Japanese ramen is probably the one dish I’m very willing to pay for when dining out because there’s so much work involved in making that one bowl of ramen. A good broth requires lots of time and the ajitsuke tamago (egg), although seemingly easy to make, requires precision. I never thought of making ramen from scratch, but since I recently made Cantonese style char siew, I thought I could try making Japanese style chashu. And it’s really much easier than I thought it would be!
You’ll need just a few ingredients: pork belly, green onion, ginger, sake, soy sauce, mirin, sugar and water.
First, roll the slab of pork belly into a log shape and wrap the pork belly tightly using some twine. You may cut off any excess meat that sticks out if you wish, but I didn’t.
In a pot that is just big enough to contain the roll of pork belly (I used a 20cm pot), add some oil. Heat the pot over medium-high heat, then add the pork belly into the pot. Sear pork belly on all sides until slightly brown, then remove pork belly from pot. You may skip this step if you wish, but I feel that it will give the chashu a better texture and flavour.
Tip: Please ensure pork belly is patted dry so that there won’t be any splattering!
In the same pot, add all the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.
Add pork belly back into the pot then reduce to the heat to medium-low so that the liquid is just simmering. Cover the pot with a lid so that the liquid does not evaporate too quickly. Cook for 2 hours, rotating the pork belly every 30 minutes so that all parts will cook evenly (since the liquid won’t be able to cover the entire pork belly).
After a while, your pork belly should have deepened in colour. 2 hours is good enough to get tender chashu, but if you have time to spare, I highly recommend braising the chashu for 3 or even 4 hours! You will get melt-in-your-mouth chashu if you braise it for longer.
Tip: At the end of 2 hours, you should be left with some braising liquid. Strain this liquid and use it for making ajitsuke tamago (ramen egg) or even the soup for your ramen.
After braising, keep the chashu in the chiller or freezer for a while before slicing so that it’ll be much easier to slice it thinly! After slicing, you can reheat the chashu in the braising liquid.
You can’t tell from the photos, but the chashu has a good amount of fats (I could actually do with more) and is moist and tender! For maximum flavour, I highly recommend searing the chashu using a blowtorch.
So I cheated and cooked up instant ramen, then topped it off with some beautifully charred aburi chashu and some egg-cellent ajitsuke tamago. Look at that liquid gold! I’ve tried making ajitsuke tamago countless times and finally I got it right this time. Was really satisfied with the chashu and tamago, but the ramen noodles and soup could have been better. As I previously mentioned, you can turn the leftover braising liquid into ramen soup by diluting it with some chicken stock or pork stock (because the braising liquid is very salty after reducing).
Note: I felt that the 1kg of chashu I made was enough for about 5 people only (each person could have 3-4 slices, depending on how thin you slice the chashu). If you want to maximize your effort, you can double or even triple the recipe then keep the leftover chashu in the freezer and reheat it as and when you want to eat it.
Japanese Chashu
Ingredients
- 1 kg pork belly
- 1 green onion short lengths
- 6 slices ginger
- 1 cup soy sauce
- 1 cup sake
- ½ cup mirin
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 cups water
Instructions
- Roll pork belly into a log shape and wrap pork belly tightly using some twine. You may cut off any excess meat that sticks out if you wish.
- In a pot that is just big enough to contain the pork belly (I used a 20cm pot), add some oil. Heat pot over medium-high heat, then add pork belly into pot. (Please ensure pork belly is patted dry to prevent splattering) Sear pork belly on all sides until slightly brown, then remove pork belly from pot. You may skip this step if you wish, but it will give the chashu a better texture and flavour.
- In the same pot, add all the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Add pork belly back into pot then reduce to medium-low heat so that the liquid is just simmering. Cover pot with a lid so that the liquid does not evaporate too quickly. Cook for 2 hours, rotating pork belly every 30 minutes so that all parts will cook evenly (since the liquid won’t be able to cover the entire pork belly). Note: To get even more tender chashu, cook for 3-4 hours instead of just 2 hours.
- Once chashu is done, you should be left with some braising liquid. Strain the liquid and use it for making ajitsuke tamago (ramen egg) or even ramen soup.
- Keep chashu in the chiller or freezer for a while before slicing so that it’ll be easier to slice thinly. After slicing, reheat chashu in braising liquid. Serve with a bowl of ramen or with rice.
