Soy Milk du Bonsoy — Avis de Shane Yap (10 déc. 2020)

#bonsoybestsoy
Recently made this Vegan Ramen using Bonsoy to help act as the base of the Ramen Broth and TLDR: It was impea-ccable (pun intended). Without a doubt, my finest creation in the kitchen thus far. The rich flavour of the soy milk helped make the broth mend perfectly with the other ingredients. What really separates this from other brands was its creamy and rich flavor. Unlike other brands I’ve tried in the past who had a more diluted taste to it and you couldn’t taste the soy flavor as much. Added bonus, it’s unsweetened too so it goes perfect with my morning coffee as well:)

When your girlfriend is a huge Tom Ellis fangirl and you look remotely nothing like Tom Ellis, how else would you convince her you’re a keeper? You cook up some bomb Vegan Ramen. I enjoy cooking (except the prep work and clean up, I think we can all agree on that), but I also enjoy watching Anime while enjoying my culinary experiments. In particular, was this show called Food Wars (Shokugeki no Soma to my fellow Weebs). So in one episode, there was a food battle and what was presented was a Vegan Ramen, and this piqued my interest because (1) It won the battle and (2) Vegan Ramen (?). I love Japanese food and anything related to Japan (Ask Amanda). So I thought, why not try to recreate it over a nice dinner. And the final result, a 100% Vegan meal and to which I would say is 98% accurate to the shows depiction albeit we forgot the carrots and turnips in the oven but it was good nonetheless.

The challenge really came when making the Broth however, I wanted something that would really be accurate to the show and would still fall between the lines of being Vegan friendly. Thankfully i came across Bonsoy (Thank you Amanda for finding a picture of the carton since I recycled it already). The nice soy flavour inside truly was second to none and really helped elevate the flavour of the Broth itself. Coupled with the teriyaki Tempeh and crispy lotus flower and burdock root made this dish a 10/10 in my books, Can Tom Ellis pull off this Vegan Ramen? Probably yes but all in all, this dish was made possible by Bonsoy, and was a huge success. Would make this dish again without a doubt! I’ve attached the recipe down below for anyone who would like to try (I am no way a certified chef just your average broke college kid who likes to cook)

Broth:
1. Pour in 5.5 Cups of water into a pot
2. Place in 4 pieces of dried Konbu and 4 pieces of Shiitake Mushrooms inside and let is soak for 2-3 hours
3. Dice 3 cloves of garlic and ginger, finely dice them
4. Peel your taro (the actual recipe called for 3 pieces of Ebi Taro but I couldn’t find it so I used Yamaimo instead)
5. After the prep is done done place it onto the stove at medium heat for 15-20 minutes, once you see the water boiling, remove the Konbu from the broth
6. Place 4 tbsp of white miso and 4 tbsp of dark miso into a par and char them. (they char very quick so keep an eye on them)
7. Once charred add it to the broth and mix it in
8. Take 1 tbsp of garlic and ginger and add it to the broth and stir
9. Take 1 cup of your Bonsoy and slowly add it in while stirring. (Make sure to taste it every 1/4 cup to make sure the soy flavour isn’t over powering it)
10. Grate your taro into the broth slowly until it reaches the consistency you desire. Again stir and taste to check
11. Once all is nice and combined, let it simmer for 15-20 minutes
12. After which, remove the mushrooms, cut them into small pieces and add them back to the broth
13. Add some salt to the broth(this step is optional but it helps with the flavour), mix it in and voila you’re done

Vegetables:
1. Wash and peel the outside skin your burdock root and lotus root
2. Thinly slice your lotus root to about an inch thick
3. Place them into a bowl of water to avoid discolouration if your doing this before hand, but if you’re frying it immediately there is no problem
4. Thinly peel your burdock root into strips as well and follow step 3 if your prepping this before hand
5. Get a pot of oil and heat up the oil, make sure it’s not too hot or else it would ruin your roots (You can use a sacrificial piece to test the oil)
6. Place the lotus root into the oil and fry until it’s a brown and cripsy, this should take about 30 seconds give or take
7. Do the same with the lotus root, they will take around 15-20 seconds give or take
8. Once they’re nice and fried place them on a sheet with a kitchen towel to get the oil off and then season with salt

Tempeh:
1. With the tempeh laying flat on the board, cut it across in half so it’s not thick. Then proceed to split into pieces of 4.
2. Marinade it in teriyaki sauce for 10-15 mins
3. Add some oil to a pan over a medium fire
4. Add just the tempeh to the pan and pan fry it on each side for about 2-3 minutes (just keep a watch as they will burn fast due to the sugar in the teriyaki sauce)
5. Once both sides are nice and brown, add your teriyaki sauce and water into the pan (the ratio here is 1:1), let your tempeh soak up all that while flipping to ensure that neither side gets burnt
6. Once it’s all soaked up remove it from the pan to serve