Wagamama chicken ramen

The Wagamama cookbook has really gotten me thinking about stock preservation. When I have a roast dinner on a Sunday, I’m not thinking about what bones and vegetable odds and ends can go into a stock for a nice soup in the next day or two. The great things about this is that you are linking two completely different meals to help you shop smarter, and eat home cooked fresh food.

This recipe was another really good one – one key note, if you can, griddle the chicken. The smokey notes you get really help to liven up the soup. Alas, I slightly overcooked by pak choi, but this was still great.

You can get the Wagamama cookbook online.

Wagamama shichimi spiced duck ramen

Anyone that has the Wagamama book will know that an ingredient list of seven, is actually 17. Be it a stock, a spice rub, paste or sauce, you’ll be flicking back to pages five and nine for a recipe on page 143 – it’s just how it is. For this recipe, I was required to make a vegetable stock, so made the simpler of the two, as I was pushed for time. The duck marinated the night before in the shichimi, a spice rub I’ve not sued before.

I will be honest, I was worried this was going be a bit wishy-washy, a basic veg stock with some bits and a duck drowning in it – however, this was actually a really tasty dish. In hindsight, I could have packed in some more greens to the stock when completely the dish such as tender stem or sugar snaps.

What made this dish for me, other than a warming broth on a cold night and crispy skinned, pink duck, was how the shichimi flavoured the soup for an extra kick right at the end.

This is a fabulous recipe, and because you marinate the duck and make the soup the night before, is actually doable for a busy midweek.