When I first started writing this blog post, I managed to get to 1,000 words before I had even got to the cooking of the dish, so in the wise words of any good hospitality professional.
KISS; Keep It Simple, Stupid!
This is a One Pot Wonder Dish, you will however need a sieve and or a plate, a dish or empty frying pan to rest the chicken in. Everything is cooked in 1 pot – all it requires is being a little organised and having all your ingredients ready before you start cooking.
This is our go to, feel better dish in our house, it’s non-traditional by its nature as it is something that TBH and I have developed over many years of cooking for each other.
If she’s sick or tired or had a rough week this will almost instantly cheer her up and crucially cheers me up in it’s process too. It provides a tonne of nutrients and hopefully gets our baby roly-poly-ing around with all the goodness from the vegetables, broth and chicken.
It’s a dish that I love cooking because it has some quick processes but I also get to enjoy some ‘Mise-En-Place’ and organise my kitchen (See Photo) like I’m back in a kitchen again. Getting a cooking station ready for my garnish, my cooking implements and resting the whole chicken is a really enjoyable Zen moment for me. When I’m finished I tend to feel really happy with how quickly I have gone from raw ingredients to a good meal.
I am going to be talking about a lot of technical / weird sounding products but this is what I love about food. Pushing my own knowledge and what I am going to bore you with in the latter part of this blog has been learnt through research in practise and in curiosity on the internet. I will put a little cheat sheet together for all of you to use when and if you go to the supermarket to buy these things.
Hold on and enjoy, this is going to be a fun read and an even better eat; I promise…
All the best
Goose
Chicken & Vegetable Ramen
1 Large Sauce Pan (see title photo)
1 Deep Sieve and or 1 Slotted Spoon
1 Resting Pan
2 Shallots
3-5 Pieces of Kombu or Kelp (Other Seaweed is fine, see title photo for the amounts as it’s a personal preference)
6 Dried Mushrooms - Shiitake are my preference
Cold Water
1 Whole Chicken (1.1 to 1.5kg)
Salt
Choose your Veggies;
Broccoli
Bok Choi
Spinach
Beansprouts
Peas (Definitely Frozen)
Carrots
Cauliflower
Aubergine
Courgette
Pumpkin or Squash (Pre-Cooked, maybe a leftover?)
Part 1 – Dashi Base
Add the Shallots, Kombu & Dried Mushrooms to a large sauce pan and fill with cold water
Put this on a low simmer, you want the temp to raise slowly so you can pull as much Umami from the Kombu (Kelp) without increasing the Iodine (Seaside) flavour that can be a touch too intense for some.
Leave this to simmer slowly whilst you prep your veggies; peel, chop and general cajole them so they cook quickly but also make it easy to eat with chopsticks.
The water will start to turn a light caramel colour, then onto a brown/green hue. This is normal…bring this to a rolling boil, this should take up to 45 minutes.
The pan needs to be big enough to accommodate a whole chicken. Submerge the whole chicken in the hot ‘Dashi’ – turn the temp up to high and bring the stock to a light boil.
Once at a light boil, turn the heat down to 2/3 power and simmer this for 25 mins. I recommend putting the bird, breast side down into the liquid.
½ way through simmering, turn the bird over in the liquid. Take your time, use tongs and grip the bird firmly [sic] and turn the heat off whilst you do it.
Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the Soup Base and allow it to rest for 15/20 minutes whilst you cook everything else.
Part 2 - SEASON YOUR BOWLS:
2 tbsp Soy Sauce
1 tsp Dark Soy Sauce
3 dash Mirin
6 drops Sesame Oil
BE INVENTIVE: You can add Shichimi Togarashi, Miso Paste, Chilli Oil, White Pepper or Fresh Chilli, as desired, to make it taste as you like...
Cook your vegetables, in the boiling stock, one at a time, and add them to the seasoned bowls, when cooked.
As you go along, the vegetables will start to cool in the bowl. This is fine as you will pour hot broth on the top in the end and it will be at a balanced temperature to eat almost, straight away.
Your bowls should now be filled with lots of warm, cooked veggies.
You can now chop up your rested chicken. Add that to the bowls…
Part 3 - COOK THE NOODLES:
Add these directly to the soup base, this will depend on the noodles but if you use Soba Noodles (as in my photo), it will take 2 minutes.
Pull the Noodles out and put them on top of the Veggies & Chicken. Add Sesame Seeds, more Shichimi Togarashi, Chilli, Nori Sheets, Tofu, Crispy Fried Onions…whatever you want...
THE FINALE: Pour the hot stock on top of everything.
You’ll need to give everything a good mix to incorporate all your seasonings and then you can EAT, SLURP and RUMINATE on how delicious this is…
You will have extra tasty stock/soup left over for making more soup, or gravy or simply drink warm if you’re not feeling great.
CHEAT SHEET
RAMEN – Before the purists amongst you get all excited, I know what “Real” Ramen is, and it's simple to categorise the soup bases into its four simplistic categories. The main 4 categories are Shio (Vegetable), Shoyu (Soy Sauce), Miso (Fermented Bean Paste) & Tonkotsu (Pork/Animal Bone Broth). Tonkotsu Base is gaining the greatest popularity in the UK at moment, with businesses like Shoryu, Tonkotsu, Bone Daddies etc. All delivering those rich gelatinous broths that only slow cooking pork & animal bones over days can really achieve.
Ramen is as diverse as any food group in the World, as you can then use hundreds (maybe thousands) of different varieties of noodles from Asia, I love Udon, Instant Ramen, Mung Bean, Soba, Rice Noodle the list can go on. I have included a picture from an amazing cookbook called 'Chicken & Rice by Shu Han Lee) that gives a great bit of insight into varieties of noodles. Just make it your way.
What I’m showing you is how you can replicate a rich and satisfying flavour in your house within an hour, maybe 90mins if you have the will power to last that long!
DASHI – The base for anything delicious & soup based in Japanese cooking comes back to something called ‘Dashi’ - a stock that is made from seaweed and Katsuobushi. Yes, Seaweed. The stuff your older sibling used to throw at you on the beach in Cornwall whilst on holiday, is not only edible but delicious (and good for you by pure coincidence). Katsuobushi is steamed, smoked & dry aged tuna fillets that resemble goldfish food once finely grated. It is one of the foundation foods of Japanese cuisine in which Umami (The 5th Taste) is generated from and a flavour most revered in cuisines all over the world.
KOMBU – The main seaweed you need to be looking for / using is called ‘Kombu’ in Japanese. This is a Pacific varietal of Kelp. Kombu is delicious and something worth having in your stock cupboard as a little goes a long way and gives a natural boost of Umami to any foods regardless of whether it is Asian in origin.
I’m looking at you, Vegans & Vegetarians, this is a naturally occurring Glutamic Acid that does not come from Meat or Dairy and will satiate those very really pangs for “Meatiness” that you can’t easily find in the Plant Based world.
I have recently discovered (not without irony from the passage previously) a company called the Cornish Seaweed Company, their Kelp is superb and on the photo attached and gave the best overall result I’ve had since I started experimenting with cooking this kind of Ramen.
KATSOBUSHI - It is not difficult to find Katsuobushi in Asian Supermarkets and or something called ‘Bonito Flakes’ in most large supermarkets nowadays. I however, make my soup base with dried mushrooms.
Firstly, I use dried mushrooms more often that I use dried fish so it feels more multi-purpose to have in the cupboard. Secondly, TBH is a fan of certain types of fish BUT Fish Sauce & Fishy Smells, especially in the early to middle stages of pregnancy, used to call the ‘Vomit Comet’ to arrive at pace so I persevered with mushrooms.
Also if you don’t regularly cook for Vegetarians or Vegans it’s a good practice to get into being able to make something delicious if the need ever arises. If you’ve never had Katsuobushi, how are you going to know the difference anyway? Enjoy the Dried Mushrooms and stop complaining about how Veganism is a fad…FYI - It’s been around as long as the NHS.
SOBA NOODLES – Buckwheat Noodles that are very quick to cook and if they are 100% Buckwheat, will have a really enjoyable nutty flavour and enjoyable chewy texture.
SHICHIMI TOGARASHI – A 7 or more spice blend from Japan which can include in different levels, Togarashi Chilli, Sancho Pepper, Black & White Sesame Seed, Nori, Citrus Peel (Orange, Yuzu or Lemon) & Ginger. This is the mix which I have at home...
NORI – Seaweed sheets that you also use in Sushi Rolls and these are texturally & flavour wise are a great addition to your noodles plus giving a more complex flavour.
UMAMI – You can technically find this in a Supermarket as this is a flavour or taste that is naturally occurring in many meat, dairy, vegetable & fermented products. It is translated as a ‘pleasantly savoury taste’ but in the context of Modern Eating it is pretty much the bullseye flavour than helps to pull a dish together. It can also be reproduced cheaply with MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) and can also take time and effort when creating things like Soy Sauce, Miso Paste, Sauerkraut, Aged Parmesan, & Marmite.
If you can replicate the main 5 flavours of taste; Salt, Sweet, Sour, Bitter & Umami, and balance all of these together you’re going to have a great finished product. In this recipe the Kelp, Mushrooms & Soy Sauce help to provide this flavour. MSG is not a bad product, watch this video, it may change your mind?