High Yield, Low Effort addition to ANY bowl of ramen.

I am going to give you guys the highest impact lowest effort hack for all ramen broths. This is the one “hack” I share with any beginner because these aromatic oils add heft to while simultaneously lifting the soup. It really changes how the soup approaches your taste buds. With a proper ramen slurp, the oils that are warmed and aerosolized hit your palate and set the stage for any flavors in the broth.

Generally I mess around with TWO kinds of garlic oil. One starts with chicken fat or lard and you use halved cloves of garlic and let that go at low temp for about 15 minutes –  you can let this go unattended. You just want the garlic to brown and toast lightly.  After this, strain out the fried garlic bits (golden brown and delicious) and use the oil to flavor lighter broths. This flavored oil with combine with chicken or porkfat really well. The garlic bits are a nice little treat. Or cool them and then mince them to add to ramen, to pork, to rice, or just mash em up and put them into mashed potatoes.

The other is Ma-yu oil. This one is serious business.

I will shamelessly steal this recipe from SeriousEats but honestly, they really have their shit together. I am not going to claim that I invented black garlic oil. I saw the recipe, I liked it, and now I put it on toast with Marmite.

The idea is a controlled burn of garlic minced garlic. You have maximized the surface area and are going to apply heat while the garlic is in oil. You will cook it beyond where any Western chef would be comfortable. You should probably have opened all windows by now and closed all of the closets.

People who design ‘open concept homes’ never had a ramen cook in the family.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
• 10 medium cloves garlic, minced (about 3 1/2 tablespoons)
• 1/4 cup roasted sesame oil

• Directions

  1.  Combine canola oil and garlic in a small saucepan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring, until it starts to brown. Reduce heat to low and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until garlic turns completely black, about 10 minutes (garlic will become very sticky in the process).
  2.  Transfer mixture to a heat-proof bowl and add sesame oil. Transfer to a blender and blend on high speed until completely pulverized, about 30 seconds. Transfer to a sealable container and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 months.

I use a nutri-bullet to pulverize my blackened gtarlic bits. You can use a mortar and pestle too. It keeps pretty well in the fridge and a tablespoon will transform any soup you have.

I do need to step up my game, however. My latest oil is more dark brown than black but it takes a bit of fearlessness to get closer to that blackened garlic…

Please Metallica don’t sue me. I know this is your song. I listened to it back when my high school crush was really into Metallica.