Mapo Ramen

Serves 4

• 1 T vegetable or peanut oil
• 1/4 C GINGER-SCALLION SAUCE
• 10 to 12 roasted garlic cloves
• 1/4 C shiro (white) miso
• 6 C BONE MARROW BROTH

+ kosher salt

• 1 lb fresh ramen noodles

About 4 C Mapo Tofu (restaurant-bought or homemade)

• 4 slow-cooked, soft-boiled, or poached eggs

+ chili oil, for drizzling

+ Sichuan peppercorn oil, for drizzling

• 1 sheet nori, quartered and toasted

Bone Marrow Broth

• 3 or 4 (3-inch-long) marrow bones (about 2 pounds)
• 1 (4-inch) square dashi kombu, wiped with a damp cloth
• 1 3-inch piece daikon, peeled

Ginger-Scallion Sauce

• 3/4 C extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for storing
• 2/3 C minced peeled ginger (about 5 ounces)
• 1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced
• 1 t kosher salt
• 1 t sugar
• 1 t fish sauce

1. Since our mapo tofu recipe is easily made in large batches, here’s another way to use it. Combined with thick, gelatinous, super-fatty bone marrow broth, it makes for a bonkers bowl of ramen: ideal for a cold night, but total suicide in the summer. I wouldn’t exactly recommend making this recipe from scratch—it requires a fridge well stocked with various homemade condiments from the rest of the book. But if you’ve got it, flaunt it.
2. 1 Bring a pot of water to a boil. Meanwhile, heat a wok or large saucepan over high heat. Add the oil, Ginger-Scallion sauce, garlic, and miso and cook for about a minute, stirring continuously with a wok ladle or spatula and smashing the garlic against the sides of the pan. Add the broth to the wok along with 6 cups water and bring to a simmer. Season to taste with salt.
3. 2 Drop the ramen noodles into the boiling water and cook for about a minute, until just tender. Drain the noodles thoroughly and divide them among four large bowls.
4. 3 Pour the hot broth over the noodles. Top each bowl with about a cup of mapo tofu. Nest a soft-cooked egg into each bowl. Garnish with chili oil, Sichuan peppercorn oil, and toasted nori. Serve piping hot.
5. Bone Marrow Broth
6. (Makes about 8 cups)
7. 1 In a large stockpot, combine all of the ingredients with 1 gallon of water and bring to a boil over high heat. Skim any gray scum that rises to the surface in the first few minutes, then reduce the heat to medium-high and keep the stock at a boil (or at least a strong simmer) for 3 hours. Don’t let the liquid reduce by more than half—if it gets lower than that, add a little fresh water.
8. 2 After 3 hours, remove the pot from the heat and allow the broth to cool to room temperature. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer, discarding the daikon and kombu and reserving the bones and loose marrow. Using a butter knife, scrape any marrow that hasn’t already fallen out of the bones and combine it with the marrow you strained from the broth in a blender.
9. 3 Blend the marrow with a ladle of stock into a very fine puree, then pour it back into the broth. Strain the broth once more through a fine-mesh strainer, cover, and store in the refrigerator for up to a week.
10. Ginger-Scallion Sauce
11. (Makes about 2 cups)
12. 1 Heat a nonstick skillet over high heat for about 2 minutes, then add the oil and remove from the heat. Add the ginger, scallions, salt, and sugar and cook, stirring continuously, to wilt the scallions a bit and take the edge off the ginger. Allow the sauce to cool for a few minutes in the pan.
13. 2 Season the sauce with the fish sauce, then scoop it into an airtight container (a wide-mouthed pint jar is ideal). To store it, top it off with more olive oil to prevent oxidation and refrigerate, tightly sealed, for a week or even longer.
14. bone marrow mapo tofu mission chinese mission chinese food ramen