Paleo Ramen

There is a Ramen craze sweeping Oslo at the moment. Most prominent at Hitchhiker and Smalhans, but ramen has invaded our Instagram feeds and Facebook timeline lately as well. We just had to make it ourselves.

After having Jan Robin's ramen at Hitchhiker last weekend (Anders had it three times) , I decided to make a Paleo version at home for Anders. Ramen is a japanese soup with noodles. More specifically it is a meat or fish broth which is flavored with soy or miso sauce. To make it paleo I replaced noodles with zoodles. 

Ingredients:

1 whole organic chicken
1 zucchini

Broth:
1 carrot
1 leek
1 yellow onion
4 garlic cloves
Small piece of ginger
Neutral oil
Sesame oil
Gluten free soy sauce
Salt and whole pepper corns

Topping:
2 eggs
Spring onions
1,5 dl (1 cup) mushrooms 
Hoisin sauce
Sriracha sauce

Get ready to ramen!

This isn't a quick cook. Start the day before, or in the morning the latest, in order to make a good broth. With a good knife separate the chicken breasts from it's body. Use a cleaver to chop off the legs. You can freeze the legs as they won't be used for this recipe. Chop the remaining carcass into manageable pieces for frying . Anders showed me the tricks to make good broth, and these are essential to get a good taste. Fry the bones/meat in a cast iron pot and let them caramelize properly. Roughly chop the carrots, onions, leek, ginger and garlic cloves. No need to peel much except the onion. Now fry the vegetables in the same pan. Allow the onion to caramelize and give the vegetables a good browning. Add water, salt and some whole pepper corns and let the broth cook for 12+ hours. During the first few hours of simmering you need to remove the impurities that float to the top and makes a foamy layer.

Use a strainer to remove the bones and vegetable and return the broth to the pot. Add the chicken breast and eggs. The eggs should cook 6 minutes to get soft boiled. The chicken needs about 15 minutes. Take out chicken and let it cool. Once cooled shred the chicken to small strips . Adjust the taste of the broth with gluten free soy sauce until desired flavor.

Cut the zucchini Julienne to make zoodles. Fry in a pan for about 1 minute, until al dente. Cut the mushrooms in slices and pan-fry them with sesame oil until golden and soft. Peel the eggs and cut them in half. In a bowl add some of the mushrooms, zoodles, shredded chicken and one egg. Cover with broth and sprinkle spring onions over it.

Enjoy it with some hoisin and sriracha sauce on the side.