Chilled Soupless Tantanmen Without Tahini-Style Sesame Paste: Ryuji's Recipe Made with Soy Milk and Ground Sesame

At the start, Ryuji says he ended up doing his usual "ice fortune-telling" without announcing it. It's a form of fortune-telling where your luck is determined by how much ice fits into a glass, and viewers occasionally request it. He then says, "No preamble today," and gets straight to the main topic.

The ingredients for the tantanmen are just ground pork, flat noodles, green onion, and garlic. The noodles don't have to be flat; medium-thick or slightly thicker noodles, or whatever you like, are fine. However, he says medium-thick or thicker works better than thin noodles. You can add greens such as komatsuna, but his basic position is that they aren't needed. There is almost nothing to cut with a knife, and he emphasizes that it's "super easy."

According to Ryuji, tantanmen usually calls for sesame paste in a tube or jar. But sesame paste is expensive, and once you buy it, you often don't know what to use it for besides tantanmen. So this time, he makes a sauce resembling sesame paste out of soy milk and ground sesame.

Ground sesame has a long shelf life, doesn't solidify, keeps well, and is cheap. Ryuji cites these as advantages. Using sesame paste does make it richer, but he feels chilled soupless tantanmen doesn't need to be that rich, so ground sesame is plenty.

When a staff member asks whether toasted whole sesame seeds could be substituted, Ryuji answers, "Not at all." Ground sesame and whole sesame seeds are different things; whole seeds stay intact and don't blend with the soy milk. He actually demonstrates how ground sesame blends with soy milk just by mixing.

The first task is cooking the meat. Ryuji's view is that in chilled tantanmen, the meat tastes better if it's also somewhat cool. So he cooks it first and sets it aside.

He puts the ground pork straight into the frying pan without oil. He says it isn't needed because the pork releases its own fat. For seasoning, he uses about 1 teaspoon of miso. Ryuji himself uses a brand that sounds like "Yamabuki Miso," but regular miso is fine. Miso doesn't dissolve easily, so it's best to cook it while mixing it with the meat. It's done when it's slightly browned and the ground meat has turned crispy. When a staff member says, "That's healthy," Ryuji acknowledges that it's cooked in the meat's own fat, and the two of them share a laugh.

He says he used to make meat miso with tianmianjiang. But many people don't have tianmianjiang, and its uses are limited. Ryuji himself ran out of it recently and figured many people are in the same situation. That's why he deliberately uses miso this time.

The cooked meat is left to cool in the frying pan. He also mentions that this cuts down on dishes. If you're in a hurry, you can put it in the fridge. However, chilling it ice-cold makes the meat hard, so Ryuji says cooling it at room temperature is best.

The sauce is made in a bowl, and the bowl itself is chilled in the fridge. The order in which Ryuji added the ingredients, and his explanations for each, are as follows.

First, he adds about 2 tablespoons of ground sesame and adds milk or soy milk. Ryuji thinks soy milk works better, but says milk is fine if you don't have it. Next, he adds about 1 teaspoon of miso. He says adding the miso makes the sauce instantly richer.

The heat comes from doubanjiang. The amount is half a teaspoon, which makes it "fairly spicy." If you don't have doubanjiang or don't want it spicy, you can replace it with the same amount of miso. That gives you a tantanmen with almost no heat, making it a recipe even kids can eat. Ryuji personally prefers it with doubanjiang, but says the miso version is plenty tasty too.

Next, he adds about 1½ teaspoons of sesame oil. This brings out the sesame aroma even more. Chicken bouillon powder: half a teaspoon. He says the Marudori Garasupu (whole-chicken stock) he uses dissolves easily.

Vinegar is ⅔ teaspoon, and Ryuji stresses this is "important." Vinegar tightens up the flavor, so he insists, "Definitely add it," explaining that tantanmen normally includes a little vinegar.

He uses grated garlic. If you don't have it, you can use about half a teaspoon of garlic powder, but he says fresh is tastier. He adds 7 shakes of umami seasoning. This sauce has little holding up its flavor besides the miso, so the taste doesn't quite come together. Ryuji's explanation is that it helps to add a bit more umami seasoning than usual. He then adds soy sauce. He says regular tantanmen also contains soy sauce. A light sprinkle of black pepper is also Ryuji's preference.

He tastes it at this point and says, "Super delicious," then realizes he forgot the sugar. He adds about half a teaspoon, noting that just a little sugar pulls the flavor together and adds depth. The finished sauce is chilled in the fridge, bowl and all.

While the water for the noodles is heating, Ryuji finds some bean sprouts that are "about to die." So he decides to make a side dish that goes well with drinks.

The bean sprouts are boiled briefly, for about 1 minute, in the water before the noodles go in. You can make them in the microwave, but he says boiling tastes better. When he usually makes bean sprout side dishes, he sometimes salts them to draw out moisture. But this time that's a hassle, and salt getting into the water would make the noodles salty, so he just blanches them. The leftover water retains a slight bean sprout smell, but Ryuji says it's not noticeable at all when you're just boiling noodles in it.

He cools the boiled sprouts briefly under running water and lightly squeezes them, since they're too hot to work with otherwise. He puts them in a bowl and adds about 2 teaspoons of miso and 6 shakes of Ajinomoto. He says massaging the miso in by hand dissolves it best. Showing the result, he explains that the miso absorbs the moisture, so it doesn't get watery. He adds shichimi togarashi to taste for flavor, plus a pinch of salt "because I'm a drinker." If you want it spicy, you can add plenty of ichimi togarashi.

A staff member remarks that you don't often see a combination of just miso and Ajinomoto. Ryuji responds that surprisingly few people use miso this way. He then brings up his own "Ultimate Miso Ramen." It's a recipe with who knows how many millions of views, yet it contains almost no stock and is built on the umami of miso and Ajinomoto. Even so, people say it's "better than a restaurant's." Ryuji's point is that this bean sprout recipe also shows how well umami seasoning and miso go together. He also says that this time, both the tantanmen and the side dish are "miso all the way from start to finish."

When a staff member asks, "Can you use Hi-Me too?", Ryuji says Hi-Me is also delicious and that it adds more depth. However, Hi-Me is expensive, so he doesn't use it for everything. He uses it when he wants to achieve a restaurant-quality flavor. As an example, he cites the eel sauce he made a while back, explaining that he used Hi-Me for that one "to surpass restaurants." A staff member adds that some professional Japanese chefs also use Hi-Me.

The noodles he uses are flat noodles bought at the supermarket Life. The package says 3½ minutes for chilled noodles, but Ryuji says about 3 minutes is fine "because everyone likes them firm," and that basically following the package directions is fine. When he puts the noodles in, there's a moment where they don't quite fit in the pot and he struggles. He says that if you keep stirring, they'll cook and sink, joking, "You can't give up in life."

Flat noodles are flat and a little wide and floppy. Ryuji says he likes the texture, which is neither medium-thick nor thick. Sauce clings to them well, so they pair well with a viscous sauce like this one. If you don't have flat noodles, he recommends medium noodles or slightly thinner ones. He says somen and the like also work. Extra-thick noodles, however, don't suit it, because extra-thick noodles go better with a stronger sauce.

The boiled noodles are rinsed in cold water and then chilled further in ice water. He says ice water gives the noodles more chewiness and makes them tastier. Once your hands are cold, squeeze the noodles hard by hand. Any water left behind will dilute the sauce.

He takes the chilled sauce out of the fridge, adds the noodles, and coats every strand. The sauce has a slightly reddish tint. Ryuji lifts the noodles to show that no sauce is left at the bottom of the bowl. He says that's how well the flat noodles pick up the sauce.

On top goes the meat miso, cooled at room temperature. The meat is cool and crispy. He then scatters plenty of scallions and finishes with chili oil. If you have them, sprinkle on toasted sesame seeds and Sichuan pepper. He says whole sesame seeds look cuter as a topping. Their role differs from the ground sesame used in the sauce. As for Sichuan pepper, he says it's totally delicious even without it. That completes the chilled soupless tantanmen without sesame paste, served with the miso bean sprouts on the side.

After a toast, they start with the miso bean sprouts. A staff member says, "The little bit of heat is nice," praising how the shichimi adds aroma and spice. Someone also says, "This alone is a drinking snack." According to Ryuji, this kind of bean sprout dish usually includes oil such as sesame oil. A staff member agrees that namul gives the impression of containing oil. But Ryuji says it's perfectly delicious without oil, just as good as namul. With no oil, it has almost no calories.

When the tantanmen noodles are lifted, they come up in a big clump. Ryuji explains that this is proof the sauce is clinging. Soy milk alone would be watery, so he adds ground sesame to thicken it. Regarding the importance of this ground sesame, a remark comes up between him and the staff about "since the Ochiai-san day." This seems to refer to something that happened in a previous episode.

After a bite, Ryuji says, "Surigomatta gurume (the ground sesame is delicious)" and "That's amazing," commenting that it's pleasantly spicy. A staff member says it also has something of an abura soba feel.

Ryuji emphasizes that eating it with the bean sprouts adds a crunchy texture that soupless tantanmen lacks, making it more satisfying. A staff member agrees that it's good to eat while adding them as a topping. The miso bean sprouts can work as a side dish, but Ryuji's intention was really for them to be eaten together with the tantanmen.

Opinions on the spiciness were split. A staff member says the heat is quite mild and that it could perhaps be spicier. When Ryuji replies, "I put a fair amount of chili oil on it, though," the staff member jokes that it might be because they've been toughened up by eating the super-spicy "Hokkyoku."

So they try adding doubanjiang, and the staff member says it's better with it. Ryuji also concedes that adding some might be good, saying that adding doubanjiang makes it go even better with alcohol. Still, Ryuji's own position is that the original heat level is fine for this noodle dish. On the other hand, he also says that compared with the salt levels in his usual recipes, this one is fairly gentle, so adding a little doubanjiang might be an option. In the end, he recommends adding doubanjiang to individual taste. Another staff member says, "Isn't it pretty spicy?", saying the heat kicks in partway through. Ryuji explains that this is because it contains half a teaspoon of doubanjiang.

As he keeps eating, Ryuji remarks that the flavor is like a limited-time menu item at a mazesoba shop. If you can make it this easily at home, he says, you should definitely try it. Finally, he says that in the hot season you can add doubanjiang and eat it as a drinking-snack noodle dish, or have it for lunch, and that it's a bowl that will cool your body down. He wraps up by encouraging viewers to try making chilled soupless tantanmen.