Winter Tsukemen Ramen

On my trip to Minneapolis, I watched Ramen Heads. It inspired me to make a Tsukemen ramen with winter squash. This surprisingly turned out great and way better than I expected.

Broth

I decided to kick up the pumpkin flavor. This is similar to my other pumpkin ramen, but it tastes totally different. Preheat the oven at 400F.

1 Acorn squash
1 Pie Pumpkin
1 sweet onion
1 bulb garlic
2" piece of ginger
2 cloves garlic minced
1" ginger minced
1 sweet onion diced
1/2 cup shaoxing rice wine
1 Tbsp curry powder
1 Tbsp ground turmeric
6 cups chicken broth or water

Spice packet

1/2 stick of cinnamon
2 star anise
1 dried red chili
1/2 Tsp sichuan peppercorn
4 cloves

Peel and cut the pumpkin into 1" cubes. Cut the acorn in half and remove the seeds. Roast the pumpkin, acorn, whole sweet onion, garlic bulb and 2" ginger in the oven until the pumpkin starts to have some burnt tips.

In a pan sweat the diced onion with the minced garlic and ginger. When it starts to brown, add the curry and turmeric powder and fry for a minute. Add the rice wine and cook for a minute, then add the chicken broth or water. Bring it to a boil and cook for 5 minute. Turn it down to a simmer and add the spice packet. Simmer the soup for 1.5-2 hours.


Pumpkin Powder

1 Tsp sugar
1 Tsp salt
1 Tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
4 Tbsp pumpkin seeds

Toast the pumpkins in a pan for 3-4 minutes. Let them cool for 2 minutes, then grind into a powder with the other spices.


Noodles

You can use any good noodle for this, but they should be chewy. I like to use hand-pulled noodles made fresh, but that's a lot of work. Fresh alkaline noodles cooked for 60 seconds should do the trick.

Assembly

Cook the noodles and rinse them in cold water and set them aside. Put 2 Tbsp of the pumpkin powder in a bowl and add 2 cups of broth. Now you're ready to dip your noodles in the broth and slurp.