Shoyu Ramen

1. 1Cover the chicken bones with cold water in a large pot, bring to the boil, then drain and rinse both bones and pot. This 5-minute parboil removes the scum that would otherwise cloud the broth for the next two hours.
2. 2Return the bones to the pot with 3 litres of fresh cold water, the onion, ginger, garlic, leek and shiitake. Bring to a bare simmer.
3. 3Hold it at the barest simmer — a bubble every second or two — for 2 hours, skimming the surface occasionally. A rolling boil emulsifies the fat into the liquid and turns a clear shoyu broth cloudy and greasy.
4. 4Add the kombu for the final 10 minutes only, then remove it. Boiled kombu goes bitter and slimy.
5. 5Strain the broth through a fine sieve and season it lightly. You should have around 2 litres. Keep it hot.
6. 6For the tare, warm the soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves, then take it off the heat. This is your salt and your seasoning — the broth itself stays deliberately under-seasoned.
7. 7Warm your bowls with hot water and tip it out. Cold bowls take a ramen from steaming to lukewarm in about a minute.
8. 8Put 3 tbsp of tare in the base of each bowl. Cook the noodles in a separate pot of unsalted boiling water for the time on the packet, drain hard, and transfer to the bowls.
9. 9Pour 400 ml of hot broth over each, stir once to combine the tare, then arrange the pork, halved egg, spring onion and nori on top. Finish with a few drops of sesame oil and eat immediately.

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