So we decided to start quarantine about 10 days before the official lock down started and I was lucky enough to quarantine with my mate Ben who has made us some incredible ramen, like not even joking it is the best ramen I’ve ever had.

Prep time: ~30mins | Cook time: 2hrs | Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Marinade:

• 1 Pork shoulder
• 1 Leeks
• 4tbs Rice Wine
• 2tbs Oyster Sauce
• 4tbs Soy Sauce
• 4 Garlic Cloves
• 1 Thumb Size Ginger Root Piece
• 2tbs Sesame Oil

Condiments:

• 1 Leek
• 4 Carrots
• 2tbs Sesame oil

Broth:

• Sesame Oil
• 2 Carrots
• 2 Chilly Peppers
• 2 Garlic Cloves
• 2tbs Ginger
• 2tbs Soy Sauce
• 4 Spring Onions
• Pork fat from the shoulder
• Vegetables (I’ll explain)
• 2L Water

Noodles:

• 1 4 pack of Udon Noodles

Preparation:

1. Chop together the broth ingredients or put them in a blender
2. You can add to it whatever vegetables you have left over to make the broth like some broccoli or green beans
3. Get a broth suitable pot and grease it with the sesame oil
4. Add the vegetables on a low flame and let them golden for a few minutes
5. Add the soy sauce
6. Add the water and bring to boil
7. Remove the fat and skin from the pork shoulder
8. Slice up the skin/fat into equal square chunks
9. Add the chunks to the broth, cover and let it boil on a low flame
10. Slice the pork shoulder into thin slices about 5cm long
11. Layer them flat onto a tray
12. Mix the rice wine, oyster sauce and soy sauce with the sesame oil
13. Pour the mixture over the pork slices
14. Chop up the leek garlic and ginger finely
15. Hand mix the vegetables with the pork and marinade
16. Let it rest for as long as the broth is cooking
17. Slice up the carrots into strips and set aside
18. Slice up the leeks into strips and set aside
19. Once the fat has melted in the broth (will take a few hours) scrape the remaining fat from the skin and dice finely
20. Filter the broth removing all the vegetables pieces and bring back to boil
21. Prepare a Wok and grease it with sesame oil
22. Wok fry the pork slices with the marinade and set aside
23. Wok Fry the carrots in sesame oil and set aside
24. Wok fry the leeks in sesame oil and set aside
25. Put the noodles into the broth and cook per instructions (not too soggy for pity’s sake)
26. Add the finely diced fat
27. Serve the udon and broth in a bowl and add on top the meat, leeks and carrots
28. Enjoy!

Tips:

• You can do the marinade the night before and leave in the fridge for an even better tasting pork
• You can add pork bones and feet to the broth for a richer flavour (it would add several hours to the broth making tho)
• Thinner pork slices will make it dissolve in your mouth for a true Ramsey approved orgasm
• Keep the strained vegetables to make a Minestrone or soup later

Recommendations:

• You can poach or hard boil an egg in the broth to add to the soup
• Take a minute away from the Udon cook time to avoid sogginess as they will continue to cook in your bowl
• You can add more soy sauce to the soup if you want once served

Possible Substitutions:

• You can use spring onions instead of leeks or use both
• Duck, prawns, beef and chicken could be used instead of pork, but you might want to adjust the marinade according to the type of meat
• You can use buckwheat noodles instead of udon