Slow Poached Egg the easy way

Today I wanted slow poached eggs to go with the ramen. The last time I made it, it was quite tricky to get the fire just right. I had to check it every 10 minutes. That got me thinking, can I use my rice cooker to do it? After some googling, I found the warm temperature is 140F and that is the same as David Chang's recipe. Here's my technique.

I have a Tiger fuzzy logic rice cooker. Any fuzzy logic rice cooker should work. Start by turning on warm. Bring about 4-5 cups of water almost to a boil. When I see steam start to come out of the spout, I turn it off and pour enough into the rice cooker to reach the 4 cup line. I let the hot water sit until the temperature drops to 150F.

Carefully put 4 room temperature eggs in the rice cooker and close it. Set a timer for 45 minutes. When it's done, remove the eggs from the water and set it aside. Use it immediately in your ramen or just eat it.

Ramen recipe for soothing your soul

Over the holiday I got a nasty cold traveling to Portland OR. Last week I had to travel to Philly for work, but I wasn't 100% recovered. Luckily, philly had some good restaurants like http://www.pho4seasons.com/, http://www.vimanthai.com/ and http://www.ramenbarphilly.com/. The Tonkotsu ramen was really nice, and inspired me to make ramen on Saturday. Here is my recipe.

Ingredients

Fresh frozen lo mein noodles

2 32oz boxes of chicken stock
2 lbs of pork neck bones
1 packet of pho seasoning

1 large onion pealed
6 cloves garlic
2 inches of giner pealed
5-7 pieces of rock sugar
1 tbp salt
1 tsp mirin vinegar
1/4 cup Nuoc Mam

2 cups water

Noodle condiments

bok choi/broccoli/spinach
2 carrots julienne
meat of  your choice


Making the soup

I start by putting the pork bones in a pot and bring it to a boil. I let it boil for 5-10 minutes and then dump the liquids. This step helps to get rid of the scum and makes the soup clear. I rinse off the bones to get any scum off and I wash the pot. Put the bones back in the pot with the chicken stock, garlic, ginger, pho spice, onion, nuoc mam, rock sugar, salt and 2 cups of water. Any good fish sauce will do. Depending on your taste, use more or less rock sugar. Bring the soup to a boil and then turn it down to simmer. Let it simmer for 5-8 hours. When the soup is done, the meat should be falling off the neck bones. Taste the soup and add more salt if needed. This is really a personal preference. The fish sauce is salty, but you might want a bit more depending on what you put on your ramen.

Preparing the lo mein

5 hours before you need them, take it out of the freezer to defrost. 1 bag of noodles divides into 4 servings. The noodles should be at room temperature when you divide them into 4 servings. Set it aside.

Prepare the veggies

I vary the veggies I put in my ramen depending on what I have on hand. Bok choi, broccoli, spinach, bean sprouts, carrots and nappa cabbage are some of my favorites. Wash the veggies and cut them so they are bite size. Start a big pot of water, add a tsp of salt and bring to a boil. For broccoli, boil them for 90-100 seconds and cool in a ice bath. For bok choi 60 seconds. I use a noodle basket to blanch the veggies.

Once the veggies are blanched, you're ready for the final step. Bring the soup to a rolling boil.

Cooking noodles

Put 1 serving of lo mein in the noodle basket and boil it for 90 seconds. You can go longer if you want softer noodles, but not more than 2 minutes. Put all of the ingredients in a big chinese bowl. When all four bowls have the noodles and toppings, laddle enough soup to cover everything.

I like pork belly in my ramen, but any kind of savory meat will go with it. Sometimes I use ham or just boil some chicken breast. Fresh pickles is a good side dish with ramen. I use Maangchi's recipe, which can be found here https://www.youtube.com/user/Maangchi