Tonkotsu Ramen

Place pork belly in a cooking pot. Add 300ml of water and 100ml of cooking sake. Start stove at medium heat and bring to a boil. Remove scum and continue to boil for 10 minutes. Turn the meat and boil for another 10 minutes.

Stop the heat, cover the pot, and leave it at room temperature overnight.

The next day, remove the solidified oil from the surface of the pot. Add 3 pieces of ginger, 70ml of koikuchi shoyu, 30ml of mirin, and 2 tbsp of sugar. Start the stove at medium heat. Turn the meat to marinate evenly. The sauce will caramelize and the meat will become braised with a sheen. Cover the pot and continue to simmer until done.

Add 250ml of water into a pot and add 200g of mussels. Boil at medium heat until only 150ml of liquid remains. Strain the resulting dashi.

Add the mussel dashi back into the pot. Add 100ml of light shoyu, 30ml of koikuchi shoyu, 20ml of Thai fish sauce, 50ml of hon mirin, 30ml of cooking sake, 20ml of apple vinegar, 50g of sake kasu, 1 tbsp of honey, and 10g of sea salt. Start the stove and stir to mix.

When the sauce is evenly mixed, continue to heat until it boils. Stop the heat, add 1pc of rishiri kombu, and store overnight in the refrigerator.

Add 1.7kg of pork bones and 2pcs of pork leg into a large pot with 2.8L of water. Start the stove at high heat and bring to a boil. Remove scum and continue boiling at high heat for 20 minutes.

Switch to low heat and simmer for 2 hours. Pour out about 90% of the soup into a separate pot and set aside. Add water until the liquid level is back to the original.

Add 1pc of pork fat into the pot. Start the stove at high heat and continue boiling for 90 minutes. If the pork is no longer covered in water, add more water and continue to boil. The soup should become milky and white.

Take about half of the reserved soup from earlier and add it to the boiling pot. Boil for about 30 minutes. Add the remaining half of the reserved soup and continue to boil for another 30 minutes. Continue boiling for about 40 minutes more, or longer for a creamier soup. Strain the soup.

Stir well to mix 90ml of water with 3g of kansui and 3g of salt. Slowly add 300g of ramen flour and stir in the liquid mixture until a dough forms.

Place the dough into a ziplock bag and let it rest for 40 minutes. Then, flatten the dough with a rolling pin.

Cut the dough into thin noodles, as thin noodles are best for tonkotsu ramen.

Cut the spring onions. Using a kitchen torch, scorch the sliced chashu (aburi chashu).

Ensure spring onions, sliced black fungus, menma, and aburi chashu are prepared.

In a serving bowl, add 30ml of ramen sauce. Heat 300ml of the tonkotsu soup.

Boil 130g of noodles for 1 minute.

Drain the noodles and add them to the bowl with the ramen sauce. Pour the hot tonkotsu soup over the noodles. Arrange the prepared toppings on top.