Tantanmen (Japanese dan dan ramen)
Units
Temperature
Servings
Ingredients
Pork topping
- 225 g ground pork rounded
- 15 ml mirin rounded
- 10 g fresh ginger, finely minced rounded
- 15 ml neutral oil rounded
- 18 g doubanjiang, Sichuan chili bean paste; see substitutions rounded
- 2 garlic cloves, minced rounded
Sesame tare
- 30 ml soy sauce rounded
- 30 g sesame paste, Japanese nerigoma or Chinese zhi ma jiang; see substitutions rounded
- 5 ml rice vinegar rounded
- 2 g sugar rounded
- 15 ml chili oil, with sediment, preferably homemade rounded
Broth, noodles and greens
- 475 ml chicken stock rounded
- 475 ml unsweetened oat or soy milk rounded
- 100 g baby bok choy or spinach, trimmed and washed rounded
- 300 g fresh ramen noodles, or 200 g dried ramen noodles rounded
- 2 scallions, chopped rounded
Method
Method
- Marinate the pork. Mix the ground pork with the mirin and ginger and set aside for 15 minutes.
- Make the tare. Whisk the soy sauce, sesame paste, rice vinegar, sugar and chili oil in a bowl until smooth. It will look stiff at first; keep whisking.
- Heat the broth. Combine the chicken stock and oat or soy milk in a pot and bring to a bare simmer, then cover and keep warm. Do not let it boil at any point, or the milk splits and the broth curdles. Bring a separate large pot of water to a boil for the greens and noodles.
- Fry the pork crispy. Heat a wok or skillet over medium-high heat until it just smokes. Add the oil and the pork and cook, breaking it up and then leaving it alone in stretches, until the bits are browned and genuinely crispy. Add the doubanjiang and garlic, cook for 1 more minute, and take off the heat.
- Blanch the greens. Dip the greens in the boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds, lift them out and drain.
- Cook the noodles. Return the water to a rolling boil and cook the noodles according to the packet until just cooked and still chewy. Drain well.
- Assemble. Divide the tare between two warmed bowls. Pour the hot broth over and stir each bowl to dissolve the tare. Add the noodles, then the crispy pork, greens and scallions. Extra chili oil on top for the brave.
Notes
- Crispy is a texture, not a doneness. The pork is done when it is safe long before it is right; the browned, crunchy bits are what stand up to the creamy broth, so give the pan the extra minutes.
- The oat-milk trick deserves to be stolen for other quick ramen. Unsweetened is non-negotiable; vanilla oat milk has ended better dinners than this one.
- This is the Japanese cousin of dan dan noodles already in the book. Dan dan is drier, sharper and numbing with Sichuan pepper; tantanmen is soupier, creamier and gentler. They are different dishes that share a grandmother.
- Leftover tare keeps for a week in the fridge and makes an excellent dressing for cold noodles.
Ingredient substitutions
- Sesame paste should be a roasted one, Japanese nerigoma or Chinese zhi ma jiang from an Asian grocer. Plain supermarket tahini is made from unroasted seeds and reads noticeably more bitter; the practical fix in Germany or Canada is tahini cut with a spoonful of smooth peanut butter, which restores the roasted sweetness. Pure peanut butter alone also works and simply tastes more of peanut.
- Doubanjiang substitutes as in the other ramen here, gochujang plus a few drops of soy sauce, with some loss of fermented depth.
- A vegan bowl follows Okonomi Kitchen’s lead. Replace the pork with 250 g firm tofu, pressed and hand-crumbled, fried hard in the oil until browned and crisp before the doubanjiang goes in, and use vegetable stock with the soy milk.