Slow Cooked Pork Ramen with Crackling

Ramen is one of my favorite dishes but I had never tried to make it because I thought it would be really hard. Oh how I was wrong! This dish was so easy to make and the flavors were all spot on. I used my cast iron pot and the oven to slow cook this, however, you can use a slow cooker if you have one – simply cook on low for the required time.

Ingredients
Pork roast (roughly two kilograms)
Three to four cups of bone broth (or low sodium chicken stock)
Half a cup of soy sauce
A quarter cup of rice vinegar
Two tablespoons of fish sauce
Two tablespoons of sesame oil
Two tablespoons of ginger – grated or sliced
One tablespoon or Sriracha chilli sauce (or other chilli sauce)
Juice of one lime
One teaspoon of cinnamon
One teaspoon of star anise
One teaspoon of black pepper
Two chillies – sliced in half length-ways
Two packs of ramen noodles
Optional – two soft boiled eggs, baby pak choy, bean sprouts
 
For crackling
Boiling water
Olive oil
Salt
 
Method
Pre-heat oven to 120 degrees Celsius
Prepare pork by carefully removing the skin (for crackling) with a knife and set skin aside.
Mix soy sauce, vinegar, fish sauce, sesame oil, ginger, Sriracha, lime juice, cinnamon, star anise and pepper in a bowl
Place pork and bone broth into a large cast iron pot or slow cooker
Pour liquid and spice mix over the pork and add chillies
Place cast iron pot into the oven with the lid on and cook for seven to eight hours
Check the ramen after a few hours to baste it with the ramen soup – you can also add more water if need be
About ten minutes before the ramen is done, prepare ramen noodles as per packet instructions
Once the ramen is done, remove the pot from the oven and increase the oven temperature to 200 degrees Celsius
Take the pork skin and pour boiling water over it
Once cooled a little, slice skin into smaller pieces – this helps with the ‘crackling process’ – and rub oil and salt into the skin
Place pieces onto a tray and put into the oven on the highest shelf for seven to ten minutes
Keep an eye on the crackling as it can go from perfect to burnt very quickly!
To serve the ramen, add cooked noodles into a bowl and pour over some of the soup
Shred pork with two forks and add this on top – you can add any other toppings at this point, including the crackling
Garnish with some fresh chilli and there you have it
 
Although it seems like a difficult recipe to make, it really is so simple. Just chuck everything into a pot/slow cooker and a few hours later you’ll have a tasty, warming ramen with tender pork and crispy crackling. Perfect.