Sake Bone Broth Ramen, with Braised and Seared Bacon-Steak Medallions

In playing with presentation, we made a design that reminded us of Slimer from Ghostbusters.

We get excited every time we do this project, and it always evolves just a little bit in the process.

We aren't going to tell you how to make ramen. You're adults. Figure it out. Just think about the nutritional content of what you are putting in your meatsuit. Trash in, trash out works reversed as well: quality in, quality out.

What we are going to tell you is how to make the broth for this recipe, as well as the meat.

First: The Sake Bone Broth.

We cheat and use the pressure cooker setting on our Ninja Foodie. Low effort with the best outcome. Highly recommend.

We put the following ingredients in for 4 hours on the pressure cooker's high setting.

• Pork bones (if you are lucky, you can get them at a grocery store; if not, then a butcher shop)
• Sake: ~250 milliliters or ~1 cup 
• Rice Vinegar: ~15 milliliters or ~2 Tablespoons
• Water: enough to cover the bones, but try not to go past the max fill line on the pressure cooker.

Let your high-pressure bomb of a cooker decompress naturally once it reaches the 4-hour mark.

Remove the bones (you can throw them away, give the marrow to your dog, or even give dogs the bones that are very soft all the way through)

Simmer the broth uncovered until it reduces by about 13mm or roughly a 1/2 inch. 

Congratulations! You now have Sake Bone Broth. 

You make ramen with it immediately, it's super-effective. 

Alternatively, you could store it in the refrigerator for a future project like we did. Mason jars FTW. 

Just don't get upset if it congeals when it gets cold, as this is how you know your broth is high in nutrients: things like collagen, calcium, magnesium, potassium, as well as vitamins A, K2, and zinc. All of that gets cooked out of the bones, their marrow, and any connective tissues to be reabsorbed by the broth. The picture above is what it looks like after being in the refrigerator for a day. It's pretty, and it jiggles. Don't make a face. Jiggling is good. If you are worried about fat content, you can scoop that layer off the top when it jellifies in the cold: just realize you are removing flavor in the process. 

Now, on to the Bacon-Steak Medallions.

We got the idea for this when we tried the Japanese-style braised pork belly, commonly known as Chashu. We tried it at a few places, and the texture just didn't sit right with us. It needed something. So, we experimented with searing it in slices, and that improved it significantly, in our opinion anyway.

Below is the process we have come up with for our way of making Pork Belly: Crispy Braised Medallions. The process of it is cut the pork belly into blocks, marinate, sear, braise, slice into medallions, sear, serve. This is obviously higher effort than just searing / braising / slicing / serving, but well worth it. We are eventually going to experiment with this recipe further and sous vide instead of braise the pork belly.

You need the following ingredients:

• Pork belly (comes in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and weights, so you get what you get)
• Sake (or whatever other liquid you prefer to marinate and braise it in)
• Garlic
• Onions
• Soy Sauce
• Sesame Oil
• Sake Bone Broth (this is why we made it the day prior, among other reasons)

Try to remember these ingredients are just guidelines: you do you, boo boo.

You need the following equipment:

• Oven
• Dutch Oven
• Pan to brown / sear (cast iron is recommended, as always)
• Tongs
• Sharp Knife
• Oven mitts
• Gallon-sized Resealable Bag

Here are the steps:

Slice the pork belly into smaller, cube-tangular sections. You will be slicing these into medallions, so be thinking about how big and what shape you want them to be when you serve it fully cooked (shrinkage is a thing). We find slicing it, like so, works well. Try to set yourself up for success, so when you slice the blocks into medallions you can do so against the grain of the meat.

Marinate. This is optional: we have ignored this step in the past and still had a great outcome. We put it in a gallon-sized resealable bag and sucked the air out, so it's all marinade touching meat. We marinaded ours for a couple of hours before executing. Tailor the amounts of the ingredients you want in the marinade to your liking. Just realize that this is a textural-focused dish, and you will be using the marinade in the braising process: less is more.

Let the meat warm up on the counter. This will make it more amenable to being cooked.

When you are ready to execute, begin by heating up both the Dutch oven and the searing pan on the stove, while simultaneously preheating the oven to ~130 Celsius or 250 - 275 Fahrenheit. You'll want to keep the Dutch oven on low and get the searing pan nice and hot. 

Sautee the garlic and onions in some oil on low in the Dutch oven, stirring occasionally. At the same time, brown the cube-tangular sections of pork belly in the searing pan. You'll want to scrape any of the chunks from the marinade off and make an effort to get all sides. Keep the liquid from the marinade handy.

As each piece gets browned to your liking, add it to the Dutch oven and arrange it so it all fits. 

Take a moment to appreciate the scent profile of what you have going on.

Once all of the meat is in the Dutch oven, add the liquid from the marinade (you kept it, right?), and anything else you wish to braise it in: we added enough sake bone broth to get the meat mostly submerged in the liquid. We then increased the heat going to the Dutch oven and brought the whole thing to a simmer, to kickstart the oven's ability to cook the contents of the Dutch oven. We also gave it a hat before putting the lid on and placing it in the oven for 2 hours at 130 C or 250 - 275 F (we live at 1300 meters above sea level, so we went for the higher temperature). The hat can be considered optional, as we have done this without it, but it really seems to help the braising process along. A' makes this by fold-rolling parchment paper into a cone and trimming it with scissors. It's some kind of kitchen witchery.

Once the 2 hours are past, take the Dutch oven out of the oven and let it rest on the stove for at least 10 minutes: whatever you do, do NOT open it during this time. This is your time to prep veggies, get broth heating up to boil ramen noodles in, and get your searing pan heated up again. If all of this takes more than 10 minutes (it should), no big deal.

Cold sake bone broth heating up to boil ramen noodles - not very photogenic

Once the prep work is done and the braised pork belly has rested open the Dutch oven, remove the hat (trash), and pull the cube-tangular sections of pork belly onto a cutting board. Cut them as thick or as thin as you like: as you can see, we prefer a thicker cut.

Now put the Chashu Medallions you just made in the hot searing pan with some oil (we used sesame, like everything else in this recipe). Make sure you are not crowding the pan: this is important for the texture of the medallions as this is a texture-focused dish. You'll likely want to do this in batches. As the braised pork belly gets seared to your liking, add it to a dish or plate with a paper towel and let it rest.

Hopefully, you have been working the noodles as a side project while the Chashu is getting seared and they are ready now. Put the amount of noodles you want in with the veggies you previously prepped, and pour the hot broth in with it all. Place the Crispy Chashu Medallions on top, sprinkle on your favorite ramen toppings (sesame seeds, black garlic, and a soft-boiled egg for us), and serve (preferably with the same sake used in the cooking process).

To the happiest taste buds and tummies.

Eat like your life depends on it: while you're at it, you might as well make it enjoyable.