Professional chef Yuji Haraguchi of Okonomi and Yuji Ramen and home cook Joe are trading ingredients and hitting the kitchen to make each other’s udon ramen recipe.
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00:00 I don't have a plan.
00:01 I'm just grabbing pieces and I'm cutting them.
00:03 I was told there's no real wrong way to do it,
00:05 but all of this feels wrong.
00:07 - Hi, I'm Yuji.
00:10 I'm a professional chef.
00:11 These are my $306 ramen ingredients.
00:15 - Hey, I'm Joe.
00:17 I'm a home cook, and these are my $11 ramen ingredients.
00:21 - Sayonara.
00:24 - Why do they do this to me?
00:25 - Top ramen and spam.
00:29 I can't work with this.
00:31 - Oh!
00:33 This is going in my food?
00:36 - I was planning to make anko miso ramen
00:43 with nori noodle, ajitama, and monkfish chashu.
00:46 I had a whole monkfish with a head on.
00:48 Very beautiful.
00:49 - This is the most disgusting looking fish I've ever seen.
00:52 - I was going to use every single part.
00:54 Bones for my broth with ginger, leek, and kombu.
00:58 - I can't stop looking at this thing.
00:59 This looks like the thing that was trying to kill them
01:01 and find a Nemo.
01:02 - The liver for anko miso paste,
01:05 and the fillets for monkfish chashu topping
01:07 cured in kombu.
01:09 - There's a lot of bottles.
01:10 There's no words I can read on any of them.
01:13 - I have fresh jewelry eggs to make ajitama,
01:16 and everything I need to make my own ramen noodle
01:19 from scratch.
01:20 - Where are the noodles?
01:21 I don't see any.
01:21 - With Joe's recipe, I have simpler ingredients.
01:24 You might find these in your pantry
01:26 or local grocery stores,
01:27 but with a little bit of techniques,
01:29 we can make this even better.
01:31 If I have to guess how much this will cost,
01:33 $13?
01:34 $11.
01:35 Very close.
01:36 - If I had to guess, this would cost $348.75.
01:41 I feel like they could have fudged the numbers
01:43 to make me right, but you know, whatever.
01:45 Here I have Chef Yuji's recipe book
01:50 with the recipe for his ramen.
01:52 It looks like I gotta get started with my fish here,
01:55 so let's go.
01:56 Joe, you're gonna have to break it down,
01:58 and then we're gonna use every part of it.
02:00 - This is Ernesto, he's my monkfish.
02:02 You know, he's a good guy.
02:04 Now I'm gonna cut him into pieces.
02:05 - To make good ramen,
02:07 you need a great broth with a lot of collagens.
02:09 So monkfish has so much collagen.
02:11 The giant head and tails are connected with one spine,
02:15 so you have to use the back of the knife
02:18 and then just try to make a little bit of a cut.
02:20 - Every time I cook with Chef Yuji,
02:24 I'm cutting a fish's spine into pieces.
02:26 Am I the spine guy?
02:28 This is the head, this is the tail.
02:30 He's only got two sections.
02:32 It's like if we were only head and butt.
02:35 I don't know if I'm doing this right,
02:36 but I'm so sorry, Ernesto.
02:38 All right, I've separated the head and the tail.
02:41 - Anko miso ramen is very special
02:43 because it represents what motainai is.
02:46 Motainai is no waste in Japanese.
02:49 - This is ramen.
02:51 I've never experienced ramen like this,
02:55 but I trust Chef Yuji.
02:56 That's one thing I do know.
02:57 - Little warning, monkfish has a giant mouth
03:00 with a lot of sharp teeth.
03:02 Don't hurt yourself.
03:03 - We're roasting everything, including his teeth.
03:05 Teeth go over there too, and it's just another day.
03:08 - So Joel was going to make a very basic ramen,
03:11 but I'm gonna do a little bit different.
03:13 I'm going to make crispy spam and baby bok choy mazumen
03:17 with onsen tamago and a scallion oil.
03:20 The first thing I'm making is a crispy spam.
03:22 I'm not gonna lie, I don't use spam usually,
03:26 but I think I can make it work.
03:28 Mazumen is my signature style ramen, which is dry ramen.
03:31 Ramen served without the broth,
03:33 but with a seasoning and an oil.
03:35 How do I even just go like that?
03:38 Whoa.
03:39 So I'm going to cut it a little bit smaller
03:41 and make it crispy so that when I mix it,
03:44 it becomes almost like a seasoning for the noodles.
03:47 - Now it's time to fillet my tail meat.
03:49 First thing I gotta do, I'm gonna pull off the skin.
03:53 It feels very satisfying to do it.
03:55 It feels like, you know,
03:57 taking the shrink wrap off or something.
03:59 How do I know when I got it off?
04:01 There more of this supposed to come off?
04:03 Hey, that's good enough in my book.
04:05 So I'm just gonna cut along here, and this is very tender.
04:09 It just goes right through, no problem.
04:11 There we go, more fish spine.
04:14 This goes in with the bones.
04:16 My fillets are filleted.
04:18 Just trying to make sure that they don't become overcooked.
04:22 So I'm trying to separate them and just keep turning.
04:24 I wanna make like a,
04:25 almost like a breakfast bacon, nice and crispy.
04:28 It smells great.
04:30 - I got all my monk chunks here,
04:33 and now it is time to blanch them.
04:35 I'm gonna put it in here for about 30 seconds
04:37 until it looks white-ish.
04:38 I'm pulling out the last of my monk chunks,
04:42 and this is ready to go.
04:44 We're gonna put these into the oven,
04:46 roast them at 500 degrees,
04:49 and then I'm going to broil them.
04:51 - Finish it up with a broiler,
04:53 so it adds a really nice charred color,
04:55 which actually transfers to the color of the broth.
04:58 So these crispy spams are looking pretty good,
05:02 so I'm just gonna take them out
05:03 as they are nice and crispy.
05:06 - It's time to make my broth with my monkfish bones.
05:10 That's the spine.
05:11 - So the combination of the leek and ginger
05:14 blend really well with the fish flavor.
05:17 - And we're gonna do a cup of sake.
05:19 I'm just gonna cover up everything with the water.
05:22 - And the broth is gonna go on for about three to four hours,
05:26 and then he's gonna strain the broth,
05:28 and then add the kombu to finish.
05:30 - And I'm just gonna let it sit for 30 minutes.
05:32 So now what I have here is monkfish broth
05:36 that I made myself.
05:37 It's a day of firsts for me, and I'm feeling really good.
05:39 - So I'm gonna use this spatula in a couple ways.
05:42 I'm gonna separate the outside and the inside,
05:44 and I'm gonna blanch inside in hot water,
05:48 and then outside, I'm gonna just deep fry it.
05:50 You really don't have to cook that long.
05:52 You just have to pretty much dump it,
05:54 and then take it out right away.
05:55 - I'm now making my chashu, which is a topping for my ramen.
05:59 - So Joe will be curing the tail parts of the monkfish
06:03 with the kombu to make a kombu-cured chashu.
06:06 Chashu is usually pork thinly sliced after it's roasted.
06:10 Monkfish chashu is just an inspiration from that.
06:13 All right, my fish is salted.
06:15 Now I'm gonna wrap it up in the kombu.
06:17 Now I've never done this,
06:18 but I was told I'm supposed to spiral it.
06:21 I don't know why it's called curing.
06:23 He's not cured.
06:23 He's dead.
06:25 - Salt curing it will take out all the unnecessary moisture.
06:29 To have a really successful chashu,
06:31 you wanna have a almost crispy surface
06:34 in order to be able to be sliced thin.
06:37 - I don't know if it's right, but it looks cool.
06:39 And that is the number one rule of cooking.
06:41 And now, final step, I'm going to wrap them up
06:44 in my cheesecloth here.
06:47 - And then you're gonna air dry it in the fridge overnight.
06:49 - I'm just gonna throw this into the fridge
06:51 and let it cure.
06:54 - Now I'm gonna focus on this outer leaf.
06:56 And then what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna just deep fry this.
06:59 [sizzling]
07:01 - All right, let's see how it looks.
07:04 It's definitely looking more pink.
07:07 You know, I don't know what cured monkfish looks like,
07:09 but this feels right.
07:10 And now I'm gonna roast this in the oven
07:12 at 350 for 20 minutes.
07:14 - These are actually looking very nice.
07:16 My baby bok choy is two ways are finished,
07:19 crispy bok choy and then the blanched bok choy.
07:21 This is gonna be a great topping for my ramen.
07:23 - I got my tails out of the oven.
07:25 They're nice and cool.
07:26 And now I'm gonna slice them up.
07:28 These slices are getting a little less pretty
07:29 than in the beginning.
07:31 Things started to fall apart at the end there,
07:32 but I got some really nice looking slices
07:35 like this baby right here.
07:37 I'm gonna cut this other one and then we'll be good to go.
07:39 So there are two types of eggs
07:41 that are commonly used for ramen.
07:43 Ajitama and an onsen tamago.
07:46 I'm making onsen tamago and Joey's making ajitama.
07:50 Ajitama is more for broth because it's hard.
07:55 So it doesn't actually sink into the broth.
07:57 - I don't usually hard boil, ice bathe and marinate my eggs,
08:01 but you know, we're in Chef Yuji's world now.
08:03 - This onsen tamago is more common for Mazamen noodles
08:07 because the egg is very runny.
08:09 So you break it and it kind of becomes
08:12 almost like a carbonara.
08:14 I'm going to use this sous vide machine.
08:16 Sous vide machine is a machine that controls
08:18 the temperature of the water at set temperature.
08:21 I'm gonna just wait for about a half hour
08:24 until they're completely finished.
08:26 And I'll take it out and shock in an ice bath.
08:28 - It's like a spa for eggs.
08:30 Now I'm going to marinate them in a mixture
08:34 of one part each of sake, mirin and soy sauce.
08:39 I'm gonna put this in the fridge
08:40 and let it marinate for 24 hours.
08:42 - Joey's gonna be making an kimo miso paste
08:45 with monkfish liver, sake and white miso.
08:49 - I've been warned that every step of this
08:52 is gonna be something I'm not gonna like.
08:54 I'm gonna be removing the bloodline
08:56 from this monkfish liver.
08:58 I'll be chopping it up
08:59 and then I will be pulling worms out of it.
09:01 So let's get started.
09:04 This here is the bloodline, which I will be removing.
09:08 I don't have any experience doing something like this.
09:10 Maybe deveining a shrimp would be the closest.
09:15 - Monkfish liver is almost like a natural flagra
09:18 from the ocean.
09:19 It's called ankimo.
09:20 So it will add a really nice fat into the broth
09:24 and also so much creaminess
09:27 that you won't be able to get from anything else.
09:30 - This is giving me some problems.
09:32 Okay, but that's like a,
09:34 that's a piece of bloodline right there.
09:35 And now I'm gonna cut this into cubes
09:40 and then we will start removing worms.
09:43 - It's natural to find little worms in a monkfish
09:46 because they are on the bottom of the ocean,
09:48 but there's nothing to be afraid of that.
09:50 You just have to take it out.
09:51 - I don't see any in this piece.
09:53 I guess Yuji ordered a wormless monkfish.
09:58 It's really a shame.
10:00 - And now it's time to blanch my liver chunks.
10:03 And then they are going into the ice bath
10:06 so that they stop cooking.
10:07 - So I have this scallion here.
10:09 I'm gonna use this in two different ways.
10:11 So I'm gonna separate the green and the white
10:12 and the green is gonna be for the scallion oil.
10:16 And the green part is a little bit bitter,
10:18 but once it's cooked in oil, it gets a little bit sweeter.
10:21 So I'm gonna just cook this in oil
10:23 and then just keep this fresh.
10:25 And it's important to have a flavored oil,
10:28 especially for a dry style ramen
10:30 because that's gonna be the main part of the seasoning.
10:34 I'm gonna just add neutral oil and then I heat it up
10:37 until they are just soft enough
10:40 to be able to blend it with a immersion blender.
10:43 - My liver chunks are ice bathed
10:46 and now I'm gonna chop them up into slightly smaller pieces.
10:49 These are going to be the paste
10:52 that goes into my ramen broth.
10:55 Now I'm just gonna scoop it up.
10:58 (metal clanging)
11:01 You take the sake, we're just gonna cover it.
11:05 I'm gonna simmer this for a half hour
11:07 until the sake totally evaporates.
11:10 - I'm just julienning this white part.
11:14 Now it's all finished.
11:16 I'm gonna just put it in the water.
11:20 This will add a more curly textures
11:25 and also remove a little bit of bitterness.
11:27 - I've been stirring this nonstop
11:30 and it's nice and cooked down.
11:32 I'm gonna blend them up in this little food processor
11:35 and turn them into a paste.
11:36 Yeah, this is exactly what my morning smoothies are like.
11:39 So we're gonna grab a spoonful of the miso.
11:43 - White miso will add just a really nice sweetness
11:45 and also extra salt.
11:47 The combination of the fat from the monkfish liver
11:49 and then our white miso are really great.
11:52 - My paste is done
11:53 and now I'm gonna put it into this bowl here.
11:56 It does look like cookie dough, which is troubling.
11:59 It's just like, if you're a prank person,
12:02 you know, make yourself up some miso liver paste
12:04 and prank your friends.
12:06 This is gonna be, I'm pretty sure, my first taste of liver.
12:09 That's pretty good.
12:12 I don't know if I'd do it every day,
12:13 but you know, this one is good.
12:15 - Now the scallion is cooked enough
12:18 to be made into like a scallion oil.
12:20 I have this immersion blender,
12:22 so I'm gonna just blend the whole thing
12:23 and make a really nice green sauce.
12:25 (blender whirring)
12:27 Wow, nice and green.
12:28 So I added my scallion oil here
12:31 and I'm gonna add a little bit of sesame oil.
12:35 These is the secret ingredient, shrimp flavor.
12:40 Love it.
12:41 Wow, smells so good.
12:44 I can make this, yeah.
12:46 And then I add the package.
12:48 This is gonna make a really unique Topo Ramen.
12:51 I'm pretty confident, yes.
12:52 - I'm gonna be making nori noodles now
12:55 and I'm very excited about this
12:56 because I've never made noodles before and I love noodles.
13:00 What's unique about this is that we're using this nori,
13:03 which is like seaweed,
13:04 and this is gonna get incorporated into the noodles.
13:07 (blender whirring)
13:10 Oh, look at that.
13:13 It looks like you opened like an ancient book.
13:15 Look at that.
13:15 I have a mouthful of nori dust.
13:20 Pour the flour in and get a nice even mix going.
13:24 This is the kansui.
13:25 - Kansui is alkaline.
13:27 Alkaline adds extra gluten into the noodle
13:30 and it makes a noodle more bouncy and chewy.
13:32 - I'm gonna just kinda make a well here
13:36 and then I'm just gonna pour my water in.
13:39 This feels a lot better than the slimy fish
13:42 that I was handling earlier.
13:43 Now I'm just kinda guessing on what the proper technique is.
13:47 This feels right.
13:48 - You're gonna have to rest it for a little bit
13:51 so that the gluten will develop a little bit more
13:53 and then the noodle will be nice and chewy.
13:55 - It's been about an hour.
13:57 First things first, I'm gonna cut this into some sections.
14:02 Dust the whole area where I'll be working.
14:05 - Roll it out and make a big sheet
14:08 and just cut it with a hand.
14:10 - I'm gonna go pretty thin with these noodles.
14:13 Like that there, that's a good looking noodle.
14:15 - Kinda twist and massage all around
14:18 so that they will have a really nice natural waviness
14:21 and that will pick up the miso much, much easier.
14:24 So I got this ginger and lime.
14:26 So I'm gonna be making ginger lime juice.
14:28 Mm, wow.
14:34 That's actually pretty good.
14:35 It's gonna be perfect finish for my ramen.
14:37 Time to finally get to noodles.
14:38 - That's it.
14:39 Last of my noodles are done.
14:41 Gotta make 'em wavy real quick.
14:44 Now look at this, I made noodles myself.
14:46 I've never done this before so I'm really proud.
14:48 Now I'm the top ramen.
14:49 [dramatic music]
14:51 - All right, we're in the home stretch of this ramen.
14:53 First thing I'm gonna do is make my broth.
14:55 Whisk it up.
14:56 I'm gonna take a big old clump of noodles
14:59 and I'm just gonna drop 'em in there.
15:02 - I'm gonna cook it for about two, three minutes.
15:04 - All right, my noodles are coming out.
15:06 Look at that beautiful bowl of noodles, oh my lord.
15:09 - Okay, I'm doing it, I'm doing it.
15:12 So I'm just trying to carefully toss the noodle in oil.
15:16 - We are going to take my broth,
15:19 I'm just gonna ladle it in.
15:21 - Plate onto the plate and then add eggs.
15:25 Looks perfect.
15:26 It's nice and runny.
15:28 - Now we beautify.
15:29 Three pieces of chashu.
15:31 I think that looks real nice.
15:33 And then I'm gonna take my eggs.
15:35 Look at the color on that.
15:36 And we're just gonna give it a nice slice down the middle.
15:39 Go right there.
15:41 - And then I'm gonna just add the toppings
15:42 to make it look pretty.
15:44 - Sesame oil that we're just gonna drizzle.
15:46 Black pepper and togarashi.
15:49 - As the shichimi togarashi is spicy,
15:52 it combines everything together.
15:54 - We're gonna top it off with the scallions.
15:56 - This is white part of the scallion.
16:00 Scallion oil that I made earlier.
16:02 This is sesame oil.
16:03 The last thing I'm going to do is grate a lime zest.
16:07 Finish with the ginger and then lime juice.
16:11 So this is my take on Joe's Ramen.
16:13 Crispy spam and then a baby bok choy musselman
16:16 with onsen tamago and scallion oil.
16:19 - This is my take on Chef Yuji's Ramen.
16:21 I can't wait to see what he did with my ingredients.
16:24 - Hey, Joe, how's it going?
16:28 - Chef Yuji, feeling very good about this challenge.
16:30 - How you been, right?
16:31 I feel like I was back in college.
16:33 - Yeah, working with my ingredients.
16:35 That's still what I make ramen with all these years later.
16:38 Wow.
16:41 This looks like a fancy restaurant ramen
16:45 and you did it with top ramen noodles.
16:46 - That smells amazing.
16:49 - You probably wouldn't be surprised to know
16:50 that I've never handled a monkfish before,
16:54 but I've also never made noodles before.
16:55 - Oh yeah?
16:56 - So this is my first time making noodles.
16:57 - It's fun, yeah. - This is very cool.
16:58 It wasn't too difficult.
16:59 I'm dying for you to try it.
17:01 Let me know what you think.
17:02 - Wow, that's crazy.
17:06 It's actually pretty delicate.
17:08 - I'm pretty proud of this.
17:10 I'm really happy.
17:11 - Yeah, you did a great job.
17:12 - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
17:13 - Great, 'cause I'm looking for work.
17:15 - You're hired.
17:16 This chashu came out super good.
17:19 It's so simple, just salt and seaweed.
17:21 It really adds a really good flavor.
17:23 - Thank you.
17:24 - Now you have to try my top ramen.
17:26 - All right, so walk me through what you did here.
17:30 - So maze men means dry noodle,
17:32 but it actually literally translates as a mixed noodle.
17:35 So what you're gonna do first is to break this onsen tamago
17:38 and then egg yolk will come out super runny
17:41 and then you're gonna mix the noodle in it.
17:44 So it becomes almost like a ramen covenant.
17:46 It's really nice.
17:50 - This is great, I could eat this every day.
17:51 - It's actually good.
17:52 - Nothing is taking the forefront at all.
17:54 It all really just blends together really nicely.
17:56 - We believe, if I say this is a fresh noodle,
18:00 I should serve this at my restaurant now.
18:02 - Yeah.
18:02 - Top ramen.
18:03 - Top ramen, I mean, the overhead is so low on this.
18:05 I'm curious, next time we work together,
18:08 what kind of fish spine it's gonna be.
18:10 Is it gonna be like a great white shark spine
18:11 that I gotta wrestle myself?
18:12 - Think about spine-less fish.
18:14 - Oh, there we go, thank you.
18:16 I need a break from spines.
18:18 - Jellyfish.
18:18 - I've de-spined too many fish.
18:21 (upbeat music)