What do you do when your exhausted wife needs massive calories at 4am? Emergency 3-minute Tonkotsu Ramen!
Make sure you stock your pantry with these noodles, which are made in Hong Kong. All big asian grocery stores have these tucked away somewhere. They include a packet of brown sesame oil, which adds a tinge of bitter umame.
Make sure to have a couple eggs in the fridge, just in case. Finally, these ingredients are key.
The goal is to create an emulsion, where oils, starches, and broth are all suspended together. With some extra umame (from the egg yolk, sesame oil, and MSG), the emulsion tricks your palette into thinking you're eating pork bone broth. See how the stock is very cloudy and with teeny bubbles of oil? That's the stuff!
Ok, so take a small frying pan with a dash of canola oil, and start frying an egg or two. Use medium low heat and a glass lid. That way, you can glance over and make sure the yolk is still runny.
Put the dry noodles in boiling water, and add the powder packet. When the noodles are chewy, remove the noodles but keep some of the broth. The broth will be starchy but fairly clear. Now we amp it up.
There are many ways of creating an oil-water emulsion, we will use acid to emulsify. Add a dash of sesame oil, rice vinegar, Japanese soy sauce (Yamasa or Kikkoman light), optionally Pearl River mushroom soy sauce, a pinch of togarashi pepper to the stock. Stir vigorously, optionally with a whisk, until the oils and water don't separate.
Place the egg on the noodles, cover with broth, break the yolk. Done in 3 minutes.
Crisis averted! Bask in a hero's glow.
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