Japanese

Ramen Tantanmen

I’ve covered a lot of styles over the past year or so, but one style I continue to get asked about is Tantanmen. Based on dan dan noodles from China, tantanmen is an interesting variant of ramen, in that it borrows even more chinese influence than your standard ramen styles. There are a number of variations on tantanmen as a result, but at its most primary form, the dish consists typically of a light, clear broth, with sesame paste, vinegar, soy sauce, and then sometimes szechuan pickles or rice wine. Chili oil is used as an accent on top to provide color and flavor. Topped with soboro, bok choy, and onion, it’s got some heat, some intense flavors, and some visual flair.

There are some problems to me with this approach. For one, chili oil is not usually that spicy in the context of things, and it coats the palate without introducing flavor to the broth directly. I wanted to add heat throughout the dish, so this version also includes a dry spice blend you add to the bottom of the bowl, in addition to the chili aroma oil. Next, the sesame flavor is often overwhelming. To get the creamy consistency of a tantanmen with a subtle, more balanced sesame flavor, I opted for a Paitan base, which emulsifies animal fat into the broth, creating some opacity that can be used instead of sesame. From there, it’s all a matter of preference.

Other changes from previous recipes are in the noodles and chashu/egg below. Scroll down for more.

There are a lot of components to do this dish. But go slowly (actually, some of these components are BEST done in advance, particularly toppings, noodles, and oils/seasonings). And ramen glory will be yours.

Soup

Since this is a tori paitan base, it uses the same standard recipe as my previous technique, just not using carrots in this pass. Here are the steps for reference:

Steps (takes around 8 hours total):

Two hours prior to cooking, soak the chicken parts in cold water. This helps remove some of the myoglobin, though chicken tends to have less than pork. Soak for two hours. Drain the water, place the chicken parts into a stock pot, cover with water by two inches. Place on the stove over high heat, bring to a boil Skim the scum that comes to the surface until little to no scum rises, around 15 min of skimming Cover, cook on medium high heat, making sure the pot is boiling rapidly, around 6 hours. Refill with water as needed, and stir occasionally to avoid the debris scorching on the bottom. One hour before completion (at least 6 hours later, I went 8), remove the lid, add aromatics, and boil uncovered for 1 hour. The broth should barely be covering the bones by the time this boiling process is done. If not, continue to boil on high heat until reduced appropriately. Strain the broth and reserve as needed. You can optionally at this point insert an immersion blender to whip things up and help the emulsification further.

Tare

Tare is sort of a misnomer in this dish. It’s actually just some stuff you throw into the bottom of your bowl, along with around 300 ml of broth. You can make it in big batches if you’d like, but it’s dead simple.

1 tbps tahini paste 2 tsp soy sauce 1 tsp rice wine vinegar (you can also sub some of this out for chinese black vinegar).

That’s it. No miso, mirin, or anything else. Sesame is the main focus and fish is not a component here. Some recipes add in rice wine or szechuan pickles. Feel free to do so if you dig that, but I keep it simple here, because of the next component:

Spice blend

Spice is an integral part of tantanmen, it’s spicy after all. To layer the flavor, I add it in two phases. The first is the spice blend, which consists of fresh ground spices:

8 dried chinese chilies, whole. 2 tbsp togarashi 1 tbsp whole szechuan peppercorns Optional: 2 tsp white peppercorns In a spice mill, blend the above ingredients one by one. Combine in a small bowl. Reserve until needed. To a bowl, you’ll add around 1-2 tsp of the spice blend, depending on your heat tolerance.

Aroma oil

Chili oil is actually dead simple. I cook mine, you don’t necessarily have to, but I also like to add aromatics to play on the aroma oil concept, and that sort of keeps things safe. You can use whatever fat you like, I use duck or chicken fat and vegetable oil, but you can use whatever you have on hand provided it’s neutral in flavor. Note that this in large quantities will form a skin on the top of your ramen if you use animal fat, so sometimes vegetable fat is beneficial.

In a saucepan, combine the following:

3 tbsp coarsely ground togarashi 4 dried Chinese chilis 1 tsp szechuan peppercorns 8 cloves garlic 1 2-inch piece of ginger, sliced ½ a small onion 1 cup fat of choice Cook over low medium heat, making sure the ingredients are only sizzling slightly, until the oil turns a nice bright red color, anywhere from 15-30 minutes. Strain and reserve in the fridge until needed.