Homemade Ramen

with a simple vegetarian broth

There are a few unique aspects of making ramen dough at home, from scratch. First, you need to use sodium carbonate, also known as washing soda, or Kansui/gansui. You can make your own sodium carbonate by baking baking soda in the oven at 300F for 1 hour. The alkaline sodium carbonate is essential is giving the ramen its characteristic yellow tint, as well as its chewy texture. When I was making the dough, I noticed that the sodium carbonate give the ramen its recognizable eggy color and scent, even though there is no egg in the dough! Very interesting. There is a helpful NYT article that explains the baking of baking soda, and a youtuber named Alex also explains the process well. I followed his recipe for the ramen dough, which worked well.

Another important thing to note while making ramen is that it is an extremely low hydration dough. I made a 40% hydration dough, which is rather dry. In comparison, sourdough, which is a high hydration dough, is about 70% hydration. The issue with low hydration dough is that it is difficult to work with, as it easily breaks apart. When I was rolling out the dough, I added some water to help it come together, which helped a little, but not a lot. Then, I discovered the trick to laminating the dough, even when it is falling apart. You need to rotate your dough 90 degrees before feeding it into the pasta machine. The envelope folds should be perpendicular to the counter, so that it laminates properly. This is confusing to explain, but it will make more sense when you are actually rolling out the dough.

For the rolling process, I would use the 0 setting, then fold my dough by thirds, creating an envelope, then put it through the pasta machine at the same setting, with the folds perpendicular to the counter. After I got a good rectangle, I would stop folding and just roll it through the pasta maker, still at the 0 setting, a few more times. Then, I would slowly increment the settings, rolling once or twice at each setting. I stopped at setting 6, which yielded a noodle width to my liking.

For the broth, I followed the method and most of the ingredients from Bon Appetit’s vegetarian ramen broth, though I improvised for most of it. I didn’t have gouchujang, so I ended up blending a serrano chili pepper instead, which worked out perfectly! I let the broth cook down significantly before blending the mushroom into a paste, which resulted in pretty thick broth, so I recommend making the mushroom puree before deciding to reduce further.

Ingredients:

• 250 g flour
• 100 g warm water
• 3 g salt
• 2 g sodium carbonate
• Serrano chili pepper
• 1 tbsp distilled white vinegar
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 4 scallions, chopped
• 1 inch ginger, minced
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tbsp white miso paste
• handful of dried mushrooms
• soy sauce to taste
• sesame oil to taste
• toppings: soft boiled egg, fresh mushrooms, scallions, cilantro, ginger

Directions:

1. For the dough, make it 2 hours ahead or the previous day. Mix together water, salt, and sodium carbonate. Make a well with the flour, and add the liquid to the center. Use a fork or pair of chopsticks to incorporate the dry and wet ingredients, then use your hands.
2. Knead the dough for 10 minutes, or until moderately smooth. Rest for 2 hours or overnight in the fridge. The longer you let the gluten relax, the easier it will be to roll out.
3. For the chili oil topping, blend pepper and vinegar in a Magic bullet or small blender. While blending, toast garlic and sesame seeds in 1/3 cup of neutral oil, such as canola oil, in a heavy bottomed pot, about 4 minutes. Once toasted, remove from pot and mix with blended pepper and set aside.
4. For the broth, add more oil to the pot and fry scallions and ginger until fragrant, about 3 minutes, add tomato paste and miso, then fry until thickened. Add dried mushrooms, 6 cups of water, and bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes.
5. Strain solids and puree, then return to pot. Taste for the thickness of the broth, decide whether or not to reduce. Once desired consistency is reached, add soy sauce and sesame oil to taste. Keep warm on low heat, covered.
6. To roll out the ramen, make sure to bring it back to room temperature if rested overnight. Laminate and roll out the dough, see more information in above commentary. Use a narrow cutting width, I used tagliolini, to cut the noodles. When noodles are cut, dust with cornstarch to prevent sticking.
7. To cook the ramen, boil for 1 minute, then blanch with cold water.
8. To serve, add ramen to a bowl, then pour over the broth. Top with reserved chili garlic oil, a soft boiled egg (boiled for 7 minutes), fresh mushrooms, scallions, cilantro, and minced ginger.