Mohinga

Ingredients

• Catfish or other oily fish800 g
• Thin rice noodles500 g
• Lemongrass3
• Ginger40 g
• Garlic6 clove
• Onion3
• Toasted rice flour60 g
• Chickpea flour40 g
• Fish sauce60 ml
• Turmeric2 tsp
• Paprika1 tbsp
• Eggs — boiled, to serve6
• Fried split peas — to serve100 g
• Coriander40 g
• Lime3
• Vegetable oil100 ml
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Poach the fish with the lemongrass and turmeric for fifteen minutes, lift it out and pick the flesh, discarding bones and skin. Strain the broth.

   25 min

2. 2

   Pound the onion, garlic and ginger to a paste and fry it in oil with the paprika until dark and fragrant.

   15 min

3. 3

   Mash the fish with a fork and stir it into the paste, frying five minutes; it should break down into threads.

   8 min

4. 4

   Transfer everything to the pot with the broth, add the fish sauce and simmer twenty minutes.

   22 min

5. 5

   Slake the rice and chickpea flours in cold water to a thin slurry and pour it into the soup in a stream, stirring.

   10 min

6. 6

   Cook twenty minutes more, until the broth thickens to the consistency of thin cream.

   22 min

7. 7

   Boil the noodles, divide them between bowls, ladle the soup over and serve with egg, split peas, coriander and lime.

   12 min

About the dish

The broth is thick from the fish rather than from flour: boiled catfish is picked, mashed and returned to the pot, where it dissolves into the liquid entirely.

The core of a banana stem is sliced into rings and cooked with the fish; it adds a light body and a neutral crunch. Artichoke heart substitutes, or it is simply left out.

Mohinga is eaten in the morning from street cauldrons. The toppings — fried split peas, lime, coriander, chilli, egg — are each diner's own choice, so one pot yields a dozen different bowls.

Worth knowing

• — The rice flour is toasted dry to the colour of sand. Raw, it gives neither aroma nor body.
• — The soup thickens as it cools. When reheating, let it down with broth or water, not fish sauce, or it turns salty.
• — Keep the noodles apart and ladle over them at serving. Left in the soup they swell and break.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

560 kcal

Protein

32 g

Fat

18 g

Carbs

68 g

More from Myanmar

• Lahpet thoke — A salad of fermented tea leaves with fried beans, nuts and garlic.