- [Barry] Eat the egg.
- No.
- [Barry] You must eat the egg.
- No.
(dramatic intro music)
- Hello everybody, it's Barry here
hope you are well, wherever you are in the world
welcome to our kitchen
your kitchen, my kitchen, the Internet's kitchen
today, we're making a very basic homemade ramen
my kids absolutely love it
we go to a place called Wagamamas,
so we're gonna try and replicate that
in it's very basic form
you can take this so many ways
and way more advanced than I'm gonna show you
this is gonna be like an introduction for me,
rather than buying one in Wagamamas
and for you guys to, if you've never maybe tried one before,
and then maybe a few weeks down the line
we can try and enhance this if you like it
first up let's boil an egg
egg-shellent
I hate that pun
(metal clanking)
(water spraying into pot)
spoiler alert, that isn't actually an egg
that's a pan of water
and that's not an egg, that's an Elvis egg timer
but these are eggs
I really probably only need one today
I'm making quite a small batch of this ramen
so sticking them in with the cold water
the other egg I'm gonna let Mrs B have that
she loves an egg mayo sandwich
I don't know why, I don't mind eggs
but egg mayo, just, urgh
we're gonna get these eggs nice and boiled
hard boil the eggs
breaking news, some of you might not have
an Elvis egg timer
hmm, that's very unlike,
I'm sure we all do have them, but if you don't
a saucepan of water, cold water, medium heat
cook it for about 12 to 14 minutes if it's a large eggs,
maybe a little bit less if they're smaller,
like medium eggs, about 10 minutes
because today we're doing a recipe,
what a leader of a dinosaur impressionist tells
his other fellow trainees
they're like, how do we do it?
and he goes, we go rah-men
basically we're making ramen today,
which apparently according to Wikipedia
and everything on Wikipedia is true,
ramen literally means pooled noodles
it is a noodle soup
the kids have fallen in love with ramen
it's just like a medley of hot noodle soup
you got the noodles, you got the meat,
you got all these oils and vegetables going on and flavours
the other day I did eat a slither of ginger in mine
and my said, ooh, well that's some sort of crazy parsnip
and I ate the ginger and it was like, oh my gosh
so today we're doing a very basic chicken ramen
now you can do this so many different ways
you can add different meats, you can add fish
you can actually do a completely veggie one,
which is what Phoebe had when we went there
I think they just basically go right,
any veg we can get, let's just dump it in this bowl
apparently, I was talking to one of the workers at Wagamamas
how do you make this? They wouldn't tell me the recipe
they gave me a few hints
they said, have you got a black bowl at home?
I was like, I don't think I do
do I need to go out and buy one?
they're like, oh traditionally
it is served in a black bowl
all right well let's not do that today
and I have to be honest with the COVID situation
in the UK right now although they've eased the lockdown
there has gone quite a lot of panic buying
so in the supermarket last night
I was struggling to get some of the ingredients I wanted
so I've done my best
now bizarrely the chicken stock
that I would normally get if I haven't made my own
which is of course the best way to do it
they didn't have it
so I've got this one it feels like a can of beer
so most ramen are made with a beef stock
or a chicken stock or I guess if you want
you could do a vegetable stock that's fine
I haven't got no problems with that
we've got some nori which is roasted seaweed
and someone did tell me on a video years ago
that half the seaweed that you get in Chinese restaurants
is sometimes like fried kale or cabbage
with bit of sugar on it
and you're like, ooh where did they get this seaweed from?
(Barry mumbling)
now one thing I couldn't get
which I thought we had at home
I rang Mrs B was like, oh have we got
any Chinese Five Spice didn't have any
and they don't have any at the supermarkets
at the moment so we've got some garam masala
I Googled it and that's one of the closest alternatives
to it and I only need a speck apparently
now ramen being pooled noodles it needs noodles
and apparently typically it's either Udon noodles,
which is what I've got
Udon and got the right ones, Barry
These are a Japanese style wheat noodles
but there are Soba noodles
which are ones that are non alcoholic
(drum roll)
(Barry laughing)
made from buckwheat
they're a little bit healthier
yeah, so I'm doing this upside down
you basically have a bowl with noodles in it
and then you've got your soup, that's the soup
(Barry laughing)
is everything just going to be squiggly lines?
and you get your egg and then you get sweet corn
and you get your Nori
you can have the meat
that's the meat, okay so this is ramen
wow, that's really hard to do the N upside down
is that it? did we do it?
yeah that's basically ramen folks, okay?
that's what we're aiming for by the end
but essentially rich stock, noodle soaked,
loads of softened veg and meat of your choice,
should you wish to use it
I think that went very well
okay as Viva Las Vegas plays,
that means the egg is at the first stage of cooking
so it's had about probably about a couple
of minutes in there
I'm going to get the egg fully cooked
and then plunge it into cold water
so stop it cooking anymore
otherwise you end up with
that kind of like century egg style, sorry Stuart
my eggs are cooked, Elvis has left the building
we'll let them cool down in the cold water before
peeling them I'm actually going to keep that water
still warm to one side to cook our noodles in
because apparently we cook our noodles
separately to the broth
just in case it lets off any starch and things like that
so okay
I just want to show you
like these Udon they're kind of like card,
almost like bits of like bamboo skewer or something like
that, they don't look very edible right now,
but Elvis is still in there
we will take him out in a minute
they boil and consume that water it's basically a simmering
anyway, five to six minutes
so we'll do the same thing we'll plunge all of these in
wow oh my gosh
no we won't it's got a paper wrapper
oh, hang on
that's actually really clever but I need all of it
I've got some hungry kids
I was going to use a bigger pan than this
but it's the fact that I've already got the water pretty
much boiled anyway, as it cooks, we can push it down
look at that it's nearly submerged now,
but I think Elvis really does need to get out of this now
so I have another bowl of water
or a colander ready to rinse
these once they've cooked after about five to six minutes
so, bless you
look at the starch in there as well
so we're going to cook it for five to six minutes
rinse it again a bit like the egg to stop it cooking
and also by washing it again,
after it's cooked like that,
it'll get rid of any other excess starch
sort of gumminess as well,
which is what we don't want in our broth no
woo, you see how starchy that is
obsessed with starch today
I'm going to run this under a cold tap now
to stop it cooking
now believe it or not I'm not on Udon noodle
I often get recognised for that
but I bet that feels really refreshing
moving that around with the water, massaging it
make sure though, I got a bit excited
that you don't cut the noodles
because a colander can act as a cheese grater
so you can just do it in a pan or you can just put it into a
fresh bowl and keep replacing the water in there
(rain hitting window)
the weather is so British right now
it has gone from being 30 degrees
literally yesterday to hammering down with rain
if you've never been to England
this is basically,
or in fact no it's hardly ever 30 degrees
it's pretty much rain
I don't work for the tourist board sorry
before we move on to the broth, the meat,
we can cook that in advance and drive more flavour into it
so remember I did the gadget video the other day
where I made the roast chicken
this is some leftover chicken
this is some breasts that I just sliced up like that
we made some sandwiches, had a lovely thing
a lot of people were like, what did that taste like?
it was amazing
but I did get a hint from one of the Wagamama staff
I was like, do you do anything with the meat
now I don't know if this is the same with fish,
you might want to make that last but with this,
we can make ahead too
they did say they flavour it with sesame oil
(bottle opening)
open sesame
we're going to fry it in just a small amount of this,
which I usually put this in stir fries and things
so good but only for a little bit remember
it's cooked already and if you don't want to do it,
this is optional, I mean everything's optional really
you don't have to make ramen
you can just make a cake
now I'm going to do it a little bit differently
I've gonna use a pastry brush and rather than filling the
pan with it, I'm just gonna brush the chicken on both sides
just with a very little bit of this oil
I just like want to make sure that every bit is coated,
right let's cook this it won't take long
yeah I have no idea what I just did
I just off-camera said why did I just do that
because I've never done it before and I'm an inquisitive
sort of person, but oil in a pan folks
it's gonna be fine
I have some tongs ready because as I say it won't take long
to cook and fact is warming up already
and there's only been a few seconds
we just want to get a little bit of colour and flavour into
it and to one side there'll be a kitchen towel, cheers
so there we go down on the kitchen towel
just like that not burnt
just a nice bit of extra charring and colour and flavour
driven in and remember it's already cooked
it's going to soften in that broth
and if I don't get this off, it is going to cook quicker
I'm going to burn my worktop, but just gorgeous
it smells so good, now with that done it's broth time
so I talked about using the garam masala as an alternative,
just having another look
in my spice draw for some chilli powder
and whilst I was in there I'm like what the heck is this
Chinese five spice
alight, let's make this thing I have got my can
(can opening)
oh wow
I really want to drink that, I'm not going to
my can of chicken stock
this is a little bit of Worcester sauce
I'm completely going by what this person mentioned to me,
by the way more soy sauce
but we can add a little bit more to tweak if we want
plus some sweetness it did say add some honey
if you like but I'm going to try and get a bit of kick
speaking of which we've got the Chinese five spice in here
mixed with a little bit of chilli powder
and last but not least, this is the garlic and ginger,
which I'm going to plonk in
we'll stir this over the heat as we warm it through before
draining it off, nice
all right.
- Where's my ramen?
- Where's your ramen? I'm making it
it's nearly ready miss I'm sorry
actually get your ladle out
have you seen how they eat the ramen
with like a wooden ladle thing
we haven't got one of them have we?
- No.
- Can you use that, is that alright?
- You get the soup and you go like.
(slurping)
(laughing)
- One thing I will say
do not leave the noodles in a colander in the time that I've
been making the broth and stuff,
it kind of almost started to dry out
so I've plunged it back into some cold water,
just so it stays nice and moist and nice.
- It could be a bit more detailed but.
- Anyhow so this is over a nice heat now, medium low heat
whisking it through dissolving those spices in,
you can see the chunks of garlic and ginger like that
if I was going to keep it in there,
I probably like grate it really fine,
but I'm just going to keep whisking it together over that
heat dissolving all the spices and they're bringing the
flavours together yeah simmer it
for a good five minutes or so
(whisking)
whoop well the thing I was going to say is
with the chunks of the ginger in there
if you've got some ginger powder,
they didn't have that in the super market either
it really is pretty tough
this sudden week everyone started panic buying and the
deliveries can't get to supermarkets
I really hope it doesn't get worse because for a
cooking channel, that would be amazing
but if you had ginger powder
you could stick that in there instead
that is simmering away like a dream it smells so good
I'm about to drain it off asked Chloe to help didn't I?
- Yes.
- [Barry] You didn't want to peel the boiled eggs though
yeah that's the nori that's the seaweed sheet
so they're going to obviously wilt in the warm fluid
anyway, we just rip it up or you can slice it or shred it
wherever you want to do okay, nice work mate
so siv down over a jug just to get rid of that
ginger and garlic hopefully it'll catch it all
it has that is our broth done
and we can keep it warm by putting it back in the pan until
we're ready to build it which the way we've done it is now
alright so this is everything I'm going for
we've got the broth that I've just kept nice and warm there
we've got the noodles kept nice and fresh and the toppings,
we've got some sweet corn, spring onion
the shredded nori by Chloe,
the chicken from earlier, and the eggs which we've sliced
this is also some spinach
but I believe this is why it's the importance
of keeping the broth warm because that should wilt it and
make it be like the size of a penny or something
first thing that goes in are those noodles
and I don't mind if there's a little bit of cold water in
there now I'm going to sit in that spinach
the sweet corn can go over here, the egg, oh my gosh
and some of our cooked almost stained chicken
so now I'm pouring the broth in pouring it directly onto the
spinach because I feel that's the area I really want to
catch and wilt away,
but we can finish with a few more spring onions and good old
Chloe has got those nori sheets that she's shredded up
that is my basic ramen Wagamama style I hope all done
you can add some poppy seeds, some sesame seeds,
some soy sauce go to town on it whatever you normally have
don't have ramen that often but when I do
we absolutely love it so let's see what Chloe thinks
I want to try some of the meat actually.
- Same.
- Done quite a big bowl here.
- Amazing.
- Have I lost you, are you in like a food coma
talk to me Chloe are you okay
warm chicken the sesame oil in there
there is a little bit of heat in there
from the chilli powder too
you may put even more in if you want,
it's like a whole freshness to it so good
and of course as a veggie option
nearly poked my eye out
it does work really well, too
like it?
- Yes.
- Right that's the only set of chopsticks we've got
and you've stuck them on my head.
- Yey.
(laughs)
So there we go folks just a real simple basic ramen
you love going to Wagamama's don't you?
- Amazing.
- I'm sure other chains are available.
- You should like, we should be sponsored by it
cause it's so amazing.
(laughing)
- But if you do like this sort of style food
I did do bao buns as well as it steamed pillows of foodie
goodness, you can put some jam and pull pork in that
but hopefully just a basic intro to ramen for you
we can take it way further
but I just want to do some initial ideas for you guys just
to give it an idea and put your own spin on it
if you do try it send me a photo
on your social media platform of choice
love to see it
any final thoughts Chloe?
- Next time you should do those beans with salt on.
- Okay I will do the beans with salt on
thanks guys see you soon, bye.
- Bye.
♪ Check your level player no matter what your style ♪
♪ The kitchens for me so is moustache ♪
♪ Goatee maybe all three ♪
(funky music)
- [Barry] Eat the egg.
- No.
- [Barry] Eat the egg.
- Or I will hit you with the chopsticks again.
- [Barry] Eat the egg.
- No.
- [Barry] You must eat the egg.
(laughing)
- No.