Abura Soba 🍜
Ramen without the broth! No soaked toppings, burned tongue, or overcooked noodles – and no endless hours spent simmering bones. Give Abura Soba a shot, and it might just dethrone your favorite ramen.
Servings: 4 bowls
Equipment
- 1 pestle & mortar if making fresh garlic paste
Ingredients
- 50 ml oyster sauce
- 50 ml light soy sauce
- 25 ml water
- 25 ml rice vinegar
- 20 ml toasted sesame oil
- 0.25 tsp chicken stock powder
- 1 tsp light brown sugar
- 2 tsp lard
Garlic paste
- 45 g garlic cloves
- 1.5 tsp neutral oil e.g. sunflower oil
- 1/8 tsp salt
Instructions
Make garlic paste
- Note: You can alternatively buy garlic paste from a tube, but fresh is better.
- Peel the garlic cloves and add to your mortar.
- Add the oil and salt.
- Slowly crush the garlic with your pestle and keep going until it's a smooth paste.Note: If making ahead of time, store it in a plastic container in your fridge.
Prepare sauce & bowls
- Pre-heat your oven to 75°C.
- Take out the bowls you will serve your ramen in.
- Put half a tsp of lard into each bowl.
- Thoroughly mix all the other sauce ingredients in a separate bowl, including the freshly made garlic paste (which should be around 5 tsp).
- Evenly distribute the sauce to your bowls.
- Put the bowls in the warm oven and leave them in there for a few minutes. The lard should fully melt, and the bowls should be hot enough to keep the ramen warm for a while.
Assemble
- While the bowls are heating up, boil your fresh ramen noodles. I recommend keeping the servings separate and using several pots.
- Add one serving of noodles to each warm bowl. Stir briefly to coat them in the sauce, be careful not to break them.Note: Look, I know the bowl is all smeared and the noodles are tangled. If you prefer folding the noodles neatly and pouring over the sauce for aesthetic reasons, I'm not going to stop you.
- Add the ramen toppings of your choice and serve immediately.