Beef tongues: Gift from our friend 牛タン、友人からのプレゼント

One of our friends who has a farm in the area and raises cattle, chickens and other livestock gave us two fresh grass-fed beef tongues. The cattle were never stressed in the process and the tongues were promptly vacuum packed and frozen before we received them. I was concerned that we may be depriving her of a delicacy but she assured me that the tongues otherwise would have been discarded. Since she read our blog about beef tongue, however, she decided to send them to us. She told me that the smaller one was from a 3/4 Dexter* and 1/4 Angus and the larger one from a half Dexter and Angus. We decided to cook up the small one the morning we received them. I prepared it exactly as before. After it was boiled, we tasted the slices and made a beef tongue stew and later we made tongue sandwiches.

The stew was made from the middle and back portions of the tongue.

We made sandwiches from the remaining tip portion with pumpernickel bread. I served this as a lunch with green salad consisting of our home grown arugula, blanched broccoli, sugar snap, skinned and sliced  Campari tomato, feta cheese. Dressing is my usual honey mustard with rice vinegar and olive oil.

As before, I simply toasted the bread with one side smeared with mayo and the other whole grain Dijon mustard.

This is a cut surface of the tip portion of tongue. I think it is leaner than the store-bought.

I sliced rather thinly to make this sandwich.

This was an extremely (meaning only) rare occasion on which we had access to fresh tongue from totally organic and grass-fed happy cattle. When I started preparing the tongue, the first thing I noticed was that the slightly unpleasant gamey smell usually associated with store-bought tongue was (thankfully) absent.  Also, another sign of the freshness of the meat was that I had some difficulty removing the skin after boiling. Generally it is very easy to remove the skin from a store-bought tongue.

While we mentioned in previous blogs how good the store-bought tongues were, we had no idea how really good beef tongue could be until we tasted this. The difference between store-bought and this was amazing; This made clear what beef is really all about. In both the stew and sandwiches, especially the sandwiches, the flavor was a bright, fresh, strong (in a very pleasant way) clean taste of beefiness. (While it may sound like the flowery language used to describe wine I don't know how else to describe it.) I would say compared to this, the taste of even steak is cloudy. In both dishes, the meat maintained its integrity but it was so tender it seemed to melt in your mouth. Especially with the simple tongue sandwich, the difference between the store-bought and the one gifted to us became much more prominent. My wife was ecstatic. She said, while the store-bought was good, this one really tasted exactly like the one she remembered and transported her back to her childhood in rural Pennsylvania. This has become a new flavor benchmark for us. Many, many thanks to our friend for this wonderful gift. We really enjoyed it and will savor it while looking forward to eating the second one.

* Dexter: I had never heard of Dexter cattle before my friend mentioned it. It is an Irish origin breed described as friendly and the smallest in Europe. It is versitile serving triple-pourposes; milk, beef and drafting.

Spaetzle with tongue stew シュペッツレとタンシチュー

When I made beef tongue stew, I mentioned to my wife in passing that spaetzle (Spätzle) may go well with it. So, one day when I was at work and she was home, she made spaetzle. But she did not have the right tool to physically form the spaetzle. She ended up cutting the corner off a Ziploc bag and dropped the batter into the boiling broth by cutting the lump of dough extruded from the bag into the broth, but it made a rather clumsy large spaetzle that looked more like gnocchi. Although it tasted good, the shape and size were not quite right. Recognizing that I was on the receiving end of a good thing I got her an appropriate spaetzle maker in the hope of encouraging the production of more spaetzle. This is her second attempt and the spaetzle came out much better.

I sautéed the spaetzle with butter and finely chopped parsley to accompany the tongue stew. After a few days in the refrigerator and reheated, the stew was better and the spaetzle went so well with it.

This is the contraption I got for my wife.

Ingredients:
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cup AP flour
1/2 cup water (add more to adjust the consistency to loose pancake batter).
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
Grating of nutmeg (#1)

Directions:
In a large sautéed pan, boil the water and add bay leaves and add salt to taste.
Place the spaetzle cutter over the pan, pour the batter into the hopper on top (#3).
Move the hopper back and froth and let the batter drip down into the boiling water (#4).
When the spaetzle floated up on the surface (#5), let it cook for another 30 seconds.
Scoop them up using a slotted spoon (#6)
Dain and then coat them with light olive oil to prevent from sticking together (#7 and 8).

The combination of the tongue stew and spaeztle really works well. The spaetzle had a mild bay leaf flavor. Also this is a proof that you need the right tool for the right job. It was well worth it to supply the appropriate tool to make a dish like this.

Beef tongue sandwich 牛タンのサンドイッチ

This is an attempt at recreating the beef tongue sandwiches of my wife's childhood. She wanted one made exactly how she remembered . So we made it very simple. No fancy items such as lettuce or cheese. Just mayonnaise and mustard on pumpernickel. I added skinned Campari tomato and my cucumber onion salad on the side. This was lunch on the weekend.

I sliced a mid-portion of the tongue thinly and made several over lapping layers. I did not put on the second layer of bread for the picture to show the tongue meat.

This wife was very satisfied with this sandwich. She said this was exactly how she remembered the tongue lunch meat from the local PA dutch grocery store. The meat was very tender (due to marbling with fat) and flavorful. I have to admit this was a very good sandwich.

Beef Tongue stew 牛タンシチュー

Using the bottom portion of boiled beef tongue (called "tanshita" たん下) I prepared this beef tongue stew. I looked through Japanese recipes and came up with this stew. In Japan, beef tongue stew or "tan-shichu" タンシチュー is one of the dishes for "Yoshoku" 洋食 or "Western-style Japanese cuisine". It is rather popular. I happened to have blanched rapini on hand. I thought the slightly bitter taste would go well with the stew so I added it to the dish. To re-enforce the beef tongue theme to the meal, I also added a slice of the middle portion of boiled tongue (called "tan-naka" たん中), briefly sautéed in butter and seasoned with salt and pepper.

It appears, that it is customary in Japan to make lines of cream on the surface for this stew before serving so I followed suit as shown below.

Adding rapini was my idea.

Nice thick stew with very tender chunks of tongue is extremely satisfying.

We like tongue slices cooked this way much better than tongue sliced and grilled in the Japanese way. The tongue was so tender and flavorful. I served a slice of tongue in another dish with my cucumber onion salad and Campari tomato.

Ingredients:
Deep posterior portion of prepared beef tongue (tan-shita), cut into 1 inch cubes
One large onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
Three ribs of celery, cut into small cubes
Two cloves of garlic, skin removed and finely chopped
Four Campari tomatoes, skinned, cut into quarters (or two small tomatoes).
Three medium carrots, peeled and cut into small cubes
Two bay leaves
2 tbs olive oil
3 tbs AP flour
1 cup dry red wine
1-2  cup reserved boiling liquid from preparing the tongue, solids removed
Salt and pepper for seasoning
Cream for garnish

Blanched rapini (optional)

Directions:
Add the olive oil to a pot and sauté the onion, garlic, and celery for several minutes, add the carrot and keep stirring for another minute or two.
Add the flour and mix until the flour coats the vegetables and the flour coating the bottom of the pan becomes slightly brown.
Add the red wine and the boiling liquid from preparing the tongue.
Add the tomato and bay leaves and keep stirring until the flour amalgamates.
Add the beef tongue and simmer for 30-40 minutes (#1).
Remove the cubes of tongue and set aside (#3)
Remove the bay leaves. Using an immersion blender, blend the vegetables and the liquid (#2). If it is too thick, add more liquid to the appropriate consistency.
Add back the tongue and simmer for 30 minutes (#4).
Taste and seasoned it with salt and pepper.
Garnished with the blanched rapini (optional) and drizzle cream on the top.

OMG this stew was something else--very flavorful! The tongue was very tender but did not disintegrate. The stew had a very unique and pleasant texture. The flavor was rich, unctuous, full of umami.  This was so good there is no way it could be good for you.

My wife mentioned that the cold cut tongue she remembered was square in shape. We realized that if you slice the mid portion of the tongue, it is indeed square. The sautéed tongue was also very tender and excellent. My wife was more than quite satisfied with both tongue dishes; especially the stew. Now she wants to have this as a sandwich--with mayo and mustard on pumpernickel.

Beef tongue 牛タン

Beef tongue is not a very popular food in the U.S. It is more popular in Europe, South America including Mexico ("Lengua"). It is also much more popular in Japan where it is served thinly sliced and grilled. This dish called "Gyuu-tan" 牛タン is famous in the city of Sendai 仙台 located in northern Japan. My wife having grown up in PA dutch country, said she really liked the beef tongue she ate as a child, served as cold cuts particularly in sandwiches. Her favorite was tongue lunch meat that came from the local Ma&Pa grocery store down the street. She just remembers it as a sort of square shaped loaf that was a very tender and tasty meat.

Several years ago while we were in Sendai, we had the famous local delicacy grilled "Gyuu-tan" 牛タンの塩焼き which was served with "Ox-tail soup" or "te-ru su-pu" テールスープ. The meat was kind of chewy. My wife said it was nothing like what she had growing up and we did not like it. I have seen beef tongue from time to time at our regular grocery store. (Based on the labeling I'm assuming it is directed toward the "latino" clientele). I mentioned it to my wife and she was enthusiastic to get it so that we could recreate the beef tongue she remembered as a kid. The other day, I found a rather small tongue and got it. The below is sort of taste test. This appears to be very close to what she remebered.

This is basic preparation and other dishes can be made from this.

Ingredients:
Whole beef tongue (#1), washed well and bottom fat removed (#2).
One medium onion, coarsely cut up
2 bay leaves
Several whole black pepper corns

Direction:
In a duch oven, add enough water to cover the tongue
Add the onion, bay leaves and pepper corns and boil gently for several hours (#3).
Take it out and let it cool for few minutes (#4)
Using a tong or fingers peel off the skin (#4 and #5). It comes off rather easily.
I sliced it thinly for the taste test (#6).
After testing, I separated the bottom of the tongue (which has more fat and other structures) for stew and the tongue proper for sandwiches.

This was simply boiled but the meat had a very nice soft texture and the flavor from the black pepper I used came through strongly. My wife said this is very close to what she remembered. She commented that if you could have beef tongue like this why would you eat the stuff served in Sendai?

Japanese style beef steak salad 日本風ビーフステーキサラダ

This is a small starter dish I made from some leftover steak. Whenever (which is rather rare) we have beef steak, we usually do not finish it at the initial sitting and have leftovers for another meal. I usually make a carpaccio style salad dish from the leftovers but the amount of beef left this time was quite small. I decided to make a small Japanese style salad.

I garnished it with a chiffonade of perilla leaves and white sesame.

The sauce was essentially ponzu with some additions.

Ingredients:
Beef steak, cooked medium rare, thinly sliced (we used leftover steak, the amount is arbitrary)
One small red onion, thinly sliced, salted, kneaded, and then soaked in water for 5 minutes. Finally with the moisture rung out.
Half an inch of daikon, peeled, very thinly sliced and cut into very fine julienne (like for sashimi garnish), soaked in cold water for 5-10 minutes.

Dressing:
1 tbs Ponzu sauce
1 tbs concentrated noodle sauce
1/2 tbs Yuzu juice (fresh is better but I only had the kind in a jar)
1/2 tbs roasted dark sesame oil

Garnish:
Perilla leaves, cut in fine chiffonade, I used one leaf per serving.
Roasted  white sesame seeds, sprinkled on top

Directions:
Just mix everything except for the garnish, place it in a small bowls and garnish.

This is remarkably good dish. The perilla really made it. Adding the yuzu juice added nice Yuzu flavor. The red onion and daikon were very mild and added to the volume of the dish as well as their flavors and texture.

Cornish hen for Thanksgiving, Rib roast for Christmas クリスマスリブロースト

We have given up cooking holiday Turkey for some time. Since Turkey meat is dry and rather tasteless and  produces a large amount of leftovers, we would rather have chickens. As a matter of fact, for this year's Thanksgiving, we barbecued cornish game hens.

For us, half a cornish hen is more than enough.

For Christmas, we cooked a rib roast which is something unusual for us. We did it because prime rib or rib roasts were very reasonably priced at our grocery store. We barbecued it in our Weber with a light hot smoke cooked to medium rare. My wife made "broccoli stuffing balls" and mashed potato with cream cheese and chives.

This was the rib roast before cooking. It was over 5 lbs with ribs attached. I removed the excess fat and seasoned it with onion salt, garlic powder, fresh rosemary from our front garden (finely chopped), Kosher salt and black pepper.

I had a bit of difficulty keeping the inside temperature in the Weber kettle below 400F but managed to keep it below 400F for most of the time the meat cooked. I took the roast out when the internal temperature reached 120F.

After resting in for 20 minutes, I sliced it.

Since this was a rare dish for us on a rare occasion, we throughly enjoyed it.

Hasselback potato with flat iron steak ハッセルバックポテト

One weekend, my wife assumed my usual duty of foraging for food and went to the grocery store in my place. She came back with, among other things, a bag of Russet potatoes and a flat iron steak. Another "meat and potato" dinner was inevitable. Since my wife had just recently made crispy roasted potatoes, we wanted to try something different and decided to make "Hasselback" potatoes.

They came out nice. A whole potato, however, is more than we could handle, so we shared one. This was cooked in olive oil and bacon drippings.

Since we had not made this dish before, I consulted several recipes on line and came up with this one.

Ingredients:
Russet potato (we cooked two at a time)
Olive oil and bacon dripping (optional)
Salt and pepper
Herbs of your choice (may be rosemary), we used parsley in the end.

Directions:
To open up the leaves of potato, it appears the secret is to cut off the bottom (#1).
Placing two chop sticks (disposable) one front and one in back of the potato, I cut 1/4 inch multiple slices without cutting completely through the potato (apparently gadgets to cut Hasselback potatoes are available). I used the small cut piece as a small pillow (#3).
I brushed olive oil between the leaves of potatoes and seasoned it with salt and pepper.
I baked it for 1 hour at 425 F in a convection oven (we used our toaster oven on convection mode).
I basted the potatoes a few times. The last 30 minutes I based the potatoes with bacon drippings (#3 and 4).
I garnished it with chopped parsley.

For the flat iron steak, I seasoned with with salt and pepper, slices of garlic and fresh rosemary (see below) and let it warm up to room temperature for 1 hour. I removed the garlic slices before cooking the steak in a frying pan to medium rare doneness.

The meat and potatoes were good but the Hasselback potato is mostly for show. It tasted like a good potato. The flat iron steak was good with rosemary and garlic flavors.

Hamburger steak Japanese style ハンバーグ

Hamburgers are the archetypical American food and they are popular in Japan too. I am not sure when was the last time we had hamburgers, probably 30 or so years ago. Hamburgers in Japan can be authentic American or a Japanese modification (again, I admit we have not tried hamburgers in Japan). For one thing, hamburg or ハンバーグor 煮込みハンバーグ is served without buns and with demi-glace sauce.  In the US, the equivalent would be "Salisbury steak".

I ended up making this dish one day. The reason I made this was because I found, to my surprise I have purchased two tail portions of filet mignon when I thought I had purchased a beef roast. One weekend I was looking for meat to barbecue. For some reason, the grocery store was out of the type of pork roast I wanted and I did not feel like doing a chicken again. Although we usually do not do roast beef, it appeared that beef was inevitable that weekend. Then, I found a small roast, just about the right size. It was labeled "tenderloin roast" which was about twice the diameter size of a filet mignon. I have never seen this type of roast before and decided to try it (mistake!).

I usually re-truss these meats once I get them home since I do not trust "plastic truss". When I removed the truss on this "supposed" tenderloin roast, it turned out to be the tail portions of two filet mignon put together to look like one piece of meat. Since these pieces are very thin, they are generally not used for fillet mignon steaks; they are generally a less than optimal part of the cut. (a bit of a cheating punt dear local grocery store!!) (We won't be buying that again).

I certainly did not want to cook this as a trussed "roast" medium rare since the inner portion of the meat was facing outside increasing the possibility of contamination. So, I decided to make just regular filet mignon steaks the best I could out of the thicker portion of the tails. But the tail portions were too small to be cooked as steak so I decided to hand chop the pieces into ground beef and make "hamburg" in a Japanese style (sort of).

 This is what I came up with. I served it as a small ending dish one evening with the gnocchi my wife made earlier and sautéed asparagus.

Pre-made demi-glace in a jar is not as easily available in US as compared to Japan for some reason, so I made my quick sauce instead.

Ingredients (for two):
Two tails of filet mignon, hand chopped
One medium onion, finely diced
two-three shiitake mushroom, bottom of the stems cut off, torn longitudinally in think strips and cut across in small pieces and the caps cut into small pieces.
Freshly ground nutmeg, salt and pepper
Olive oil for sateing

For sauce:
1 cup Ruby port wine, reduced in half
Ketchup 2 tbs
Tonkatsu sauce 2 tbs
Mustard 1tsp

Directions:
Sautee the onion and mushroom in olive oil until cooked, season with salt and pepper and let it cool to room temperature. Mix the above with the beef and make oval disks. Cook in the frying pan with olive oil turn once for the donees you like.

For sauce:
Mix reduced port wine, ketchup, tonkatus sauce and mustard and cook until the sauce heated up and attained saucy consistency.

For a impromptu hamburger steak, this was quite edible. The sauce was not demi-glace but good enough and the hamburger came out very delicate and nice. Of course, the shiitake mushroom really added "umami" flavor. The gnocchi my wife made was a perfect accompaniment as well.

Crispy Roasted Potato with thyme クリスピイローストポテト

This is a variation of Hasselback potato. We were having filet mignon steak for dinner. My wife likes to have some kind of potato side dish with steak to maintain her "meat and potato" aficionado credentials.  We felt a bit too lazy, however, to make oven fried potatoes. She came up with this recipe from Wililams-Sonoma web site.

It looks a bit "over-crisped" but it was quite good.

Ingredients:
4 small/medium Yukon Gold potato, skinned and thinly sliced (2 -3 mm thick).
1 stick (4oz) butter, melted (we used non-salted)
1/2 tsp dried Thyme (we did not have fresh thyme 1 tbs, chopped)
1 tbs Kosher salt

Directions:
Preheat oven 374F (we used convection toaster oven).
Bush melted butter on the bottom of the baking pan, arrange the sliced potato and pour the remaining melted butter.

Sprinkle with thyme and salt.

Bake it for 1 hour and let it stand for 10 minutes before serving.

It appears that our toaster oven has a bit uneven temperature and a portion of the dish got a bit over crisped but this was a good, easy potato dish to make. Our steak was cooked to perfect medium rare.

Since this was a rare occasion to have steak, we opened 2011 Joseph Phelps Insignia. This is a very elegant and complex red wine. We enjoyed a simple steak dinner with crispy baked potato with thyme and sautéed green beans with this wonderful California red. We equate this wine to the good left bank Bordeaux without any funkiness. We continue to be impressed with this wine.

Beef Donburi 牛丼もどき

Sometimes the standard portion of beef you will get in the US can be rather large, either at a restaurant or at a market. I bought a good sized NY strip steak the other day. It was almost 1 pound and I was told by the butcher that was considered one portion! I thought one portion would be enough for the two of us but we ended up using it in three additional dishes (aside from enjoying it as a steak on the first day). This was the third dish I made from the steak. I did not follow any recipe. This is a cross between beef donburi or gyu-don 牛丼 and roast beef donburi ローストビーフ丼. Instead of a raw egg, I topped it with a soft poached egg. I added fresh corn and spinach since I happened to have them available. 

The yolk was almost totally runny but the egg white was cooked (Of course I used pasteurized eggs from Davidoson).

Again, I did not measure anything so this is not a recipe. I started with Japanese dashi broth (Bonito and kelp), added mirin, sugar and soy sauce to make a rather strong sweet and salty simmering liquid. I added thinly sliced onion and let it cook until the onion was translucent. I added fresh corn kernels (leftover from making shrimp balls) and spinach and cooked it until the spinach wilted (about 1 minute). At this point, the simmering sauce was a bit reduced too much so I added a small amount of hot water (from my InstaHot) and re-tasted it. 

I sliced the NY strip streak thinly which was cooked medium rare. I placed on the top of the cooked vegetables and placed the lid and let it sit for 1 minutes to warm it up (not to cook). I placed the vegetables with the simmering liquid (it was just right amount of two servings) on the top of warm rice (I used microwaved previously frozen rice for this) as seen in above picture.

I covered the surface with warmed steak slices. Meanwhile I poached eggs (using pasteurized Davidson eggs) and top each donburi. We broke the yolk and let it mingle with sauce and meat. This dish was not roast beef don (which is usually served with Japanese style onion sauce) and flavor is more similar to gyu-don. This was our lunch on our off day and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Flat iron steak with Chimichurri sauce with avocado フラットアイアンステーキのチミチュリソース添え

We only rarely eat beef. Chicken and pork are the main stays of meat for us. When we eat beef, we tend to choose filet mignon. Other steak choices may be skirt steak (for Fajitas), New York strip, hanger steak, and flat iron steak. Flat iron steak is from the shoulder and flavorful but is not known for tenderness. I had a package of flat iron steak in the refrigerator bought some time ago  (it was now a few days from the "sell-by" date). We also had fresh oregano and thyme left over from when we made baked cauliflower with chimichurri sauce. So, we decided to have flat iron steak with chimichurri sauce on one work week evening. I served this with grilled tomato and potato salad and my baguette.

I added small cubes of avocado to the chimichurri as well.

This time I did not bother with finishing the steak in the oven (this was a very hot day) and, instead, cooked the steak in a cast iron skillet. 

The steak (left to warm to room temperature for 30 minutes before cooking) was simply seasoned with salt and black pepper and cooked in the cast iron skillet with some melted butter. After searing both sides (smoke is inevitable, thank goodness for our efficient exhaust fan), I reduced the heat and cooked it for 7-8 minutes for medium rare. I cut the flame and let it rest in the pan for 10 minutes before slicing. Since this is a rather tough cut, I pre-sliced it thinly across the grain.

The chimichurri sauce I made was also very simple. I just whisked lemon juice, salt, black pepper and garlic (passed through a garlic press) and olive oil. I then added finely chopped fresh herbs (fresh parsley, oregano and a small amount of fresh thyme) into the mixture, mixed and let it stand for 30 minutes before using. Since I had ripe avocado, I made small cubes and also added it.

I would have thought that the acidity and garlic flavors may have been a bit too assertive but because of the strongly flavored meat, the sauce went well and did not compete with the red wine too much despite the acidity. The wine we had was a bit unusual called Bodegas Bioenos Pulchrum Crespiello 2011. The grape is called  Crespiello or Vidalillo. This was the first time for us to taste wine made from Crespiello.  The below is the quote from WA review by Luis Gutierrez. Rating: 92

"Drink 2015 - 2020 The 2011 Pulchrum Crespiello is sourced from a very old vineyard of the red grape Vidadillo -also known as Crespiello- one of the few remaining in the zone. The wine is aged in oak barrels for a long time as the wine maker feels the tannins of the fruit need it. It has smoky, balsamic oak aromas, with black, ripe fruit and some mineral hints. The palate is medium-bodied, with abundant, grainy tannins and flavors of chocolate, coffee and plums with a mineral finish. It should polish its tannins with a little bit more time in bottle. Bioenos is the consulting form of Pepe Gracia who also produces wines with his own label. He seems to be somehow specialized in Vidadillo/Crespiello an old, almost extinct red grape in the zone. Well-made, slightly technological wines."

We really liked this wine. We tasted nice minerals with mostly dark fruit and rather strong tannin.  This wine went very well with the grilled meat and chimichurri sauce. The sauce added multidimensional herbal bright notes to the wonderful flavor of the meat. The additional avocado added a different texture and almost seemed like another type of meat. This meal was quite the splurge!

Ramen #4 Miso Ramen 味噌ラーメン

This is the fourth post for ramen ラーメン and the second after I said I would not post anymore ramen. But I saw this miso ramen 味噌ラーメン in the frozen case at our Japanese grocery store, and could not resist getting one. This is partly because I am originally from Sapporo 札幌 where miso ramen originated. Although "shio" and "shoyu" ramen are being served in any ramen place in Sapporo,  miso ramen appears to have become almost synonymous with "Sapporo ramen".  Miso ramen was reportedly invented at "Aji no Sanpei" 味の三平 in Sapporo. I remember going to this place when I was in high school. I do recall that there was a line but I did not think it was worth it (As I confessed before I was not a ramen aficionado). This is from the same company called Sun Noodle that made the "Shouyu" ramen I previously bought.  Before making this for lunch over the weekend, I thawed both the noodles and miso flavor packs for several hours prior to cooking as per the package instructions.



The toppings can be anything but I made something different. I even added a pat of butter which was not done when I lived in Sapporo but is now added with some corn mostly so tourists can have the  "Hokkaido" food experience. Again, I made half-ramen (one serving divided into two servings) or han-ramen 半ラーメン.



Since I had pork belly and also a small slice of filet mignon, I decided to use these as toppings as well.



On the left below is the sliced filet pounded until thin and pork belly thinly sliced.




Topping:
Onion: one medium onion cut in half and then sliced into thin strips.
Bean sprouts: One package of mung bean sprouts washed and drained.
Filet mignon: thinly sliced and then pounded thin. Seasoned with salt and pepper.
Broth: In a separate pan, I boiled water (about two cups) and dissolved one package of the miso flavoring that came in the package. I used more water than specified but it tasted salty enough.

I cut the pork belly in small bite sized pieces. I sautéed it in a frying pan with a small amount of peanut oil and a dash of roasted sesame oil. When the meat was cooked, I added onion and sautéed it until soft and edges were slightly brown. I then added the bean sprouts and kept sautéing for a few more minutes.  I seasoned with salt and pepper and a bit of miso flavoring from the packet.



I kept the miso flavored broth on simmer and boiled the noodles in a separate pot. After I tasted for doneness of the noodle, I drained and shook off the additional moisture using a strainer. I placed the noodles in two bowls, poured on the broth and topped with the onion-sprout mixture. I quickly cooked the steak in a separate frying pan with butter (30 seconds on each side).



I also added menma メンマ or seasoned bamboo shoots.



I garnished it with chopped chives and a thin pat of butter (second and third pictures above).

The noodles were different from the noodles in the shouyu ramen (which was Tokyo straight noodle). They were curly with a firm yet elastic texture (this must be the company’s version of the  "Sapporo noodle"). The soup was quite good with the taste of pork/chicken-based broth.The butter added a nice richness but being a traditionalist probably was not needed.