Shan noodles

Ingredients

• Rice noodles400 g
• Minced chicken500 g
• Tomatoes600 g
• Shallots5
• Garlic6 clove
• Paprika1 tbsp
• Turmeric1 tsp
• Fish sauce3 tbsp
• Pickled mustard greens150 g
• Roasted peanuts80 g
• Spring onions4
• Coriander30 g
• Vegetable oil80 ml
• Limes2
• 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

   Fry the sliced shallot in oil until deep gold and set half aside for serving.

   15 min

2. 2

   Add the garlic, paprika and turmeric and warm them a minute, until fragrant.

   3 min

3. 3

   Add the minced chicken and fry it, breaking up lumps, until it whitens.

   10 min

4. 4

   Add the chopped tomatoes and fish sauce and stew twenty-five minutes to a thick paste.

   27 min

5. 5

   Grind the peanuts to a coarse crumb, keeping a few whole.

   6 min

6. 6

   Boil the rice noodles, rinse them and divide them between bowls.

   8 min

7. 7

   Spoon the sauce over the noodles and top with peanuts, fried shallot, pickled greens and coriander.

   6 min

About the dish

It is served two ways: dry, with the sauce tossed through the noodles, and in soup, with the broth poured separately. Both are legitimate, and in the Shan states the choice follows the weather.

The sauce is built on tomato rather than coconut — that is what separates Shan noodles from Burmese mohinga. The tomatoes are reduced to a paste and supply both the acidity and the body.

The pickled mustard greens and ground peanuts go on top and are not stirred in beforehand. Their acidity and crunch are the contrast to soft noodles.

Worth knowing

• — Reduce the tomatoes to a paste rather than a sauce. A loose sauce runs to the bottom of the bowl and the noodles stay dry.
• — Rinse the noodles in cold water after boiling. Without it they clump and the sauce will not spread.
• — The soup version is made by letting some of the sauce down with chicken broth and serving it separately in a bowl.

Nutrition

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

Calories

620 kcal

Protein

36 g

Fat

24 g

Carbs

68 g

More from Myanmar

• Mohinga — Rice noodles in a thick fish broth built on banana stem. Breakfast, and Myanmar's unofficial national dish.
• Lahpet thoke — A salad of fermented tea leaves with fried beans, nuts and garlic.
• Ohn no khao swe — Wheat noodles in a thick coconut broth with chicken and chickpea flour.