Recipe for Seafood Ramen by Brian MacDuckston

‘Wherever you go along the Hokkaido coast, you’ll find seafood. The fishing towns and cities on this northern island are the source of a large proportion of Japan’s seafood. This abundance is reflected in the country’s cuisine, particularly in ramen’, explains Brian MacDuckston, author of Ramen at Home, a book containing one hundred recipes dedicated to this typically Japanese dish and its accompaniments: garnishes and broths. 

He shares the recipe for a seafood miso ramen, a ramen dish that originates from Hokkaido, and particularly Sapporo. It became popular in the 1960s and its rather thick broth is made from miso, a fermented bean paste, which gives it its orangey colour. 

Serves 4

Ingredients

187.5 ml strong miso tare with aka miso

625 ml clear soup of any kind

660 g fresh noodles, such as chukasuimen noodles

500 g varied seafood (coquilles Saint-Jacques, shrimp, crab, squid, etc.), cooked and sliced

Negi 

Method

Start by filling a large pan with water and bring to the boil over a medium-high heat.

Half-fill the ramen bowls with water to heat them up. The bowls should be warm to the touch, but not scalding. Discard the hot water and dry the bowls with kitchen roll or a clean towel.

Put the tare and the broth in a medium-sized saucepan. Mix and bring to the boil over a low heat.

Cook the noodles in the large saucepan of boiling water. If the ramen noodles are a standard thickness (approximately 1 mm), they will take one to two minutes to cook.

Around 30 seconds before the noodles have finished cooking, ladle the soup into the ramen bowls.

Drain the noodles, making sure to remove the excess water. Delicately place the noodles in each bowl of soup, making sure to keep the presentation tidy.

Place the seafood on the ramen noodles and sprinkle with negi. Adjust the quantity of seafood according to your preference. Serve immediately.

Ramen at Home (2017), a recipe book by Brian MacDuckston, is published by Rockridge Press.

Brian MacDuckston is a journalist who specialises in ramen. He lives in Tokyo and writes articles about ramen restaurants around the world, and shares them on his blog Ramen Adventures. He also regularly collaborates with Condé Nast Traveler. Ramen at Home is his first book. Brian MacDuckston followed this with Best of the Best Ramen in 2019, a guide to the best ramen restaurants in Japan, only available in Japanese.