Hearty Hoisin Beef Ramen

After much demand and interest on my other instructable for Ramen, ive decided to release yet another instructable on a different kind of ramen.

Hoisin Hearty Beef Ramen is a great dish to come home to after a huge day, offering a big burst of flavour and ample "oh so good for you" vegetables. This dish may be different to how others make it, and thats simply because i wanted it to be a stew/soup type ramen, it just lacks some of the thickness.

This one i made with a friend in mind, he enjoys soups and stews and really eyed this off when it was done :)

For all those hot food haters, this one is not spicy :)

You will need the following. (Sorry if i forget anything!)

1) Salt and Pepper
2) Sesame seeds
3) Chopped Chives
4) 500ml water in a measuring cup
5) Hoisin Sauce
6) Bean Sprouts
7) 2 Beef Stock
8) White Miso Paste (I found this at Woolworths, info for fellow aussies.)
9) 4 Dehydrated shitake mushrooms
10) 1 Clove of garlic
11) Ginger (Only use about 1inch)
12) 1 Egg
13) Extremely lean beef (I only use one piece in this recipe and its filling enough, also leaves one for tomorrow :D)
14) Baby Corn
15) 1 Bunch Choy Sum
16) 2 Green Onion/Spring Onion
17) Powdered Meat tenderizer
18) Soysauce
19) 1/2 Carrot
20) 100g - 150g Ramen noodles, or make your own! (I have instructables on the pasta making but it needs a pasta machine. I use my own noodles in my recipes.)

Shitake: This is always the first step when using Shitake, because it takes roughly 30 mins to get them good, and it doesn't matter if you go over that time at all.

Follow the instructions on the packet, mine simply says to boil the jug and pour it into a cup with them in it. I actually use 500ml of water in my measuring cup and soak them in that, because after they are done soaking you can use the water as a basic dashi :)

Carrots: I cut the carrot in half, and then cut it into 4 pieces. I bought water to the boil and put the carrots in, you want to cook these until they are easily stabbed with a fork. Don't cook them too long, they kinda go mushy.. :|

Egg: You can throw this into the boiling water with the carrots, i still stab mine yes. I find it the easiest out of all the "easy peel" options for me, and ive been doing it this way a while. Feel free to cook your egg however you like :D I put mine in for about 5 - 6 mins i like it pretty runny.

Meat: I use the meat tenderizer on the meat, as it needs to sit about 10 minutes after you have used it. It helps the meat soften, and its pretty effective. It doesn't matter if you dont have any meat tenderizer available. I do both sides with this stuff and sit it aside.

1) Chop your ginger, about 1 inch or half a teaspoon full. Chop your clove of garlic and add it to a bowl off to the side. By now your carrots and egg should be close to done, if not let them finish, remove them and add the carrots into the bowl with the garlic and ginger off to the side.

2) Chop your green onion in half and put the green end aside for later, you will use this to dress the ramen. Chop your onion roughly and add it in the bowl with the garlic etc.

3) Grab a bunch of your Choy Sum and wash it, cut the ends off and discard then chop up the leafy matter and some of the stalk, also adding this to the bowl that's set aside.

4) Take 3 of your shitake out of the soaking liquid (its hopefully been 30 mins by now) and chop roughly also adding this to the bowl.

5) Add in about 1/2 - 1 teaspoon of sesame seeds as well. Depends on how much you like!

Heat some sesame or olive oil at about a medium heat in a pot and put your steak in, feel free to add some cracked pepper at this point to your taste. I like my meat fairly well done so i think i did it about 5 mins each side. Once cooked take your meat from the pot and sit it aside to cool a little so you can cut it up.

Leaving the oil and fat in the pot, add about another teaspoon of oil and put in your bowl of veges you set aside earlier (Choy Sum, Ginger, Garlic etc.) Fry this until the Choy sum is limp and the herbs are aromatic.

By now carrots should be done by now so take them out and put them aside, they are for dressing later on.

Put your last shitake aside for dressing and use the water that you soaked them in (500ml) and put the whole lot of it in the pot with the fried ingredients, add in your 2 stock cubes and turn the heat up to high bring the water to a boil, dissolving the cubes. While waiting for it to boil feel free to start organising your dressings, peel your egg and start dicing up your meat.

Once its boiling, add in half a cap of soy (its just the lid from the bottle.) and half a teaspoon of Miso paste, as well as half a teaspoon of chopped chives. Let this cook for a couple of minutes to make sure everythings mixed in before putting in your ramen noodles.

Once your noodles are in, stir every now and then while they are cooking so they come apart.

While this is going on you can prep your cooked beef, by slicing it and adding it to a bowl and adding 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of hoisin sauce to it, and tossing it evenly throughout the meat. Put it aside and start organising your other topping that you have left.

Here are the toppings.

Dice up your green onion ends, take out a small handful of bean sprouts, cut your baby corn spears in half and peel your egg and cut it in half. Cut a very small amount of Choy Sum leaves lightly and hopefully at this point you should have all the toppings as shown in the picture. Dont forget to salt and pepper your egg :D

Pour your ramen into a bowl and get a fork to dress it, as you will want to use the fork to press the toppings down into the soup a little bit, please don't do this with your fingers!

Use the dressings you have aside to dress it somewhat like you see in my pictures, adding a few sesame seeds to the top of the meat and to the eggs always looks and tastes great.

Enjoy!

Thanks for reading everyone!
If you have any questions about this instructable please feel free to comment, i try to promptly reply to all comments! If you have any suggestions that you would like to see, Ramen, Video game food, snacks etc, then please mail me :)