Monday, November 28, 2011

After Thanksgiving...Donabe Ramen with Super-rich Duck Broth and Donabe Smoked Soy Sauce


Every time I make a roasted duck, Jason begs me to make duck stock with the remaining carcasses and make duck broth ramen. So I did again...with another twist this time!

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First, with the entire remaining carcasses from previous night's roasted duck, I combined it with some green onion (green part only), a couple of garlic cloves, some sliced ginger, some black peppercorns, 3L liquid (water + 1C sake). The stock was low-simmered for 8 hours until the liquid was reduced down to less than 1L and it was strained. The aroma was superb.

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As a secret ingredient for this ramen dish, I made smoked soy sauce with my donabe smoker, "Ibushi Gin". With this donabe smoker, you can make such easy smoking at home. Cleaning is very easy, too. After smoking donabe, I just needed to remove the foil in the bottom with already charred smoke chips after use. Donabe-smoked soy sauce is so aromatic and just wonderful. I love it with so many different dishes including sashimi! You can find my super-easy donabe smoked soy sauce recipe here.

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I kept the stock in the fridge for overnight and was ready to use it next day. The chilled stock has become like pure jiggly gelatine! Mmm...happy collagen. The stock was divided into two small-size donabe and heated.

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Once the stock starts simmering, a package of dry ramen (easy way!) was added to each donabe and cooked for a few minutes. Then, 2 teaspoons of donabe-smoked soy sauce was drizzled into each donabe and the heat was turned off. That's it!

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Mini-donabe ramen was served individually at a table and it was garnished simply with Korean nori seaweed and some sliced scallion with a small drizzle of la-yu. My focus was to serve it very simple so that we could really appreciate the depth of the broth's flavor.

The broth was unbelievable! The drizzle of soy sauce upgraded the already rich-flavored broth even more. Bravo!

Mini-size donabe are available in the following designs on toiro's website.
Please check them out.

Happy ducky donabe life.