Cold months are the perfect time to eat a hot steaming bowl of ramen. Miso ramen is especially hearty and rich. Our recipe uses ample portions of ginger, garlic, and sake. They will definitely warm you up from the inside out.
It is very different from the lighter styles of ramen eaten in Japanese food culture during the summer. With this authentic Japanese food recipe for hearty miso butter ramen, you will quickly learn how to make a delicious and healthy meal that will satisfy and warm up the whole family. Let’s get started!
Miso Ramen
Miso ramen comes from Hokkaido. Because Hokkaido is the northernmost prefecture of Japan, it gets very cold in the winter and so they created a heartier and thicker version of ramen noodles using miso to stay warm. Corn and milk butter are specialty foods of Hokkaido as well, so you often see miso ramen garnished with corn and butter. The pork base makes Hokkaido-style ramen extra rich and the miso and sake give the dish a burst of umami flavor that will light up your taste buds. Because Hokkaido is often snowy in the winter season, they tend to use the thick and curly variety of ramen noodles, which hold more warmth and are more filling.
Kotteri Ramen vs. Assari Ramen
Ramen broth is usually classified as kotteri, assari, or somewhere in the middle according to its heaviness. Kotteri means rich and thick flavor, and assari means light flavor. Miso and tonkotsu ramen tend to be classified as kotteri, whereas saltier flavors are assari. Shoyu (soy sauce) often stands somewhere in the middle between kotteri and assari.
Another difference is that kotteri broths tend to be milky or opaque, while assari broths tend to be clear and thinner. When learning to cook traditional Japanese food recipes like this miso ramen it is very helpful to experiment with different broth styles to see if you like kotteri or assari better, or maybe you love them both!
About Ramen Noodles
One of the simplest types of noodle in Japanese culture and traditions, ramen noodles are made simply from wheat flour, salt, water, and kansui, an alkaline water base which makes the noodle more “bouncy.” While in the West, most people are familiar with the dried ramen noodles that come in packages, in Japan real ramen in restaurants is almost always made from fresh, handmade noodles. Ramen noodles come in many shapes and sizes, from thick to thin, straight to wavy. Just remember to always slurp up your noodles with gusto to show how much you love them!
Cooking Tips
- It’s up to you to decide how long you want to cook cabbage. If you want more texture, boil quickly so the cabbage remains hard. If you want the cabbage to melt in your mouth with all the other hearty ingredients, boil it a bit longer. Either way, make sure to drain the cabbage completely otherwise you’ll ruin the broth.
- If you want a bit of a kick, add a good portion of ground pepper on top of the ramen after cooking to finish it up.
- Make sure to melt butter into the broth while eating to get the ultimate richly satisfying experience!
Hearty Miso Butter Ramen
Ingredients
- 2 portion Ramen Noodle
- 3 leaves Cabbage
- 3 Tbsp Corn, canned
- 1 Tbsp Butter (1/2 Tbsp per portion)
- Salt and Pepper
- Olive Oil, for cooking
Instructions
- Chop cabbage into square pieces and quickly boil. Drain and set them aside.
- In a pot, heat olive oil over medium heat and cook ground pork, ginger, and garlic together.
- Once pork is done, add the rest of the ingredients of the soup and boil over high heat. Salt and pepper to taste.
- In the meantime, cook ramen noodles as directed on the package. Drain.
- In a ramen bowl, place completely drained ramen noodles and pour in the soup. Garnish with cabbage, corn, and butter.
