Making the dough: Place the flour, alkaline water, and squid ink in a mixing bowl of stand mixer. Use a spatula to roughly stir to mix. Attach the bowl to the stand mixer with dough hook attachment. Gradually add in water. The dough supposed to be rather dry and almost to the point of falling apart but not quite. Don't worry about uneven color of squid ink on the dough. It will even out when your roll the dough. Cover and rest for 30 minutes or up to 1 hour. The resting step is important as the dough will relax and easier to manage when you are ready to roll the dough
Dust your work surface with flour. Divide the dough into 4 equal parts using dough cutter if you have one. Keep the rest covered and work with one at a time. Use your fingers to slightly flatten the dough so it's flat enough to be fed into the roller and the pasta roller setting is on number 1. Feed the dough through the roller. Some of the dough might crumble at the beginning because of being dry, but don't panic. After few rounds of rolling, it will come together. Trust me! Fold the dough and continue to roll until the dough is smooth (Yes, it will actually become smooth believe it or not). Change the setting to no. 2 and roll few more times. If you like it thinner, you can go to no.3. I'm good with no.2. Repeat with the rest of the dough
Rolling & Cutting: Now dust the sheets of dough with flour generously and feed through the cutter. I use spaghetti cutter. Dusting with flour will prevent the strands of noodles from sticking to each other. Repeat with the rest
If you are not using the ramen straight away, hang them to dry on a rack. If you are using them straight away, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the ramen for about 1 1/2 minutes. Do not over cook. Fresh ramen doesn't take long to cook. It should still be chewy and toothy. Cooking dried ramen might take another minute longer. Drain off the cooking water and refresh with some cold water. They are ready to be use with whatever recipe you have in mind
Buttered ramen with shrimp stir-fry:
Preheat a large skillet over high heat. Add the butter and let it melt. Add in the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds. Add shrimp and red pepper flakes (if using) and let them cook until the shrimp turn pink and slightly browned, about 1 minute or so
Add in the ramen noodles and stir to mix everything. Make sure the noodles are coated with butter. Season with salt to your taste and cook for another few seconds. Turn off the heat and sprinkle with some green onion. Serve immediately
Notes
You can also make the stir-fry noodles more "saucy" by adding about 1/2 cup or more of chicken stock to stir-fry the ramen noodles.