Shadowing Practice: How To Make Real Tonkotsu Ramen - Learn English Speaking with Video

This ain't no gimmick ramen.

We're making real deal traditional-ish tonkatsu ramen.

But before we start, you're gonna want to go ahead and take any instant style ramen in your house, and you're gonna want to put that right in the trash.

Okay?

Because this is gonna take a little a little bit of TLC, but it will be so worth it.

Before anyone says, Hey, you just threw out that ramen, that's so wasteful, I can't believe you threw that away.

I didn't actually throw it away, it's still here.

So all is well, I did not waste the ramen.

Tonkatsu ramen.

There are many, many, many different types of ramen, but today we're talking about this one in particular.

Tonkatsu is a Japanese ramen that consists mainly of pork bones that are boiled for a very long period of time.

This is what results in the mouth-watering, rich and creamy tonkatsu ramen that so many have come to love.

Now before I talk you to death with my adoration of tonkatsu ramen, let's just go ahead and begin.

First thing, we're gonna start with our broth.

I've got three pounds of pig's trotters here, skin on, fat on, all that.

I know they seem gross, but this is a really old school ingredient.

People have been using this forever.

So anyway, three pounds of pig's trotters go straight into a large stock pot.

I wouldn't recommend any other substitutions, especially not chicken or anything like that.

The pig's trotters have the perfect ratio of fat and skin that you need for this broth, and you can get it anywhere.

Most grocery stores carry them, and if you don't want to go to a grocery store, go to an Asian market.

And you're going to fill that with enough water to cover about two inches above the bones.

Then you're gonna bring that up to a rolling boil for 10 minutes.

Do not skip this sort of blanching process.

It is essential.

Now while this 10 minutes is going on, you're gonna notice some foamy sort of like scum rise in the top, and you're just going to skim that off the top using a mesh strainer or a spoon.

It doesn't really matter.

Use whatever utensil you have.

No big deal.

Try not to remove too much of the liquid though.

We're looking just to get this scum off the top.

And you're just gonna continue that skimming process until the 10 minutes is up.

Once that's done, you're gonna strain the bones out through a colander.

Once you strain them out, rinse the bones with cold water just a little bit, kind of like getting the excess scum off the outside and, you know, making the bones look nice.

You don't need to clean the insides of them out, just clean the outsides and make it look decent.

Put them back in the pot and cover with water.

This time I'm covering about three inches above the bones

because it's going to reduce and you're going to need to replenish with water as it's boiling.

Now to that pot, you're going to add one whole bunch of green onions cut into three inch segments.

Two medium sized shallots cut into quarters with the skin still on.

If the root bottom is really dirty, you can take it off, but you know, I just leave the whole dang thing intact and just toss it in.

One large yellow onion cut into quarters and two three-inch knobs of ginger, peeled and sliced.

I like to peel it with a spoon but you know, peel it with whatever you want.

I also added about four cloves of peeled garlic in there too, just completely unsliced.

I left them whole with the skin off.

Bring that up to a rapid boil over high heat and then once it's at a boil, lower the temperature just enough so that it maintains a boil at the lowest possible temperature.

Do not reduce it down to a simmer, it must be at a boil.

Now once you've done that, Add a lid and let it go for 12 hours.

That's right.

You heard me 12 hours now during

that 12 hours You're going to intermittently stir the pot to keep the pork from resting at the bottom

and then sitting at that hot hot bottom

And sort of like burning you don't want that to happen They'll burn

and they'll stick so make sure that you stir it intermittently throughout that 12 hours You know maybe like once an hour, you know I know 12 hours seems like a long time, but just schedule yourself accordingly.

So start at 8 in the morning It'll be ready at 8 p.m.

You know that's it's pretty simple very straightforward You could also do it overnight, but I prefer to keep an eye on it, so I do it in the morning.

This is a really fun and therapeutic cooking project, so I actually really enjoy the mornings of starting this.

It's a lot of fun, and that's just, that's my opinion.

Also during that 12-hour period, you're gonna want to intermittently add a little bit of water, just that it doesn't reduce all the way.

So as it reduces, whenever it reduces halfway, add more water and fill it back up and continue boiling.

Once you've reached the full 12 hours, then it's gonna be reduced about 25% and then it's ready to go.

Now, for the protein portion, if you're feeling extra ambitious and you want to do this super traditionally, you're going to make Japanese chashu, which is soy braised pork belly.

Now, it braises for about three to four hours, so in the grand scheme of your 12-hour process, you might as well just go ahead and have it going while you're waiting.

To me, at that point, you might as well just make the chashu.

So, you're going to start with a whole bunch of green onion, and you're going to cut it into two-inch segments yet again,

and place that in a deep-bottom cast iron pot or any oven safe pot with a lid.

Now we're going to peel a two to three inch knob of ginger.

I like to use a spoon.

As I said before, this is how you do it.

It's literally, you're literally just scraping the spoon against the skin and the skin comes right off.

It's a pretty great technique.

Now, and then you're just going to slice that about a quarter of an inch thick and add that to your pot.

Then add four to five cloves of whole peeled garlic.

To that pot, you're going to add half a cup of sake and half a cup of Shaoxing cooking wine.

If you can't find Shaoxing, just use one cup of sake total.

Three quarters of a cup of mirin, half a cup plus two tablespoons of soy sauce or tamari and a third a cup of just water.

For this braise you're gonna need a two pound fresh pork belly with the skin on

or the skin off it's up to you I like to have the skin on

but you can also take it off

or have it without the skin it works either way

and you're just going to roll it up lengthwise all the

way up until you get a nice log roll it nice and tight as tight as you can.

Now to hold it together you're gonna use kitchen twine to

tie it off into three separate segments along the entire piece of pork

so I tie it off at the farthest right end, or well, my right hand side.

And you're literally just gonna wrap that twine around the pork, tighten it, and then tie a knot to hold it in place.

It's nothing too fancy.

It's not a special knot.

It's just a regular old knot, as you can see.

And you're gonna repeat that process on the opposite end piece and the middle.

This is really just to hold the pork together.

Now you have a pork belly roast that is ready to braise.

Now just lower your pork roast into that pot that we just set up.

Bring the liquid up to a boil.

Reduce it down to a simmer.

Cover loosely with a lid

and place in a 300 degree oven for three to four hours or until it's super tender and delicious.

And if you're feeling extra fancy, you can baste it and flip it around every 30 minutes or so to make sure it's thoroughly coated in that sauce.

Now to prepare our remaining toppings.

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So, one of those is gonna be thinly sliced green onion greens, not the whites, but just the greens.

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Some dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated according to package instructions, which in my case was two cups of hot water, poured directly over them and then covered with plastic wrap.

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This plastic wrap method causes surface tension, which keeps the mushrooms submerged.

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Slice up some nori into one inch by three inch rectangles.

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And here's a quick little method for the coveted soft boiled egg.

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Very simple.

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Bring some water to a rolling boil, drop in your eggs with no lid, and then reduce the heat so that it's a gentle boil rather than a vigorous boil.

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And boil your eggs for six and a half to seven minutes.

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Pull them out and immediately drop them into an ice bath.

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Allow to cool to room temperature.

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To serve these eggs, you'll just peel them and then slice them in half.

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And here is a cross section to prove the beauty of the jammy soft boiled egg.

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Alright, and now we're gonna make the tare.

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This is the most important piece to the flavor complex of this ramen.

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We're gonna start off by making a very non-traditional dashi, so before anyone comes at me about how this dashi isn't right, I know this is more of a quick dashi.

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You can certainly do it the old-fashioned way if you prefer.

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To a small saucepot, add three two-inch pieces of kombu.

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This is a relatively easy-to-find specialty seaweed.

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You can get it at most grocery stores or you can buy it online.

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I'll have a link below.

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To that, you're gonna add three-quarters of a cup of water, and then you're gonna turn Turn the heat on to medium-low and bring it up to a steamy heat.

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Do not boil this liquid.

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Just bring it up to a steamy heat, turn off the heat, and let it steep for 10 minutes.

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Then you're gonna add a half cup of bonito flakes and let it steep for another 5 minutes.

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And it'll be the same thing with the bonito flakes as it was with the combo.

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You can find it in most stores or there'll be a link below.

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In general though, I would say for this recipe, an Asian market is gonna be your best bet because you're gonna find pretty much everything there.

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Once that dashi's done steeping, pour it through a fine mesh sieve into a medium-sized bowl.

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and you can go ahead and discard that bonito flake.

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To this, you're gonna add three quarters of a cup of soy sauce, a quarter cup plus two tablespoons of mirin, quarter cup of that chashu braising liquid,

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optionally, and a quarter cup of the rehydrating liquid that you use for the mushrooms.

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Then you're gonna give it a stir and lightly season it with salt.

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Now we wanna salt it because you want it to be pretty salty.

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You don't want it to be too salty, but you want it to be almost too salty because this is what's going to add the salt to your broth.

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So don't hold back too much.

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Now to assemble our soups.

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So first things first, you're going to need to start by cooking some ramen noodles.

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I like to use the straight kind.

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And you're just going to cook those in boiling water as per your package instructions.

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Every single set happens to be a little bit different, so just follow whatever the package says.

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Slice your chashu into half-inch thick rounds.

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Be sure to give yourself a little taste test and then almost pass out because it's so good.

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Now if your chashu is cold you can always reheat it in a pan

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and get it a little bit crispy on that side That's always a great way to go.

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Now we're gonna build our bowl

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So you can start with a good amount of spoonfuls of your tare You can add as much

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or as little as you like.

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It's purely up to your preference.

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Just season it However you want it to taste in saltiness and flavor.

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Now at the 12 hour mark your broth should be ready It should be creamy in appearance

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and then all you need to do is just strain out the bones Obviously I forgot to film that portion, but you get the idea now once that's done You're gonna

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pour your hot broth into your tare filled bowl Be sure

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to taste it before adding your remaining ingredients to see if you need to add more tare.

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Add your cooked noodles, a nice slice of chashu, or two if you're like me and have to be extra.

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One of your soft boiled eggs cut in half, some enoki mushrooms if you have some, if you don't have any no big deal, I just like to add them.

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Your thinly sliced green onion, your sliced rehydrated shiitake mushrooms, and two little rectangles of nori.

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Now you don't think we just went through all that without me showing another b-roll footage sequence, did ya? So it's done.

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Tonkatsu ramen, including the coveted chashu that everybody is about.

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You know what I mean?

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I know this recipe is lengthy and involved, but the technique overall and the actual amount of knowledge you need of cooking is rather simplistic.

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It's pretty straightforward.

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It just takes time.

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With that said, this is definitely a weekend project, but it's one that's super fun and it's completely worth it.

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Genuinely, genuinely worth it.

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It's very rewarding.

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Not to mention a lot of the time for this broth is completely inactive

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and you can pre-prep all your stuff at the very beginning and then just let the broth go.

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So I mean, you know.

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Be sure to check me out and follow me on Instagram.

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I'm always bumping over there.

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Plus I love getting DMs from you guys and seeing what you guys are making from my YouTube channel.

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Please keep sending them in.

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I'm also featuring them on my Instagram story, So if you send one in, you might get the chance to go on there.

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The link will be in the description.

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So click below there to go find it.

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But anyway, if you enjoyed this video or you learned something or both, then be sure to give this video a like, subscribe, and I will see you next week.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing Practice: How To Make Real Tonkotsu Ramen - Learn English Speaking with Video

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