Making Some Tonkotsu Ramen (recipe + method)

If you ever wanted to try a dish that is rich in culture and tradition, packed with nutrition and tastes delicious then you need to try this chankonabe. A fascinating fun pot dish with deep roots in Japanese sumo wrestling. You can also find this recipe on my website along with 400 Japanese recipes just google chankonabe space so that you'd find the written recipe. We're going to start with my favourite part of this dish, the meatballs. Begin by adding 200 grams of ground chicken to a bowl along with half tablespoon of miso paste, half teaspoon of soy sauce, one clove of grated garlic and half teaspoon of grated ginger. Mix it well, making sure to break up the miso thoroughly so there are no surprise lumps of miso in the mixture. Usually I would use yellow arase miso but I ran out so I mixed red and white miso together this time and it works perfectly. That's essentially what arase miso is, a mixed blend of two kinds of miso. Next up, crack an egg into a separate bowl and give it a quick whisk. This is going to help bind everything together beautifully. Add the whisked egg to your chicken mixture along with two tablespoons of cornstarch then combine everything until you've got this incorporated slightly sticky texture. Because the mixture is quite sticky and loose, we're not going to shape them yet. Once it's all combined, pop the bowl in the fridge until you're ready to cook. Next, I'd prepare my vegetables. Here I have one carrot, two shiitake mushrooms, a bunch of enoki mushrooms, one eighth of a napa cabbage, a bunch of mustard, we call mizuna in Japanese, and the white part of Japanese leek. In a big pot, we're making this incredible broth base. Pour in one litre of dashi stock for the umami base we all love. Add one and a half tablespoon of Chinese style chicken bouillon powder, one tablespoon of soy sauce and one tablespoon of mirin. Then we have one teaspoon of grated ginger, two grated garlic cloves, and three tablespoons of ground sesame seeds. Give everything a good stir and let it come to a gentle boil of medium heat. Once the broth is boiling, it's time to make the meatballs. Here's a little trick I use. Use two spoons to shape the meatballs, use one spoon to scoop up some of the ground chicken mixture, then use the other to gently scrape it off and into the simmering broth. This technique is perfect for ground meat that is too loose or sticky to roll by hand. By the way, did you know the word chanko actually refers to any meal prepared in a sumo stable? Even curry rice or sukiyaki can be chanko. Despite their impressive size, sumo wrestlers build these bodies with nutritious food, not junk food. There's actually no one right way to make chanko nabe. Each stable uses its own base, soy sauce, miso or salt. It's just a name for what sumo wrestlers make. And while nabe is definitely a staple, sumo wrestlers enjoy other dishes too. Once all the meatballs are in, put the lid on and let them cook for about three to four minutes. Okay, it's been three minutes and chicken meatballs are floating. So next, let's layer in those vegetables. Start with your carrots. They need a bit more time to get perfectly tender. The same goes for if you're adding any other root vegetables to this dish. Simmer for a few minutes, then after they've had their head start, in goes the rest of your vegetables and 150 grams of firm tofu. The story of chanko nabe goes back to the early 1900s, when more recruits started joining the stables, regular catering got too expensive and complicated. Hotpot was the perfect solution. You could cook a ton of it at once and it provided exactly the right nutrition these wrestlers needed. That's why it quickly spread across all sumo stables. These days, many retired wrestlers have opened their own chanko nabe restaurants, sharing this incredible tradition with everyone. If you visit Japan, you've got to try it. Once everything is in, place the lid back on and let everything simmer together for 10 minutes so all of these flavors meld into something absolutely delicious. Okay, it's been 10 minutes, so here comes our final step. Turn off the heat because we're about to add miso paste. Now, instead of dropping the miso straight in, grab a ladle or a mesh spoon, scoop the rich flavorful paste onto it, then gently dip it into the warm broth. Use chopsticks or a small whisk to slowly dissolve the miso, watching as it melts into your soup. This technique prevents lumps and makes sure every spoonful of your soup has that perfect miso flavor. So why is this extra step with miso important? Well, miso is pretty special but it's also quite delicate. If you cook it for too long or at a temperature that's too high, you can lose all those complex, amazing flavors. That's why we always add it right at the end when we can. And there you have it. Your beautiful soup is ready to be enjoyed. Serve it up just as is or if you're feeling extra hungry, pair it with a bowl of steaming rice. Trust me, when those cold winds are blowing outside, there's nothing more comforting than wrapping your hands around a bowl of this warming, soul-satisfying soup. And as I always do when I eat hotpot, is enjoy the leftover soup with noodles. This broth goes very well with udon noodles in my opinion. Whatever noodles you decide to use, make sure to boil them in a separate pot and wash them before you add them to the broth so it doesn't become too thick and starchy. And that's it. Delicious chanko nabe, the soul food of sumo wrestlers. Want even more delicious recipes? Grab my free cookbook from the link in the description. Okay, let's go over the ingredients one more time. And if you're ready to cook, grab the written instructions by clicking the full recipe box with a picture that's about to pop up on your screen. There we go. The link to the full recipe is on the screen now. And if you want to watch more similar videos, don't miss my winter recipe playlist popping up on your screen as well. Thanks so much for watching and I hope to see you in the next one. Bye.