Keto-ish ramen if you feel like it
I like ramen, one of my favorite things to make especially now when it can be done quickly in my instant pot.
Here’s a recipe(ish) of a few different versions of ramen I’ve done, some more keto than others. Note, I don’t generally do measurements, I just add stuff til it tastes good.
The broth
On the stove
- two rotisserie chicken carcasses (like from safeway/giant)
- 1-2 pounds of fatty pork shoulder
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
- few slices of ginger
- leeks, mushrooms, whatever else that makes sense in a broth
- enough water to cover (maybe like 8 cups? /shrug)
- throw it all on the stove for like 6 hours
- after first 3 hours take pork out, and crush chicken bones with a potato masher
- Put the broth through a fine meshed strainer to filter out the bone pieces
- Back onto the stove to stay hot
In the instant pot
- Same stuff as above, though I generally omit the pork shoulder.
- Cook for 1 hour at high pressure, release pressure, crush chicken bones with potato masher.
- Cook for another 30 minutes at high pressure
The Tare
Tare is the primary flavor for ramen, it’s always salty (as the broth is not salted), and flavored in varying ways. I generally go for a tare something like this:
- bring to boil 3 cups water
- 1/4 cup soy sauce (i use tamari),
- 1 bunch of scallion
- few tablespoons chopped ginger
- 2 cloves of garlic
- tbls sesame oil
- 2 tbls mirin
- 2 tbls rice wine vinegar
all amounts are really estimates and to taste, it should be pretty salty on its own. This tare will be used for a few other steps of the recipe, so i might even make more than what’s listed above.
Toppings
There are so many toppings that you can do with ramen, here are a few that I’ll generally do…
Marinated pork
When doing the pork shoulder on the stove, when taken out after three hours, store with some of the (maybe half) of the tare, diluted with a bit of water. Store in fridge while broth continues to cook with chicken bones. The pork will be easier to slice thin when cold.
Chicken meatballs
I’ll generally do these when working with the instant pot, and going for a more keto version.
- 1.5 pounds ground chicken
- 1 egg
- 4 tbls of almond flour
- 1-2 tablespoons of tare
- salt, pepper
- Mix it all up
- 10 minutes before serving - using a spoon, scoop out heaping spoons of the mixture, dropping into the broth
6 minute eggs
- Bring enough water to boil to cover eggs (i usually do 4 eggs)
- Gently place eggs in water
- boil 6 minutes
- rinse with cold water
- Peel eggs after they’re no longer hot
- Store in some dilluted tare for a few hours
Misc toppings
- Roasted tomatoes - throw tomatoes on a baking sheet 400 freedom units or so, cook til they start bursting 10-15 minutes?
- sautéed corn - frozen corn in a hot pan with butter
- cooked bean sprouts
- nori
- Bonito flake powder
- quick pickled bamboo shoots - canned bamboo shoots stored with mirin and salt for a few hours, maybe some sugar
- Noodles - I’d use fresh ramen noodles, or the brick from a pack of ramen
- When doing a keto version, shirataki noodles. They’re not even close to the same thing as real noodles, but suffice, sometimes.
- Just make sure to defunkify them!
- When doing a keto version, shirataki noodles. They’re not even close to the same thing as real noodles, but suffice, sometimes.
Put it all together
- Big ol bowl
- Noodles at bottom
- Few tbls of tare at the bottom (i would reheat this prior to serving)
- Ladel boiling broth on top
- top with protein, and misc toppings, slice that 6 minute egg in half before adding
- more scallions (always more scallions)
That’s pretty much it.
I got lots of inspiration from varying recipes around the interwebs and cookbooks, specifically:
Keto-ish ramen if you feel like it
https://blog.kritner.com/2019/08/30/Keto-ish-ramen-if-you-feel-like-it/
