Meet at the market: beyond the broth

Each week we meet up with Katie Hershfelt of

Cultivate Events as she chats with farmers, chefs and shoppers at the

Santa Barbara Certified Farmers’ Market.

This week, she tagged along with Barbareño chef Julian Martinez, as he picked up produce for this weekend’s Ramen Fest. The friendly competition invites eight chefs from nine local restaurants to battle it out in the kitchen, serving up their own inventive version of one of today’s trendiest dishes— ramen.

Traditionally, ramen is a Japanese noodle soup dish that brings together flavorful broth, miso and toppings like sliced pork, egg and sprouts. Ask a chef to prepare ramen today, however, and no two bowls will be alike.

“This generation grew up eating boxed ramen at home,” said Martinez. “Now it’s been elevated by chefs around the country, but it’s still that same comforting flavor.”

Tonkotsu Style Ramen Broth

• 30 pounds pork femur bones

• 3 pounds pork back fat

Soak bones in a large pot full of ice water for 6 hours.

Drain bones. Smoke in smoker for about 30 minutes.

Scrub bones of any charred material or blood. Add to pot. Add fresh filtered water and the back fat. Bring to a hard boil. Then bring down to a simmer. Let simmer low overnight, covered.

The next day, bring back to a boil. Let boil 12 hours, adding water as necessary.

Strain broth.

Pinquito Miso Tare

• 4 cups pinquito bean miso

• 1 ½ cups soy sauce

• 1 cup mushroom stock

• ¾ cups ponzu

• ½ cup brown rice vinegar

• ¼ cup sugar

• ¼ cup mirin

Combine in a bowl. Whisk well. The tare should be quite salty, very savory, with a little tang.

Add Miso and pork belly to broth. Top with quail egg, mung bean sprouts, a spoonful of caviar lime and homemade chile sauce.

To check out all our past farmers market segments, head to kcrw.com/meetatthemarket.