Hokkaido Ramen Recipe: Soy Sauce Ramen Topped with Stir-Fried Vegetables

Ingredients

• Fresh Chinese-style ramen noodles (medium-thick, wavy) 4 portions
• Pork (shoulder or belly, in a block) 100 g
• Bean sprouts 200 g
• Onion 1
• Napa cabbage 2 leaves
• Green bell pepper 1
• Seasoned menma (bamboo shoots) 100 g
• Hard-boiled eggs 2
• Japanese leek (naganegi) 1/2 stalk
• Garlic 1 clove
• Lard 3 tbsp
• Pork bone (tonkotsu) stock (diluted store-bought paitan soup is fine) 1.6 L
• Soy sauce 5 tbsp
• Mirin 3 tbsp
• Sugar 2 tbsp
• Salt 2 tsp
• Pepper a pinch

Steps

1. Prep: cut the pork into 5 mm strips. Thinly slice the onion and cut the bell pepper into thin strips. Separate the napa cabbage stems from the leaves; slice the stems on the diagonal and roughly chop the leaves. Thinly slice the leek into rounds and finely chop the garlic. Peel the eggs and halve them lengthwise.
2. Soup: warm the pork bone stock in a pot over medium heat and add the soy sauce, mirin, sugar and salt. Once it comes to a boil, taste it and adjust with salt until it is slightly on the strong side, then keep it warm over the lowest heat.
3. Start bringing a large pot of plenty of water to a boil for the noodles. Fill the serving bowls with hot water to warm them.
4. Stir-fry: heat 2 tbsp of the lard in a wok (or a deep frying pan) over high heat and stir-fry the garlic and pork. When the meat changes color, add the onion, cabbage stems and bell pepper. Once everything is coated in fat, add the bean sprouts and cabbage leaves, toss for about 1 minute and season with pepper.
5. Pour about 2 ladlefuls of the hot soup into the wok so it sizzles and picks up the toasty flavor, then tip everything back into the soup pot. Turn off the heat while the vegetables are still crisp.
6. Loosen the noodles as you drop them into the boiling water and cook for the time on the package. Just before they are done, pour the water out of the bowls and divide the remaining lard among them.
7. Ladle the piping hot soup into the bowls, add the well-drained noodles and straighten them gently with chopsticks. Pile the stir-fried vegetables on top, add the menma, egg halves and leek, and serve right away.

Origin and history

Hokkaido is a treasure trove of regional ramen. Sapporo's miso, Hakodate's salt (shio) and Asahikawa's soy sauce (shoyu) ramen are known as its big three, and in a land of harsh winters, a hot bowl of noodles became an everyday meal.

One theory holds that Japan's first ramen was the "Nanking soba" served by a Western-style restaurant in Hakodate in 1884, though no reliable record survives. Ramen truly took off across Hokkaido after World War II.

Each area has a distinct character. In Asahikawa, aromatic oils such as scorched lard seal the surface of the soup so it stays hot, while Hakodate keeps things light with a clear, lean pork broth. Kushiro's thin, wavy noodles are said to have been made to cook quickly so busy fishermen could be served fast. Hokkaido even has its own custom of noodle factories presenting noren shop curtains to the restaurants they supply.