Why aren’t you parenting them on this topic then? Beside the parenting bits you can also put in place technical measures to filter out what they can access… reasonably so.
And when they break out of those controls it also means that they are smart enough to take on the internet anyway.
Day -1 I started with the eggs; 6:30 mins in boiling water then straight in ice water. Peel them and shove them in a container and add the marinade. The marinade is equal part good soy sauce, mirim, sake (here I used xiaoshing wine) and water. You can also add ginger, garlic, dried shiitake... but for the kids this was already a lot of new flavours. Heat it to boil off the alcohol & cool it before putting the eggs in it otherwise, you'll overcook them.
Personally, I put some paper towels on top of the eggs so that they colour evenly. But that's only an OCD thing of mine I suspect.
Day -1 prep the menma-like bamboo bits by using the same marinade as above with bamboo cuts. They won't have time to ferment but they are already quite delicious like that.
Day -1 prep the charsiu. That's a complete topic on itself that one. It's a pork roast with 5 spices for this one that we all love. you can also make it in the broth itself, but I have limited success with that plus you never know when someone can't have pork... So I always do it a day before and if I need I dump some chicken in the broth if needed to accommodate someone.
Day 0 - early morning I started by making the dashi. Soak 3 kombu pieces in a large pot of cold water (7L I think I used) for ~2 hours.
Then heat it to 80°c and cut the heat at that point. Don't overheat or you'll get a bitter taste and that's not enjoyable.
After cutting the heat I added my katsuobushi for about 10 minutes.
At that point you have dashi. It should already have the distinctive "ocean" but not fishy taste of a good dashi broth. Mind that at this point there's no salt or anything in it.
At this point you need to decide what type of ramen you want to do - I was requested shoyu ramen and I know by experience that in Europe we like it a bit less subtle taste-wise so I started by roasting some chicken wings to boost the taste. I personally prefer making tonkotsu but following a previous instance of home cooking of that sort I have been ordered to never to it inside again...
I prepped my veggies (2 onions, 2 carrots and 1 leek)
And once the wings are well roasted - WELL ROASTED I dumped all in the dashi and added 2 shiitake because I love the additional aroma they bring
Let that cook for as long as possible, boil it for a few minutes to remove any scum and them let it simmer at least 4 hours to get as much collagen as possible out of the bones which is what is going to make the broth "full". Once done you drain all solid twice and let the broth cook until you serve. It will only concentrate the flavours at that point.
At the same time I did the tare which is basically 4 parts good soy sauce, 1 part mirim and 1 part saké with ginger and 2 shiitake in it for good measure.
I also blanched some bok choy for some of the guests, prepped all in small containers so that the kids could choose their toppings and all.
Cook the noodes, have hot bowls and the rest is just having fun with the toppings :)
Day -1 I started with the eggs; 6:30 mins in boiling water then straight in ice water. Peel them and shove them in a container and add the marinade. The marinade is equal part good soy sauce, mirim, sake (here I used xiaoshing wine) and water. You can also add ginger, garlic, dried shiitake... but for the kids this was already a lot of new flavours. Heat it to boil off the alcohol & cool it before putting the eggs in it otherwise, you'll overcook them.
Personally, I put some paper towels on top of the eggs so that they colour evenly. But that's only an OCD thing of mine I suspect.
Day -1 prep the menma-like bamboo bits by using the same marinade as above with bamboo cuts. They won't have time to ferment but they are already quite delicious like that.
Day -1 prep the charsiu. That's a complete topic on itself that one. It's a pork roast with 5 spices for this one that we all love. you can also make it in the broth itself, but I have limited success with that plus you never know when someone can't have pork... So I always do it a day before and if I need I dump some chicken in the broth if needed to accommodate someone.
Day 0 - early morning I started by making the dashi. Soak 3 kombu pieces in a large pot of cold water (7L I think I used) for ~2 hours.
Then heat it to 80°c and cut the heat at that point. Don't overheat or you'll get a bitter taste and that's not enjoyable.
After cutting the heat I added my katsuobushi for about 10 minutes.
At that point you have dashi. It should already have the distinctive "ocean" but not fishy taste of a good dashi broth. Mind that at this point there's no salt or anything in it.
At this point you need to decide what type of ramen you want to do - I was requested shoyu ramen and I know by experience that in Europe we like it a bit less subtle taste-wise so I started by roasting some chicken wings to boost the taste. I personally prefer making tonkotsu but following a previous instance of home cooking of that sort I have been ordered to never to it inside again...
I prepped my veggies (2 onions, 2 carrots and 1 leek)
And once the wings are well roasted - WELL ROASTED I dumped all in the dashi and added 2 shiitake because I love the additional aroma they bring
Let that cook for as long as possible, boil it for a few minutes to remove any scum and them let it simmer at least 4 hours to get as much collagen as possible out of the bones which is what is going to make the broth "full". Once done you drain all solid twice and let the broth cook until you serve. It will only concentrate the flavours at that point.
At the same time I did the tare which is basically 4 parts good soy sauce, 1 part mirim and 1 part saké with ginger and 2 shiitake in it for good measure.
I also blanched some bok choy for some of the guests, prepped all in small containers so that the kids could choose their toppings and all.
Cook the noodes, have hot bowls and the rest is just having fun with the toppings :)
The spices are like salt / sesame and stuff. Not pepper or anything that will make anyone shed a tear ,-)
I think this brand is typically more of a snack than a ramen topping as it's too tastfull.
For the zucchini’s I tried the mandoline, knife and potatoes peeler; go for the peeler. Don’t bother with the mandoline unless you have maybe a high quality one.
Use quality olive oil because that’s basically all the taste you’ll have on them.
Serve them room temp or slightly higher but don’t go re-heating them too hot otherwise it’s all turning to mush.
Go ahead it’s quite easy if you break everything down. The only tricky-ish thing is the humus ; it can get bitter on a whim I assume due to the quality of the tahini or the amount of it. And add some ice cubes to it at the start of blending, it helps with the texture. And also adding baking soda to the chickpeas.
The rest was mostly just shove it all in the oven with some spice mix.
It’s kind of snowballing I feel. A few months ago I would have been thrown in food jail for what I did. Now that I have started to build some techniques and repeatedly made the same recipes a lot of times and added more and more small building blocks I am getting more confortable.
Getting personal with the knife, oven, forcing me to adapt acidity before salting…
Now though I see all my limitations and I can safely say that si won’t ever be able to run the little yatai-style food cart I was once dreaming about.
Yeaaahhhhhhhh