Thick dipping noodles served with a concentrated pork-and-seafood broth.
The Story
Tsukemen is a style of ramen in which the noodles and soup are served separately, with the noodles dipped into a concentrated broth before eating. Tonkotsu gyokai combines a thick pork-bone soup with dried fish flavors such as niboshi and katsuobushi. The result is an especially rich form of the dipping ramen that became hugely popular in modern Japan.
Tare
Ingredients
- 30 g katsuobushi
- 35 g niboshi
- 15 g kombu
- 10 g dried shiitake
- 1/2 head garlic
- 15 g ginger
- 550 ml usukuchi shoyu
- 90 ml koikuchi shoyu
- 110 ml sake
- 110 ml mirin
Instructions
- Combine in a pot and heat until just below boiling.
- Turn off the heat before it boils and rest overnight at room temperature.
- Strain the next day.
- Use 20 ml tare for 200 ml broth.
Broth
Ingredients
- 14 g niboshi
- 5 g kombu
- 700 ml water
- 4 lb pork femur
- 1.5 lb chicken feet, nails removed
- Onion
- Carrot
- Garlic
- Green onions
- Potato
Instructions
- Steep the niboshi and kombu in 700 ml water on the counter.
- Preboil the pork femur and chicken feet for 2–3 minutes.
- Transfer to a pressure cooker with water. Cook for 1 hour at high pressure.
- Open and mix with a spoon, then pressure-cook for 1 more hour.
- Add the aromatics and pressure-cook for 1 additional hour.
- Strain the soup. Remove the onion peels and pork bones, then return everything else to the soup.
- Blend with a stick blender.
- Heat the dashi stock to a boil, set aside, add it to the broth, and remove the kombu.
- Simmer for 30 minutes, then strain through a fine strainer until the sediment is removed.
Noodles
Ingredients
- 90% bread flour
- 10% whole wheat flour
- Water equal to 40% of flour weight
- Kansui, 1% of flour weight
- Salt, 1% of flour weight
Instructions
- Mix into a noodle dough and prepare as thick tsukemen noodles.