Chashu-men

If the meat from your Tonkotsu ramen is not enough then this will certainly fulfil your chashu dreams. Chashu-men is a type of Japanese noodle dish served with ramen noodles over a rich pork broth served with a copious amount of chashu.

The first time I had a real ramen many years ago, probably way back when I was a child the first thing, I noticed are the single or two slices of chashu pork over the top of the noodles. They were thinly sliced and for me it was more of a garnish rather than a main ingredient of the whole dish, I was just used to having larger chunks of meat on most dishes and this ham like slices of pork was something new to me. Before I thought, the restaurant we usually order our ramen was cost cutting its ingredients but when we visited Japan early 2017, they do it similarly there, thin slices of meat. It took me a while to digest this but after sometime I realised that for ramen the star ingredient are the noodles and the broth, it’s not about the meat, if you are after the meat them get a yakiniku or just order some extra slices of chashu.

Now moving to the future, one time I dined in a restaurant in Brisbane called Hakataya Ramen and was introduced this dish called Chashu Men. This literally was my solution to the issue I had with ramen when I was young, it’s a ramen with more meat, where the meat takes the centre stage with the broth and the noodles, it’s a ramen that provided the perfect balance between these three wonderful ingredients. Today we are making one at home, basically it just my Tonkotsu ramen recipe but served with more chashu.

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Chashu-men

  • Author: Raymund
  • Prep Time: 20 mins
  • Cook Time: 6 hours
  • Total Time: 6 hours 20 mins
  • Yield: 6 1x
  • Category: Main Course
  • Cuisine: Japanese

Description

Chashu-men is a type of Japanese noodle dish served with ramen noodles over a rich pork broth served with a copious amount of chashu.


Ingredients

Units Scale

Ramen

Broth

  • 1 1/2 kg pork trotter
  • 1 kg pork bones
  • 1 large onion, roughly chopped
  • 1 whole garlic, minced
  • thumb sized ginger, sliced thinly
  • 2 pcs leeks, roughly chopped
  • 6 pcs dried shiitake mushrooms
  • oil
  • salt

Instructions

  1. In a large stock pot add pork trotters and pork bones then fill it with water enough to cover everything. Bring it to a boil and continue to boil until the scum appears on top. Turn the heat off then drain.
  2. Clean the pork bones and trotters in running water removing any scum that is stuck on it.
  3. In clean stock pot add oil then sauté onion, garlic and ginger.
  4. Add the pork trotters, bones, leeks, dried shiitake mushrooms and salt. Fill it again with water enough to cover everything (roughly 4 to 5 litres), cover with heavy a lid then bring it to a boil.
  5. Once boiling reduce to simmering heat and simmer for 4 hours, check water levels making sure it does not dry out, adding water if necessary.
  6. After 4 hours, turn the heat off then strain the liquid using a fine sieve into a separate pot, reserve the bones. At this point you need to have at least 3 litres of stock if not add water. Place pot on stove top then bring it to a boil, once boiling lower to simmering heat.
  7. Scrape off the very tender fat and skin from the trotter bones until you have around 1 1/2 cups of tender pork skin. Place them in a bowl then using a hand blender puree them until smooth in consistency, pour this into the simmering soup.
  8. Continue to simmer the broth for 2 more hours, season with salt then turn heat off.
  9. Cook ramen noodles according to packet instructions.
  10. Place ramen noodles in a bowl then pour the pork broth, top with 6 pcs sliced Chashu pork, Boiled eggs, chopped spring onions and nori.

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7 Responses

  1. suituapui says:

    I bet I would enjoy that! For a while, I thought it’s something like our char chu mee (fry & cook noodles). Sounds like char siew (barbecued pork) too…but no, they do not look the same.

  2. I want to eat all those pork slices! So tender and yummy 🙂

  3. Hannah says:

    I was just planning on making a shiitake version of chashu, too! Thanks for this delicious inspiration.

  4. What a delicious recipe and pleasing-the-eye presentation!

  5. I have never had ramen — probably because in the U.S. it is all laden with garlic. I imagine that the real thing may have variations that dint include garlic — do you know?

  6. Julie says:

    OMG this looks delicious! I will try this out tonight! Thanks for sharing!

  7. Michelle says:

    This would be absolutely perfect for my meat-loving husband!! The chashu looks so good!

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