Pork Loco Moco Mazemen (Spicy Pork Ramen)

A free copy of this cookbook will be was given away as part of this post for one lucky winner (US residents only). A winner has now been picked and the free copy was supplied by the folks over at Behind the Food Carts. I received no monetary compensation for this post. All opinions expressed are mine.

 This Spicy Pork Ramen Noodles is an adaptation of the Loco Moco Mazemen from Food Truck Road Trip – A Cookbook, and is a restaurant quality dish bursting with incredible flavour! It’s a spicy pork Ramen noodles topped with a Furikake seasoned soft boiled egg that will gourmet up your Ramen noodles effortlessly!

If there ever were such a thing called Cookbooks (Cookbookholics?) Anonymous, I should be at the front of the line waiting to sign up. I got so many, I’ve long since lost count. There are a few gathering dust on a shelf, but most have been dogeared to the spine.

Another thing about me that I haven’t talked about much on this blog is that I’m obsessed with food trucks. I find the whole thing incredibly fascinating. I mean it’s a 100 sq ft kitchen on wheels, rolling through streets sometimes from city to city, cooking up some of the most inventive and tasty stuff on earth! Whenever I go on trips/vacations, I make it a point to eat as much as I can from food trucks. And for a long time, I have flirted with the idea of actually owning and operating one in spite of knowing how grueling that job can be. Maybe one day. Maybe.

So you can imagine how excited I was to get my hands on this – Food Truck Road Trip – A Cookbook!

An Image of the cookbook from the blog; Behind the Food Carts

In this book, you will find over 100 amazing, diverse and creative recipes from some of the best food truck vendors in the US!  And if you think it’s going to be all deep fried, same ol’ same ol’ stuff, boy you’re in for a surprise. This stuff is legit. Legit good! The recipes in this book have been compiled by Kim Pham, Philip Shen and Terri Phillips. Kim and Philip are also the creators behind the amazing blog – Behind the Food Carts.

What I found really engaging about this book is how it pulls back the curtain and lets you take a peek into the fascinating world of food trucks and their proprietors. Each recipe is accompanied by photographs and brief stories about the wonderful people behind those recipes, their passion for their craft and of course the food itself and how and why those recipes work. It will inspire you and make you want to try them. This is definitely one of my favourites and I’ve already made a bunch of these recipes.

Here’s one example – FoPo Cristo Sandwich (which I adapted a little in order to use what we had in our fridge – these recipes are quite versatile that way) by Sarah Arkwright, owner of The Egg Carton from Portland, OR. We had this for brunch on a weekend. I’m not going to spoil it for you but let me just say that, it’s a French toast sandwich unlike any you’ve had before. Just look at that baby.

FoPo Cristo Sandwich

The book is divided into sections and some of them include;

American comfort food with a twist
Sandwiches
Soups and chilies
Vegetarian (and vegan) dishes
Fusion food
Drinks
Desserts
and there’s more! I loved the book so much that I contacted Philip and asked him if we could arrange a giveaway so that one of my lucky readers (from the US) can win a free copy of this awesome book! And that folks, is why we are here today! 🙂 The giveaway has ended & a winner has been picked.

PLUS, today I’m going to share with you a recipe that I adapted from this cookbook. This is my version of the Loco Moco Mazemen by Kiki Aranita and Chris Vacca, owners of Poi Dog Philly from Philadelphia, PA. The recipe is described in the book as “a perfect marriage of Hawaii meets Japan”. The Hawaiian Loco Moco features hamburger patty and fried egg while Mazemen is a Japanese brothless ramen. I made the original version with beef and miso as well, and absolutely loved it!

Here I’m sharing with you my adapted version (with my own spicy twist) – Pork Loco Moco Mazemen. That’s Spicy Pork Ramen Noodles topped with a Furikake soft boiled egg. Be prepared to be ‘mazed indeed!

Spicy Pork Ramen (Pork Loco Moco Mazemen)

Servings: 4 servings

Author: Dini from The Flavor Bender - Adapted from The Food Truck Road Trip Cookbook

This recipe was adapted from the Food truck Road Trip cookbook. Loco Moco Mazemen is a popular dish that's served up by the Poi Dog Philly Food truck run by Kiki Aranita and Chris Vacca

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Ingredients

For the Pork

• 1 lb pork meat only no bones, mince is fine, I used meat from country style ribs, but you can use chops as well
• ¼ -½ tsp cayenne pepper if you like it spicy, you can add more - I added about 1 tsp
• 2 tbsp shoyu
• 2 tsp grated ginger
• 2 tsp minced garlic about 2 cloves
• 55 g / 2 ounces of finely diced white onion
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp white sugar

Pork Broth

• 2 1/2 cups of good quality pork stock I used homemade
• 2 spring onions - whole optional
• 1 inch cube of ginger
• 3 garlic cloves optional
• 3 tbsp unflavoured oil
• 4 tbsp flour
• 3 tbsp shoyu
• 3 tbsp mirin
• ½ - 1 tbsp chilli flakes optional

For the Furikake sesaoned soft boiled egg

• 4 large eggs
• 1 egg white lightly whisked (optional)
• 3 tbsp corn flour optional
• 1 tbsp regular Furikake seasoning optional

To serve

• 4 packets plain Ramen noodles cooked according to packet instructions
• 6 tbsp fried shallots
• Furikake
• Chopped spring onions

Instructions

1. Finely chop the pork. Mix the chopped (or minced) pork with the rest of the ingredients of the marinade. Cover and let it marinate for at least 2 hours in the fridge.
2. Bring 1 pot of water to a boil on high heat.
3. Reduce the heat to a simmer and gently lower the eggs into the water (water level should be up to about an inch above the eggs). Increase the heat to medium and cover the pot and set the timer for 5 ½ minutes. Prepare an ice bath.
4. When the timer goes off, drain the eggs and dunk them in the ice bath, until they cool. Gently peel the eggs under cool running water. The running water will help loosen the egg shell from the egg. Set aside until you have the Ramen broth ready.

For the Gravy/Sauce

1. Optional step - to make the broth more flavourful (especially if you're using store bought). Combine the pork stock with the spring onions, ginger and garlic and simmer for about 30-40 minutes uncovered. Drain and reserve 2 cups of the stock.
2. In a saucepan, heat the oil. Add the flour and whisk until you have a smooth slurry. Keep cooking till the flour starts to turn light brown in colour.
3. Add 2 cups of the stock, along with the shoyu, mirin and chilli flakes to the flour mix. Whisk or mix continuously until it starts to thicken. Set aside.

Spicy Pork -

1. In a nonstick pan, heat a little oil and add the marinated pork meat. Stir fry for a few minutes until the pork pieces brown, and just start to become crispy. This can take 5-10 minutes depending on whether you will be using minced pork or finely chopped pork. Drain any excess oil and set aside, and wipe the nonstick pan to fry the egg.

Optional step - if you'd like to season the egg with furikake.

1. Heat a small amount of oil in the nonstick pan . Combine the cornflour and furikake in a small dish. Lightly cover the soft boiled egg in the egg white and carefully roll it in the cornflour/ furikake mix. Fry the eggs in the pan, a little on each side until they just start to brown. Set aside.

To Serve

1. Place cooked ramen noodles in four bowls. and pour gravy/sauce equally over the ramen noodles.
2. Top it with the pork, furikake egg, an extra sprinkling of furikake, fried shallots, and chopped spring onions.
3. Serve immediately.

I wish I knew how to make this years ago, in my student life. Ramen was my good friend (still is, I haven’t forgotten you Ramen!). I’m the dry Ramen kind of girl while Mr. K is the soupy Ramen kind of guy. This, we both enjoyed, because it’s got the best of both worlds!

I loved the original version with miso and beef, but I just had to make it with some pork and spice it up. The egg is the perfect addition that brings everything together. Furikake is such a delicious seasoning, I can’t believe that it’s been so long since I’ve had it in my house. It used to be a permanent resident in my apartment when I was a student, because I used to just sprinkle it on steamed rice all the time.

The crispy fried pork is a little sweet, a little spicy with lots of crunch and still so juicy! Once you mix everything together, biting into bits of juicy pork while you eat the delicious noodles is a wonderful surprise. The trick is to use a cut of pork that has a little fat in it as well. If you do use minced pork – try to avoid the lean meat, as it would be drier.

If you want to find out how these guys make amazing restaurant-quality food with just a fraction of that space in their food trucks, this is the book you need. The recipes are also versatile, so that you can add a personal touch to them however you like. There are so many more recipes that I want to try, like the Spanish pork shoulder chili, vegan lemongrass fivespice seitan sandwich, garlic carne asada quesadilla, etc. etc. etc. I know you will too. So go ahead and enter the giveaway to win a free copy of this awesome cookbook! 🙂 & get your hands on the book too!

This giveaway has now ended. This giveaway is open to US residents only.

Food Truck Road Trip -A Cook Book – Giveaway

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