This is my favourite ramen dish. For those that don’t know, ramen are Chinese noodles in soup which the Japanese made their own many years ago. There are many different varieties of ramen, but this one is one of the tastiest of them all! There’s a popular Japanese chain here in Sydney called Ichiban Boshi. Personally, I don’t rate their food but I must say that their tantanmen is amazing, and inspired me to try and recreate it.
My recipe uses a lot of ingredients but they are ingredients that if you buy, you can use in many of my other dishes. The flavour’s extraordinary, and very moreish – I’d love you to give it a go
Ingredients
noodles (egg noodles, ramen noodles, udon… anything)
1 clove garlic
1 thumb ginger
1/2 leek
200g pork mince
Soup paste:
3tbs sesame seeds
2tsp chicken stock powder (use Chinese one if possible, or Japanese one called ‘torigara soup’)
5tsp soy sauce
3tbs rice vinegar
2tbs miso
1tsp sugar
1tbs sesame oil
1tsp kochijan (Korean spicy/sweet paste)
4tbs goma (sesame) dressing
Step 1
Finely chop the garlic and ginger and fry gently without burning. Then add the mince to brown, and the leeks on top of that.
Step 2
Add the sesame seeds and other sauce ingredients into a blender and pulse until mixed completely. Then add to the meat mix and simmer without burning. Finally, boil the noodles as per the package instructions. The meat mix will be too thick, so use some of the water from the noodles to thin it, tasting each time to find your preferred taste.
Great recipe! たべたいこれ！！
When you use “mince” in your recipes. Whether it be beef or pork, how lean is it? I think there is 90% and 70% lean up here in Japan. I know back in the states it went from 85% to the insane 97%. I ask because you don’t say to drain the mince after frying it.
Any kind of mince is fine Andrew – in this recipe, since you don’t drain the fat, it all adds to the flavour. Whichever you can get your hands on is fine, so don’t worry too much about it. If you’re in Tokyo, I seem to remember the tantanmen on Nishi-Azabu kosaten was my favourite in Japan.
What if you live in Southern Osaka……
I had a quick question for you. The first step in the recipe is
“Finely chop the garlic and sesame and fry gently without burning”
So I had assumed you mean the sesame seeds, but in the next step you say
“Add the sesame seeds and other sauce ingredients into a blender and pulse until mixed completely”
So I’m wondering. Is it the syouga you are supposed to chop with the ninniku, or is it really the goma?
By the way, awesome recipe and way cheaper than going to the tantanmen and tukemen places in my neighborhood
Yes you’re right – it should say chop the Ginger. Thanks for pointing that out! I’ll fix it up now
glad you liked the recipe.
im assuming this makes enough for two servings?
i stumbled upon this web site looking for Goma dressing recipe. i made it and it was good. my wife is Japanese and from Tokyo and she loved it. also you recipes are simple and straight forward. good pictures also. Keep up the good work
Thanks very much! It’s about time I added some more recipes – comments like yours give me motivation to carry on!
this Tantanmen was oishi(think i spelled that right) i made another batch and threw it in the freezer for a quick meal at a later date.
Yes, that’s right – oishii! It means delicious! Or you can say ‘umai’ if you’re a guy
Glad you enjoyed this recipe.
This looks really good! I have a question though. For the Step 2 part of the pictures, I see the chili bean sauce, but I dont see it in the recipe. Kochijan is the white tube right? or is that the chili bean sauce?
Yes Rochelle, that’s the chili bean sauce I used. Hope it turned out good for you!
Hi, Is the goma dressing an extra ingredient or do you mean the blend of sesame and other sauce??
Also the chilli paste used in this recipe, is it Kochijan or the chinese chilli bean paste or it’s a mix of both???
Hi Angie, the Goma dressing is available to buy in most Asian groceries. To answer your question, yes it is a separate ingredient. You can use either kochijan or chili bean sauce. Sorry for the confusion!
Hi SumoKitchen Lady! I stumbled onto your wonderful website/blog while I was looking for some japanese recipes! I just have one question: is kochijan another name for the korean gochujang? I would like to try making the Tantanmen noodles but I only have gochujang in stock with me. Will that do? Thanks for any helpful advice!
Hi Monica! Yea, it’s the same thing – just an alternative spelling
This is delicious I am so excited I have finally found a recipe for tantanmen. It’s my all time favourite dish at Ichi Ban Boshi but I have never been able to find a recipe for it. Your blog is so good I have ordered the cookbook with your feature in it.
Yes, that dish is my favourite too! In fact, it’s he only noodle dish I really rate in Sydney. I’m not really a fan of the other ramen dishes to tell the truth. Thank you for purchasing the book and your kind words about the site Kelli