Cancel that takeout order: it’s time you learned to make ramen at home. Guest chef Hugh Amano, author of “Let’s Make Ramen” and “Let’s Make Dumplings,” is the teacher of this pre-recorded Zoom cooking class all about the component parts of a perfect bowl of ramen. The star of the show are homemade ramen noodles. You’ll learn why baked baking soda (you read that right) is the key to getting the perfect texture in genuine ramen noodles, and how to perfectly time your noodles to achieve the ideal hydration level. Noodles alone do not a bowl of ramen make, however, so Hugh also walks you through his favorite broth recipe, which sticks to a short ingredient list of just chicken, scallions, ginger and kombu. With broth and noodles as our foundation, the real fun begins, as you decide which ramen toppings to treat yourself to. Hugh covers his favorite tare (a general word for Japanese dipping sauce), which features both red and white miso. He also makes seasoned soft-boiled eggs, ultraquick sauté-steamed vegetables, Japanese-style chili oil, pickled ginger and shiitake mushrooms, and more. The result is a vibrant, colorful and customizable bowl of ramen.

What's Included: You will receive a .zip file that includes the cooking school video as well as PDFs of the recipe instructions.

How to Download: After you purchase your Milk Street Cooking School Video, you will receive an email from the Milk Street Store with the subject line "Your Cooking School Video is Ready for Download." Within this email there is a link that will direct you to a download page, click download now to download the .zip folder. To unzip the folder, double-click the zipped folder to open it. Please note: your video download file will have an approximate size of 500 MB.

Hugh Amano’s first dumpling memories are of his mother making gyoza for Japanese night at a restaurant in their small mountain town of Gunnison, Colorado. His fascination with salt’s power to draw moisture out of cabbage, the mixing of the filling to create a cohesive emulsification, and the joy that variety of texture via various cooking methods brings were early culinary bedrock for his career in the kitchen. His education as a lover of dough-encased foods continued via travel: frequent visits to family in Japan, where he’d eat as many gyoza as he could get his hands on, late night/early morning dim sum in Macau following (during) several rounds of drinks with friends, and beef-filled, gravy-covered pasties in Montana brought to the region by Cornish miners. When a girlfriend’s Italian mother first taught him how to make homemade pasta for tortellini with a rolling pin and a well-worn wooden board, he was hooked on making dumplings of all forms. Hugh now lives in Chicago where the roster of dough-encased foods runs deep (tamales, pierogies, momos, you name it), working as a chef and writer. He most recently coauthored "" with Sarah Becan (Ten Speed Press 2019), and he always puts out a big batch of gyoza for his annual New Year’s Eve dinner party.