Ramen with ponzu sauce

In Japanese cooking, ponzu refers to any of various citrus juices. If citrus juice is mixed with soy sauce, dashi, rice vinegar and rice wine, then, it is called ponzu shoyu or ponzu sauce.

Serves one. Double, triple or quadruple the ingredients if you’re feeding others aside from yourself. Or if you can consume what is normally allotted to one person.

Ingredients:

cooked ramen
thin, thin slices of cooked beef (or pork or chicken)
blanched vegetables (I used carrots and pak choi — substitute your preferred vegetables)
about 2 c. of ponzu sauce

This recipe is mostly a matter of assembly. The only thing that needs real preparation is the ponzu sauce.

How to make ponzu sauce

Makes about four cups.

Ingredients:

4 c. of dashi or water
a packet of bonito flakes (needed only if using water)
a handful of kombu (needed only if using water)
1/8 c. of light soy sauce
1/4 c. of mirin (a variety of Japanese cooking wine)
2 tbsps. of rice vinegar
2 tbsps. of citrus juice (I used kalamansi)

Those are kombu and bonito flakes in the photo. For further discussion, please refer to the how to make dashi entry as ponzu sauce starts with dashi.

Place the dashi in a pot. If using water, place the water in the pot and add the bonito flakes and kombu. Add the soy sauce.

Pour in the rice vinegar…

… citrus juice and mirin. Boil everything together, uncovered, for about 20 minutes. Cool and strain.

To assemble your ramen with ponzu sauce, place the cooked ramen in a bowl and top with the sliced meat and vegetables. Pour in the ponzu sauce. If you want your noodle soup hot, reheat the required amount of ponzu sauce before use.