With the weather changing, my thoughts go to comfort food. Yes, I grew up with boxed mac and cheese, wonderful turkey dinners with all the trimmings and beautifully latticed apple pies. However, some of my comfort foods were not the ordinary dishes and delicacies. One of my favorite memories is digging into ramen with Bone flavored chicken or beef broth. Flavor with rice wine and soy sauce to create a fabulous umami taste.

I purchased a ramen noodles dried and straight. Each portion is conveniently wrapped with a ribbon. You can top the noodles with anything you want. Your fave veggies and meat or seafood. My favorite back in the day was seafood or pork belly. Something simple works just as well, perhaps an onsen egg no longer than a five minute poach. Variety of veggies, green onions, mushrooms, onions with a mix of shrimp, scallops and squid stir fried or sautéed can be just one of the ways to top this hearty warm dish.

The beauty of the arrangement makes you want to dig into the bowl and of course slurp very loudly.

Ramen

Noodles:

There are a lot of precooked packages of curly Ramen noodles with a flavor packet. Fresh or frozen ramen noodles and dried straight noodles are available. I like the straight noodles. The texture is smooth and chewy. Has a more authentic taste of wheat noodles.

Broth:

You can use the flavor packet or one of the many containers of flavored ramen broth. Miso, soy, salt and bone broth are the categories of broth for ramen. My favorite is beef or chicken bone broth (Trader Joe's has tasty varieties). I add soy sauce and rice wine to the bone broth. This mixture is known as tare and can add a very deep umami flavor to the broth.

Toppings:

Protein:

This is where you create the ramen of your choice. Any type of meat, poultry or seafood can adorn the top of the noodles. Pork belly, chicken slices, seafood including shrimp, scallop, and squid. I like to stir fry poach in the ramen broth.

Eggs are very simple yet provide protein and color to the dish. Something simple works just as well, perhaps an onsen egg no longer than a five minute poach.

Vegetables:

Variety of veggies, Chinese cabbage, green onions, mushrooms, onions, and kamaboko (fish cake) my favorite is Naruto. There are hidden swirls of pink surrounded by white. Reminds me of flowers.

I like to stir fry the vegetables and meat, poultry and seafood to add extra flavor or you can just poach it in the ramen

Bone broth Ramen with Seafood, Egg and Assorted Vegetables

2 portions of dried straight ramen noodles

Broth:

1 container of chicken bone broth

2 T rice wine

2 T soy sauce

Toppings:

2 green onions, Julienned

½ small onion. Sliced thin

1 cup of a mixture of Shrimp, scallops and squid

2 medium King Mushrooms. Sliced thin and cut into 2" pieces

2 eggs

Bring to boil, 2 quarts of water and cook the noodles according to directions on the package

Meanwhile, place broth, rice wine and soy sauce in a pot and bring to heat. Crack open two eggs into the broth and cook for 5 minutes.

In a pan, add 1 T vegetable oil and sauté onions and mushrooms until cooked through. Add salt, pepper to taste. Drizzle 1T soy sauce and 1 T rice wine. Make sure it is well incorporated. Take out of pan. Add the seafood to the pan and sauté until done.

Now you are ready to put the ramen together.

In a bowl place ½ of the cooked noodles. Place half of the vegetables in one section, then the seafood in the next section. Top with the onsen cooked egg. Garnish with green onions. Pour the hot broth over the ramen. Serve immediately. You can sprinkle some nana togarashi if you want a bit of spiciness. It is a combination of Japanese hot pepper, sesame seeds and nori.

These are some of my favorite links.

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/topics/ingredient/noodles/ramen

Ramen Heads | Official Trailer directed by Koki Shigeno (Gunpowder & Sky)