Mixed vegetable ramen

Serves 4
Ramen originates from China but like many dishes the Japanese have made it their own. It consists of egg noodles and various items floating in a dashi based broth. The recipe here isn't as elegant as many I have seen but it gives you the general idea. The vegetable ingredients have been kept to the minimum but the soup stock is as it should be. If you want a vegan dish use another type of noodle.
For the noodles and stir fry A little vegetable or chilli oil 300g egg noodles 1 thumb ginger 3 cloves of garlic 1 carrot 1 small pack beansprouts 1 red onion 1 courgette Few leaves of chinese cabbage For the soup 800ml (3 cups) dashi 60ml (4 tbsp) soy sauce 60ml (4 tbsp) sake 60ml (4 tbsp) mirin Nori seaweed to garnish	First of all make the broth. Place the dashi, soy sauce, sake and mirin in a sauce pan and bring it to the boil. Simmer for a few minutes. Finely slice the carrot, red onion, cabbage and courgette into thin strips. Chop the garlic and grate the ginger. Heat the vegetable oil in a wok and stir fry the vegetables over a high heat. After a couple of minutes add the garlic and then the ginger. Stir fry for a couple more minutes and then stir in the beansprouts.
	Meanwhile bring a large pan of water to the boil and cook the egg noodles according to the packet instructions. Drain them and then fill your bowls. Top with some of the stir fry mixture and then pour over the broth. Garnish with some strips of nori seaweed. If you wanted to make a more fancy ramen then follow the instructions for the soup and the noodles and then top the noodles with a selection of items from this book. Below is a list of suggestions. Asparagus rolls Sweet potato tempura abur age Sweet carrots Seaweed and potato patties Pickled soy mushrooms Bbq aubergine

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Mirin is a sweetened sake with a similar taste to a sweet sherry. It is used a lot in Japanese cooking and used in many recipes in this book so it is worth seeking out a bottle. Lots of supermarkets now stock mirin and you will more than likely find it in your local Asian grocer. It can be quite expensive but no more than a good sherry.
Sake is a Japanese rice wine. The quality can vary enormously but for cooking purposes I would buy quite a cheap one to start with. If you like to drink it buy a big bottle.
Dashi is the basic stock for Japanese soup making. It usually contains bonito or dried tuna flakes which gives the stock it's depth of flavour. As a vegetarian substitute for tuna flakes it is usual to use dried shitake mushrooms instead. This will lead to a more subtle stock with a slight colouration from the brown mushrooms. These mushrooms can be found in all Asian stores.