Tantanmen is a ramen dish adapted from the Szechuan Chinese dish Dan Dan Noodles. Making ramen from scratch is quite complicated and time consuming, and this recipe is a great simplification using Soy Milk to make a creamy broth. As the reference for this recipe might say: "Trust Me!"

• Two medium sauce pans
• Frying pan or wok
• Cutting board and knife
• Two large ramen bowls

• 2 packages of ramen noodles
• 2 green onions
• 2 baby Bok Choy
• Roasted Peanuts to garnish
• 2 soft boiled eggs
• 1 small bag of fresh bean sprouts (only if purchased the day before)

• 2 cloves (or more) minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon ginger paste

• 1 package lean ground pork
• 1 tablespoon Gochujang
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon sake
• 1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper

• 2 tablespoons cheap smooth peanut butter (the kind that's sweet and salty)
• 1 tablespoon chili oil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic or rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon regular soy sauce

• 1 cup water
• 2 cups unsweetened soy milk
• 1 tablespoon chicken bouillon powder or chicken ramen soup powder

1. Dice the green onion, separating white and green parts.
2. Wash the bok choy and cut off the root, letting the leaves separate.
3. Wash the bean sprouts and make sure they haven't gone bad. Seriously, these things have a shelf life of about one day.

1. Heat the chili oil in the frying pan over medium heat. Add the ground pork and sautee until no longer pink.
2. Add the white parts of the green onion, the garlic and the ginger.
3. Increase the heat to high, and add the oyster sauce, chipotle pepper Gochujang and sake. Stir fry until the pork has cooked through and the sauce has reduced.
4. Remove from heat and set aside.
5. This recipe makes enough pork topping for 4 servings of ramen. We frequently freeze half of it to use for another meal.

1. Combine the peanut butter, chili oil, vinegar, soy sauce and mirin. Set aside

1. In one sauce pan, mix together water, soy milk and chicken flavoring.
2. Simmer it over low heat. Do not cover it or allow it to boil! It will create a gross film.

1. In the other pot, boil enough water to make two packets of ramen.
2. Before adding the noodles, blanch your bean sprouts in the water for 30 seconds before removing and setting them aside.
3. Make the ramen noodles as per package, but do not add any flavouring. The flavoring will come from everything else we have prepared.

1. Divide the Tare paste into both bowls, then top each with half of the soy milk broth.
2. Place half of the noodles into each bowl.
3. The noodles will be just below the surface of the broth, leaving a nice scaffolding to arrange everything for a great photo.
4. Artistically place your sliced soft boiled egg, green onions, sprouts, Bok Choy and spicy pork topping.
5. Add seseme seeds, crushed peanuts, hot sauce, Quick Pickled Daikon Takuan and anything else you'd like.

Aaron and Claire