Okay, I made an entire post on this, and now have no idea where it went. Here is an excerpt from my blog on how the whole dashi/broth/tare was made.
First, I need to make a few basics. I need a dashi, which is nothing more than a flavored broth, usually this is either fish or fowl based and fairly light in flavor and texture. Then, there is the tare, this is the intense flavoring that defines the dish, often this is miso, shoyu or salt. Finally, there is a third item that most folks in the U.S. do not understand, or even realize is a part of traditional ramen, which is the fat.
Yes, the fat, often dressed over the dish, sometimes actually blended with the noodles first. I opted for a smoked brisket and bacon dashi, the tare will be a smoked brisket, bacon and shiitake infused shoyu, the fat is going to be a curried bacon/garlic infused smoked brisket, bacon fat skimmed from the broth, this was inspired by the work of Chef Danny Bowien at Mission Chinese Foods.
The whole success of this dish will rest on the 1/4 pound of smoked brisket point, 1/8 pound of uncured apple wood smoked bacon and the aromatics of 1/2 yellow onion and 1/2 of a large carrot. These were steeped along with a sheet of konbu in three cups of water at 150F for one hour. It must not boil. I then removed the konbu and all but 1 cup of broth. At this point, the remaining one cup was boiled hard for 20 minutes, I had to add a little water, until the meats and vegetables were completely reduce and the broth was milky with protein. I cut the heat, returned the reserved broth and added 1/8 cup of fish sauce and several turns worth of ground Phu Quoc black pepper. This was strained and refrigerated overnight.
The fat was skimmed, reheated with some more bacon (man gotta eat breakfast) and then the fat was turned off and 3 teaspoons of curry powder and some slivered garlic was added. This was allowed to cool. I will toss a teaspoon or so of this with the ramen noodles just after boiling.
Shiitake mushrooms were rehydrated and added to about 1/2 cup of the brisket broth, a shot of sherry, 1/8 cup of shoyu, 1 tablespoon of sugar and a few shots or so of fish sauce. This was reduced by half to create a thick syrup. This would be my tare.
