Tonkotsu Ramen with Chashu and Ajitama

The soup

• Put the pork legs in cold water and let it boil. When the water boils and the blood starts to come out of the legs, you pour the water and the legs into the sink and rinse them completely clean of coagulated blood and impurities.
• Then put the legs back in the pot together with the remaining soup ingredients and water so that it covers the whole thing + 5 cm. Let it cook for 3-4 hours (preferably longer). Remove continuous impurities that settle at the top.
• When it has boiled for 3-4 hours (or longer) you remove all the ingredients so that you have a pot with only the soup itself. Boil this soup until there is about 1/2 left.

Chashu and ajitama (marinated pork and egg)

• Boil 4 eggs – smiling. Peel them and put them in cold water to stop the cooking.
• When the pork has cooked for two hours with the soup, it is taken out and left to cool.
• Put all the remaining ingredients for the layer in a small saucepan and give it a quick boil. Let it cool.
• When the eggs, pork and brine have cooled, put them in a plastic bag. The air is sucked out of the bag until a vacuum is formed so that all surfaces of eggs and pork are covered with brine.
• Put the bag in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours. Preferably 12-24 hours. Of course, this requires you to do it the whole day before, but you can also do that with advantage if you are going to have guests. Then the soup just needs to be boiled and the noodles boiled before serving.

Concluding

• In each bowl, put 1 teaspoon of tahini, 2 tablespoons of the chashu marinade, 25g of pork fat, a little of the soup and stir it together.
• Cook the ramen noodles for a few minutes and put in the bowls.
• Briefly blanch the enoki mushrooms and the sliced ​​chashu in the hot soup.
• Place halved ajitama eggs, nori seaweed, spring onions, blanched enoki and sliced ​​chashu on top of the noodles, then pour soup over the top. Top it all with toasted sesame seeds and possibly a little chili mix and sesame oil.

A good tip for when you have to make Ramen

You will probably have some of the sheet left for the ajitama and chashu. Finally, don't throw it away, but instead use it the next day for a delicious Shoyu ramen. Simply boil some noodles in the amount of water suitable for a bowl of ramen and season with the dressing. We also had some extra chashu and ajitama and then I flash-fried some bean sprouts with sesame oil and a little chili mix. It ended up being a pretty good 2nd day ramen.

Alternatively, you can cut any remains of diced chashu, fry them in a little oil along with the sheet. Serve them on steamed white rice with some finely chopped spring onions on top. Quite simply - absolutely delicious!