How to Make Perfect Ramen Chashu at Home

Hi guys, I'm Seonkyoung Longest. Welcome to Asian at Home. And this video is sponsored by the National Pork Board for the Pork Passport Campaign. The most memorable trip and the dish I had was the last trip to Japan and the ramen. The ramen is usually made with pork and I decided to show you guys how to make ramen chashu because you can make ramen from instant to semi-homemade or homemade and you put this chashu on top. As soon as you look at the ramen you will feel like you're in Japan and it will taste like you're in Japan. So let's get started. First, let's slice two garlic bulbs into halves. Thick slice four ounces of ginger and one large leek into four inch pieces. Today I'm using daepa or as known as Tokyo negi. So if you are using this type of green onion, using two garlic ginger green onion is like Asian trinity. And this Asian trinity with the pork, wow, is so delicious. All right, let's move on to the sauce. In a large mixing bowl or measuring cup, add one cup of sugar or honey of your choice, one and a half cup of soy sauce, one and a half cup of mirin, one and a half cup of sake, and lastly three cups of water. Mix everything together until sugar has all the way dissolved and set aside. Now let's prepare our pork. Today I'm going to use this one piece of four pound pork belly. In Asia we use pork a lot in our cuisine, especially pork belly. It's actually one of our favorite cuts of pork because it has so much flavor. So lay the pork belly on a working surface, skin side down, even though I'm using pork belly that doesn't have a skin today. But you can use either one, either skin on, skin off, both will work for this recipe. Tightly roll the pork into a log, then using a kitchen twine, tie the pork belly really tightly all around. Right now it might look like it's a little too tight. Sangkyung, that's a little too tight, like the skinny jean that doesn't fit on you kind of deal. But the pork, when they cook, they shrink their size. So make sure you tie the pork really nice and tight. Heat a large Dutch oven or thick bottom pot over high heat. Add the pork and we are going to sear all around the pork about two minutes all sides. This will take about 10 to 12 minutes. After pork is seared, go ahead and pour our sauce mixture and add garlic, ginger, and green onion. Bring it to boil with no cover. When it's boiling, go ahead and cover. Reduce the heat to medium high and we are going to let it boil and simmer for one and a half hours. After one and a half hours, reduce the heat to medium low and simmer additional 30 minutes. When you braise a pork belly like this, you don't have to worry about overcooked pork. This is the beauty of pork belly and this is why we love pork belly so much. The more you cook it, the more tender it gets. Now we are going to let the pork cool down about 30 minutes to an hour. Then go ahead and place the pork into a plastic bag with a cup of the sauce. Close it tightly and keep it in a refrigerator for overnight. This step is very important for the perfect round chashu pork and it requires some of the patience we don't have but you're gonna love the end result. And don't throw away the sauce. We want to strain this sauce and after you strain this sauce, it will come about one and a half cups. And this sauce can be kept in the refrigerator and served with this pork chashu whenever you want. Or if you add two tablespoons of salt, it can be a ramen base sauce. After the patient namaste time, the pork is finally ready for us. So now go ahead and remove the part of twine that you are going to use at a time. And slice to your desired thickness. And reheat the chashu pork on a dry pan over high heat. Grill or torch it like I did. You know the reason I'm torching it even though actually just heating up on the pan is so much easier is because in Japan I saw most of the ramen shop they're using torch to sear their pork belly and I really wanted to bring that the taste of the chashu that I had in Japan. When you're biting in this chashu pork, you're in Japan. If you've been Japan, you know what it is like. If you've never been in Japan, now you know what it is like, right? So if you liked this ramen chashu pork recipe, please give this video a thumbs up. And subscribe to my channel for more inspirations and ideas of Asian home cooking. Thank you so much for the National Pork Board for me to be part of this campaign. I had so much fun creating this recipe. And remember, you can always cook Asian food at your house, making it easy and fun. I'm Sungkyung Longest and this is Asian at Home. And I will see you next time. Bye!