Tonkotsu (Pork) Ramen

Honestly, I'm not even the biggest fan of ramen.  It's not bad, but as Asian soups go, I'd rather have a pho or an udon before a bowl of ramen, as most of the ramen you get in restaurants has the salty and fatty components of the dish dialed up to the max.  While there's no getting around heaps of sodium when having soup, I prefer for it to not feel like quite as big an indulgence.

Still, something about the idea of making broth out of bones has been appealing to me lately, and I snatched up some pork and beef bones the last time they went on sale.  Time will tell what becomes of the beef bones, but the pork ones just keep me going back to the idea of making a from-scratch ramen.  Slow-simmering a broth really isn't hard as long as you plan ahead and start everything on time, and the depth of flavor it produces is totally worth the wait.

For this dish, I started with this recipe from Honest Cooking as a base, but modified it to produce a simpler/healthier version.  Melting straight up pork-fat into my broth was just a bridge too far, and if I don't have to handle chicken backs, I'm perfectly content not doing so.  The veggie/preparation aspects stayed largely the same, so here's what my version amounted to:

Tonkotsu Ramen
Broth:
2.5 lbs of pork neck bones
1 leek, sliced into rings
1/2 white or yellow onion
8 green onions (white parts, sliced in half)
1 head of garlic
1 inch of ginger, sliced into coins
8 slices of oyster mushrooms

To taste:
Soy Sauce
Salt
Miso

Toppings:
2 servings ramen noodles (I used whole wheat)
2 cups spinach, blanched
1/2 cup bean sprouts, blanched
1/2 cup shiitake mushroom caps, blanched
1/2 cup canned bamboo shoots
1 green onion, sliced
1/2 cup red pickled ginger
1 soft-boiled egg
Chili oil (forgot to add this one in the photo...)

Boil pork bones for a couple of minutes until blood/fat residue starts to emerge, then rinse and scrub residue. Add to a slow cooker with leek, onion, green onions, a whole head of garlic, sliced ginger, oyster mushroom. Cover everything with water and set to high (this filled my slow cooker completely, so it was probably about 2 quarts of water).

Simmer 12-14 hours, then strain broth and season to taste with soy sauce, yellow miso, and salt.  Prepare ramen noodles per package instructions, and add the above toppings (or any others) to your liking.