Alright ramen lovers, time to cook like a pro! Today I will show you how to make "god tier" goma (sesame) ramen. Compared to other types of broth, this style of ramen has gained major popularity in the last years, and many restaurants are dedicated to goma ramen (we have restaurants called Goma Tei, and Goma Ichi in Honolulu).

I love ordering goma ramen when I'm out, but coming in at $10-$15 per bowl, I figured why not learn how to make it? I would be able to get the right heat and consistency that I enjoy but at home. This will taste like what you pay for in restaurants! I will also explain the importance of the ingredients I include.

---

Choose Your Stock

Every good broth needs a base! When you are making miso soup or kimchee Jjigae (kimchee soup) you would use a dashi (fish and seaweed soup base), surprising yeah? Every time you drink miso, it's fish broth! For Ramen in general you want to use either a beef, chicken, or pork base, or a combination of them. If you are skilled with making broth from bones, feel free to skip ahead!

The kind of base you want to use is up to your preference! In this soup, I use a liquid chicken broth, and beef bouillon powder packets (it is literally the same as flavoring packet from instant ramen). If you cannot afford to buy stock, feel free to open a couple packets of instant and take the flavoring out to use!

---

Grab Sesame Seed Paste

You can always read on grinding your own from sesame seeds, but for simplicity I purchased sesame paste. No, you cannot use sesame seed dressing. Dressing is made to be served cold and will have preservatives and additional ingredients that will not go well heated up. Just trying to save you some heartache c: Sesame paste is not the easiest ingredient to find, so if you have an Asian market near you, be sure to ask for some help finding it! They come in many sizes and brands, just make sure it's the beige colored paste, and not black sesame paste- they have different tastes and are used for different dishes!

A beneficial thing about living in Honolulu is the number of international markets we have here, getting a specific meat, fish, spice, or paste is not too difficult. Specific items even have local brands you can purchase, making Hawaii a dream spot for aspiring chefs.

---

Your Choice of Chili Paste

I would imagine that any kind of thicker hot sauce would work here, including Shiracha (rooster sauce- Tabasco and Tapatio may not work as well here as a base ingredient). However for this ramen, I will be using Korean Gochujang as I already had some at home! This paste is used to heat a various number of Korean dishes including Bibimbap, and is versatile in cooking. I chose a local brand to save money and maintain good quality.

This is a required item to add heat/spice to the broth. Although I don't eat spicy foods, I don't skip the chili paste as it helps to create authenticity in the taste.

---

Choice of Soy Sauce or Shoyu (Japanese soy sauce)

If you have multiple brands of soy sauces available to you, please choose your favorite one! I like the Yamasa brand. We do have an Aloha brand, but it's too salty and watery to hold a good flavor. The one I use has a very slightly sweet after taste. This item also cannot be skipped as it is essential to how savory you can make your broth. A lot of restaurants only use soy sauce and stock for shoyu ramen, we're getting a little more complex than that, we want to bring out an assortment of beautiful flavors!

There's Sugar in It???

You also cannot skip sugar in this recipe. I feel like Shoyu and sugar are staples in local cooking in Hawaii, and I'm about to explain why. In many recipes, we use shoyu or Aji no Moto (MSG) to add salt, and savor to our dishes. Being so, when flavoring a dish, it becomes very easy to over salt it. Many cultures and styles of cooking use sugar to counter balance the saltiness. Sugar when heated binds other ingredients and adds a depth to the broth. You can use organic stocks and not use sugar, but you will not reach this type of flavor.

Optional Oil

The 5 ingredients listed above are the only things you actually need to make the broth. I however added sesame oil, as it tastes delicious by itself (for an oil compared to corn or canola) You can also use galric oil if you have it. Adding oil helps the noodles slide off of each other, and adds an extra layer of flavor. When I buy instant ramen, if there's an oil packet in there, I know I've hit the good stuff. Depending on how ridiculous you want the texture and taste, try not to go overboard on it- very easy to!

---

Making the Broth

Put your stock and water in first. Heat, and taste, you should be able to at least taste some of the stock, but it should taste like instant ramen broth at this point, and be clear. When you get that far, add a couple of tablespoons of sesame paste. OMG don't taste the sesame paste by itself, it's very thick and strong tasting, if you're curious go ahead it's like peanut butter with less flavor! At this point the broth will look pale and you will taste the sesame a little more than the stock. Heat it and let the paste break down.

At this point add one spoonful of your chili paste. If you are using an actual paste, the heat will be barely noticeable but will be there. Add the shoyu before going back to add more paste. After adding the shoyu, go back and make it spicier. The goal is to not lose any of the flavors will adding another one! If you can see the bottom of the pot, add more sesame paste, not spicy enough? You get the picture. If it gets too salty, add a little bit sugar to reset and taste after adding a spoonful of each ingredient until you get the desired flavor.

When you stir it, you should not be able to see the bottom of the pot, the broth should look murky. Add oil last.

---

Adding Vegetables/ Meat/ Toppings

Okay this is the part where it gets fun. You can add pork, chicken, any kind of meat you want. I didn't have meat!! But what I did have was dried mushrooms and cold packaged (not can) whole bamboo shoot. When cooking, it is a good idea to avoid canned vegetables or other ingredients, the preservatives although keep them freshish, ruin the flavor. If you have no choice but to use can ingredients, rinse in cold water, soak, and rinse and soak again (like washing rice) to remove additional tastes that you don't want!

I really like dried mushrooms. You can use any type of fresh or dried mushroom, and it will work well. Mushrooms can be very expensive at the market and have short shelf life, having a package of dried ones will last longer and you won't need to cook it right away.

This is what a bamboo shoot looks like before it's chopped. You can find them in your produce section, or with other packaged fresh vegetables (probably not in frozen section) The one I got was in a package and was pre-boiled. Again, if you want to buy from can it is easier to find and is already pre cooked, but the liquid in the can hurts the flavor.

---

Any Instant Ramen Hack Ingredient/Garnish will work

It's up to you what you want to add, just make sure it is a solid ingredient!

• soft boiled egg
• green onion
• spam (this is a Hawaii thing)
• sesame seeds
• kimchee
• brisket
• fishcake
• garlic
• Parmesan cheese (this is a thing)
  (the list is basically endless, but these are the most common items to add!)

I chopped the bamboo, looking good!

Although it was already cooked, I reboiled them to make the bamboo softer.

I added my dried mushrooms. You want to cook your toppings seperate to make sure they cook all the way through!

Oh? I got a mushroom broth. I put this away to maybe use later! c:

---

Choose Your Noodle

Now, if you are on a budget you can actually use instant ramen, for a super amazing instant ramen hack, but choice of noodle will determine the overall "feel" of your dish. You can go with thinner noodles like glass or vermicelli (pho noodles), but the noodles might get lost in the broth. Somen is made normally for cold dishes, and Udon has really thick noodles (might be good), so you'll need a thick broth to match. A good rule is the thickness of the soup is proportionate to the thickness of the noodle.

I go with some classic wheat ramen noodles. I want the chewy restaurant experience!

If you have more than one burner, cook the noodles separate. That way you can avoid the noodles deteriorating when you have left overs for a few days. I put my noodles straight in because I only have one burner to use. If you are going to do this way, make sure to cook your noodles all the way through or it could turn out gross!

Make sure to constantly check at this point for when the noodles begin to soften, and you can stir them completely in! You can avoid this if you use instant ramen xD

I added the mushrooms and bamboo that I cooked earlier right before serving, and garnished it with some Parmesan cheese! Keep in mind that based on your tastes, you may want to use more or less of one ingredient as this recipe's aim was to show how to make your broth taste amazing, and it's very fun to experiment with the flavor you want to make. It's very crazy that it came out looking and tasting like something I would and have paid for in the past. Try to make this for you friends, they'll be shocked!

---

Thank you for joining me, and I hope that you enjoyed this special cooking segment! Want to see my posts from this week? You can find them here!

Aloha Story #2
Aloha Story #1
When Music Moves You Week #1
Motivation Nightly #6
Motivation Nightly #5
Motivation Nightly #4
Repair Diaries #1

---

---

quest for the perfect ramen...