00:00The vegetables on most bowls of ramen are a garnish.
00:03In Thai men, they are the start, stir-fried first and then cooked into the salt broth
00:08until the soup tastes of them. Watch how it happens.
00:12We start with prep because as with every stir-fry, getting everything ready is more than half the job.
00:19Slice a quarter of a carrot into thin rectangles.
00:22It matters more than pretty here because every vegetable going into this bowl gets only about
00:27one minute of heat. Roughly chop 150 grams of green cabbage.
00:33Cut 30 grams of garlic chives into 5cm length.
00:38Drop half a tablespoon of dried wood ear into hot water to rehydrate.
00:43You will find it labelled black fungus in most Asian grocers.
00:47The vegetable side of this dish is wide open. Carrot, cabbage, sprouts, chives and wood ear
00:54are my usual picks but onion, mushrooms your favourites or whatever is going soft in the crisper
01:00drawers or slot in fine. Then they slice 2 cloves of garlic and cut 10 grams of ginger into fine
01:09julienne.
01:10Now 150 grams of bean sprouts straight into a bowl of cold water. They sit there so they stay crisp
01:17and
01:18right before they go into the pan. You're going to shake them out hard.
01:23In a small cup, stir 1 tablespoon of milk together with 1 teaspoon of potato starch.
01:28Sell by the stove in arm's reach because that little cup is what decides how this soup ends up tasting.
01:36For the soup, pour 600ml of freshly boiled water into a heatproof jug.
01:42Add 1 and a half tablespoons of Chinese chicken bouillon powder, 1 and a half tablespoons of sake,
01:48half teaspoon of oyster sauce and half a teaspoon of salt.
01:53One thing about the bouillon, every brand is concentrated differently so check the dilution
01:59on your own thing before you commit. Mine builds broth at 1 teaspoon per 200ml but if yours is weaker
02:07than
02:07that, you'll need to add a bit more and vice versa. Prep is ready, now the pork.
02:14Sell wok or a wide skillet over high heat and melt 1 tablespoon of lard until it shimmers.
02:21Lay 150 grams of thinly sliced pork belly out flat in the hot fat, spread apart and season it with
02:282
02:28pinches of salt. Then leave it alone, no stirring, no poking until the edges go crisp and brown.
02:35Diamond looks like a vegetable dish and it mostly is but the fat coming out of the pork right now
02:41is
02:41what holds the whole thing together. Every vegetable that goes in after this picks up a thin film of it.
02:48That is pork done, drop the heat for a moment and add the ginger and garlic you cut earlier,
02:56stirring just until they smell fragrant. Just a few seconds, no more or the garlic turns bitter.
03:03Crank the heat back to high and the vegetables go in by order of toughness.
03:08Carrot first, then the cabbage, then the woodier, then the chives, and the bean sprouts last,
03:14shaking dry. Take the whole pile with a pinch of salt.
03:19Keep them moving for about 1 minute until the whole pile turns glossy and starts tangling into the salt.
03:25Keep the heat high the entire time. Drop it and the vegetables stop searing and start sweating.
03:32And once they are sweating, you cannot get them broke.
03:36Now the part nobody expects, the instant they are bright and barely wilted,
03:41lift every single vegetable out of the pan and onto a plate.
03:46Pour the whole soup into the same pan and bring it up to a boil.
03:50While the soup comes up, a quick word on the name. Tanmen and Tantanmen are not related.
03:56Same corner of the same family and nothing else in common.
04:00If you came here wanting the spicy sesame one, that video is on the card.
04:06Boil two portions of ramen noodles in a separate pot with plenty of water.
04:11Fresh ramen noodles are the target here and if you want to make them yourself, that video is on the
04:16card too.
04:17Here is the one rule with these.
04:20Pour them half the time on the package, half.
04:24They finish in the soup and if you boil them all the way and then simmer them in broth,
04:30on top of that they turn soft in the bowl before you can even sit down.
04:35A thin broth you can fix, a mushy noodle you cannot.
04:39Drain them and slide them into the boiling soup to finish for the rest of the package time.
04:47That is the soup on its own now before it goes anywhere near a bowl.
04:50This is the moment to bring it up with a small pinch of salt if it tastes flat,
04:56adding a little time so you do not overshoot.
05:00Now it's time for the vegetable to come home.
05:03Tip them all back into the pan and reach for the little cup of milk slurry from the very start
05:09of the video.
05:10Pour it in.
05:12Stare once, gently, and look at the surface as it turns.
05:16The starch gives the broth just enough grip to hold on to the noodles,
05:20and the milk takes the edge of the salt so the bowl feels fuller without feeling heavy.
05:26And there is the payoff for pulling the vegetables out.
05:30They have been sitting on the plate the whole time,
05:34and the carryover heat plus this soup finish them the rest of the way,
05:38so they arrive at the table still snapping.
05:42Divide the noodles and the soup between two bowls,
05:45then pile the vegetables high on top rather than stirring them through.
05:50Finish each bowl with ground white pepper and you can be heavy-handed here.
05:55Then a drizzle of toasted sesame oil across the surface.
05:58The steam takes it straight up to you.
06:01And this is my tanmen.
06:03This is what a mountain of vegetables tastes like once it cooks into the soup.
06:09Make this tonight to Google tanmen study for the full printable recipe
06:13with exact measurements and timing.
06:15Want even more delicious recipes?
06:18Grab my free cookbook from the link in the description.
06:22Okay, let's go over the ingredients one more time.
06:24And if you're ready to cook, grab the written instructions
06:27by clicking the full recipe box with a picture that's about to pop up on your screen.
06:32Dub the recipe card on your screen for the full printable version,
06:35with exact measurements, every timing, and notes for getting each dip right.
06:39Next time, I'm making TKG. See you then.
06:43Dub the recipe card on your screen for the full printable version,
06:46with exact measurements, every timing, and notes for getting each dip right.
06:50Next time, I'm making TKG. See you then.
