor that's why I actually put it on top with our Bowl I love red pepper flakes to saute vegetables a couple handfuls of my bean sprouts just gonna warm it through salt I'm going to move on to week that's the good part leek has a lot of fiber so if which means stuff it tastes much much better so now it's time for the broth you pour the water the old red pepper flakes these I will be whole I will add my onions tomato this will melt into the stock my ginger garlic the water will start to boil and we'll add some garlic powder gonna do it's my favorite Boehner today I'm using crazy display of boots I'm going to stir it with a chicken first this is about five to six pounds of bones so next I'm going to put the fish phone that I just wulftec nice thing then the vegetables animatics and water just enough to cover it ingredient I'm actually gonna put some chicken broth so we're gonna add some chicken flavor seasoning mix it a little bit so I'm gonna bring it to 180 to 200 I'm gonna keep it same temperature for it 8 hours it smells like 3 I'm studying for finals and I'm going to strain the broth and I'm gonna add a last component which is kombu which is a dried kelp look at that you guys away we go this is the broster a strain so you can see how gelatinous this is this instantly becomes a common boss but not instant ramen the railrunner I actually used the ramen that comes in there is college back soon by 10 weird something like that I add a little soy sauce I like to kind of like split it in half I think you know kind of like allows for faster cooking voila so I'm gonna have a double you all flour and I make a little bit of room right here in the middle I just of water and can see what it does is to add extra gluten into the noodle I do like to try to break it up a little bit just makes it cook faster I kind of disallow it to sit and it will kind of like break apart on its own I'm needing just enough so that it becomes almost like a mochi so I'm gonna just rest this for a half hour I kind of like to wait for a certain type of consistency I cannot tell you what that type of consistency is but I know it when I see it you wanna feel like a almost a texture of the leather it's important that you do it quickly too so that the noodle doesn't get dried out I kind of like to wait to the noodles are a little bit straight okay so let's just pull one out to see if it's the right consistency you're gonna do it this lucky guy yes we are done it's ready to go so I try to strain as much as possible I feel good about the texture I'm gonna just fold it into the size that's perfect for each you're gonna combine all them together leave it all right here so it actually stays in this waviness I'm going to come boil noodles for about two minutes I'm gonna build everything so we're start off with pouring the noodle in the broth inside the bowl we're gonna a dash of cayenne pepper with some spice just to kind of like get a nice Cayenne to neutral ratio sauteed bean sprouts fried pork belly so now we're gonna add some chicken and lastly scallion let's put the egg yeah now pour the broth a little bit of sesame seeds and a little citrus to bring it on home I like using a little bit of sesame oil I'm also gonna go use don't get scared fish sauce a little bit couple drops I always add a little bit more soy sauce ginger oil big ginger and in the paper the super hot make sure that no more water is coming out so that middle will just keep sucking up the broth then I'm going to have nori seaweed in the middle like this soshim is not fair this is my chicken ramen my ramen noodle this is my multi nine show your ramen [Music] so now for the tasting of the finished product that's good it's spicy its flavorful I think this actually turns out really really great ramen is just gonna soak up all those delicious flavors so you need a good base and broth as a base I like to leave and so everything is full well balanced out you cannot tell what is inside exactly but other overall it makes a really nice one giant flavor I'm gonna just finish it ramen is a Japanese comfort food that loosely translates to pull noodles nearly every region in Japan has its own variation of ramen let's take a look at how our three chefs did with this classic hearty favorite Bianca made a very simple dorm room ramen which relied on an instant chicken flavored noodle package she elevated her meal by adding rotisserie chicken from the grocery store for an easy protein and garlic powder and cayenne for a layer of complexity in this very salty style of ramen you know that's the type of kick that I like though lorenzo made a pork based ramen using pork belly as his main protein pork belly is a boneless cut of pork with a lot of fat that can absorb a lot of flavor it's actually really really soft he marinated it with soy sauce for saltiness rice vinegar for acidic notes and to tenderize along with salt pepper and fresh ginger with fresh garlic and he marinated it for forty to fifty minutes to add flavour to the surface of the pork but only the salt will penetrate more than surface deep Lorenzo then coated the pork Valley in cornstarch before frying it Yugi used sushi-grade red snapper as the main protein for his ramen he breaks down his fish and heats one side of the descaled fish very quickly with a blowtorch just enough to dehydrate it so that the skin remains crunchy but it doesn't cook the fillet of his fish Yugi is also unique in that he'll use every part of the fish while creating his ramen leaving nothing to waste it's as efficient as it is delicious the aromatic vegetables used were fennel ginger and leeks reserving some fennel for garnish so he wastes nothing and making this bowl of ramen multi-nation montana into no waste Bianca's broth is not flavorful just salty in the flavor packet that came with her instant ramen you'll find things like msg salt sugar dehydrated garlic and onion along with palm oil hydrolyzed corn wheat and soy proteins maltodextrin is added for body and turmeric for color TV t4 are you guys okay this is row back lorenzo starts his pork bones with cold water which is important so that the bones heat evenly and at the same time as they simmer allowing for even flavor extraction since all of the bones are diffused with the same amount of ki lorenzo strange the protein based foam that forms when simmering animal bones leaving a dark rich and flavorful stock for his robbing Yugi also made his own broth from his red snapper bones and head adding chicken bones for additional flavor the chicken and Anna Fisher have a different learning asset that's why it's important to Laird he roasted his fish bones which extracted minerals from the bones into his broth darkening it and adding yet another layer of flavor he simmered this bone broth for six to eight hours without boiling for maximum flavor extraction because particulate in larger pieces of food mix and move around creating a thoroughly infused bra lastly he adds kombu which is an edible kelp that brings an ocean salinity to his broth which will complement the fish very nicely bianca used wheat based instant noodles these noodles are either dehydrated at high temperature or are pre fried so they're difficult to overcook when adding the boiling water sometimes it can overcook and it becomes like this weird mushy disgusting noodle worm Lorenza used convenient pre-made noodles this ramen but he added soy sauce to increase the salinity of his cooking water adding a large quantity of salt in the form of soy sauce will not only make the water appear darker but it increases the boiling temperature thus shortening the cooking time Yugi made his own noodles with special double-o flower this flower is made from hard durum wheat and has a protein content of approximately 11 to 12 percent when we're talking about protein content in regard to flour it's the glutenin and the gliadin that formed gluten that were considering then higher gluten equals firmer textured noodles that can hold their own in hot broth he adds sodium bicarbonate and alkali which raises the pH making the Flavin's which are normally white or colorless and wheat slightly golden in color while also making the gluten more elastic the addition of sodium bicarbonate whatever that means also increases the cooking time of the noodles allowing them to soak up more flavor from the brah Bianca adds her shredded chicken cayenne pepper and scallions to the top of her ramen for color and for crunch Lorenzo adds his noodles pork and topping some bean sprouts lemons scallion and a soft-boiled egg which is traditional and adds additional protein to his ramen dish Yugi adds his leeks and fennel ginger and oil to the bowl first then he pours his broth over it adds his noodles kombu and uncooked red snapper before topping it with a soft-boiled egg and fennel fronds this method of building ramen creates visual appeal and minimizes disruption of the noodles and heavier ingredients making the sashimi the real star of his ramen they also each added an egg allowing additional protein as well as visual flair when serving ramen it's important to remember that ramen noodles get soggy quickly if they're left in the broth for too long giving them an unappetizing mouthfeel so they should be immediately upon serving and yes it's perfectly okay to make a slurping sound when eating ramen because the slurping enhances the flavors and helps cool down the hot noodles as they enter your mouth you have to do the sound and makes it much better so slurp away there's so much you can do to personalize your ramen dish from the broth used to the various proteins available even if you're using a store-bought packet this is a dish you can always put your own unique stamp on

Channel: Epicurious

Views: 5,069,147

Keywords: ramen, ramen recipe, 4 levels, 4 levels epicurious, 4 levels of ramen, expert ramen, ramen noodles, how to make ramen, homemade ramen, japanese ramen, bowl of ramen, ramen broth, make ramen at home, ramen soup, korean ramen, ramen faq, ramen method, ramen food, ramen three ways, authentic ramen, real ramen, restaurant ramen, shoyu ramen, tonkotsu ramen, vegetarian ramen, healthy ramen, fancy ramen, special ramen, ramen explainer, ramen tips, ramen how to, epicurious

Id: ZcPQuu46Nxw

Length: 14min 9sec (849 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 18 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/healthyexploration]

Lorenzo 4eva.

[u/BigMax55]

These are so enjoyable.