Myanmar/Burma: let thohk sohn [vegan]

Myanmar or Burma ​[1]​ is a large country in South East Asia with some 50 million inhabitants. Wedged between India, China and Thailand, the cuisine combines influences from its more culinaryily well known neighbours with the country’s own unique flavours ​[2], [3]​.

Burmese dishes very often include seafood in different varieties, both as main ingredients and as seasoning in fermented or dried form. The unofficial national dish is mohinga ​[3], [4]​. Different salads, or thoke, appear to be a large part of the Burmese kitchen ​[3], [5], [6]​, though calling them salads might be underselling them as they are very rich and often include lots of carbs or other goodies, such as chopped up samosas (samuza thoke).

Researching the country’s cuisine, I came across a few interesting ingredients I have not seen before, such as chickpea based tofu. This Burmese tofu is made similar to (fried) polenta but is used more like tofu (e.g. cut, fried and included in dishes) ​[3], [7]​ . It is made by boiling chickpea flour into a porridge and letting it set into blocks, before using the blocks in further cooking. Seems very simple and I will try and make it at some point, but not for this post.

Another very interesting ingredient I really want to find is lahpet – fermented green tea leaves ​[3], [8]​ . These constitute the main ingredient in lahpet thoke ​[3], [9]​, a kind of salad for want for a better word.  If I ever come across it, I will be sure to pick up a jar and make some thoke with it.

Let thohk sohn

Let thohk sohn, translated as ‘hand tossed everything’ and sometimes referred to as rainbow salad, is a carb – on carb – on carb salad with deep fried crunchy bits ​[3], [10], [11]​. This dish is a great fridge and pantry cleaner as it combines old rice, old potatoes, a handful of noodles and small amounts of many veggies. With a bit of meal planning (save some rice on Tuesday, a few potatoes on Wednesday, that half cucumber and bell pepper), you can spend half an hour chopping, deep frying and cooking noodles to create a Burmese feast.

 What makes this salad let thohk sohn if you just toss in what you have at hand? The not-often-seen combination of rice, potatoes and noodles together with toasted chickpea flour, deep fried crunchy bits, tamarind water and fried onion/garlic oil makes the dish unique and readily identifiable.

The more genuine Burmese version also includes powdered shrimp and dried, fermented soy bean cakes (be bohk), ground into a powder. Here the shrimps are omitted and the be bohk is replaced by a tahini/peanut/water blend, as suggested by MiMi at Meemalee.com ​[11]​.

Interesting ingredients

The most interesting ingredient in the recipes was be bohk, large cakes of dried, fermented soy beans. In this recipe, it is supposed to be ground and served as a condiment. Unfortunately, I had difficulty finding it.

Not an interesting ingredient per se but an interesting application is the toasted chick pea flour mixed into the salad. When tasting the toasted flour on its own, it has a nutty flavour and in a salad, it will add some more depth to the flavour.

Another such ingredient is the fried onion and garlic oil (the oil left after deep frying) which makes this dish really special. I saved the oil that wasn’t used here and used it a few days later in an India-inspired, improvised zucchini curry and it really lifted that dish as well.

Conclusion

The flavour from the onion/garlic oil is great in this dish and all the crunchy goodies make the dish a delight. I will keep this recipe in my back pocket and whip it out next time we have some leftover potatoes, rice and other odds and ends we need to get rid off. Next time I will increase the amount of chickpea flour though, as it was not very noticable this time.

Print

Let thohk sohn

This Burmese carb-on carb-on carb salad derives its uniqueness from lots of deep-fried goodies and fried garlic/onion oil.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Asian, Burmese, Southeast Asian

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Author Henrik Persson | veganphysicist.com

Ingredients

Carbs

• 2 dl rice, boiled
• 5-6 small potatoes, boiled
• 250 g noodles see note

Vegetables

• 2 carrots, match sticked
• 3-4 leaves green cabbage, shredded
• ¼ red onion, sliced soak in water if too sharp
• ¼ cucumber, sliced
• ½ bell pepper, sliced
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1 small mango, match sticked not too ripe
• 1 chili, deseeded and sliced
• 3-5 sprigs cilantro, chopped

Deep fried goodies

• ½ block tofu
• 6-8 wanton wrappers see note
• 1 small onion
• 6 cloves garlic
• 2 dl oil with high smoke point e.g. refined canola or peanut oil

Misc ingredients

• ½ dl chick pea flour see note½
• ½ dl peanuts, roasted, chopped
• 1 tbsp tamarind paste
• 2 tbsp tahini
• 2 tbsp peanut butter
• lime wedges

Instructions

• If not already done, boil rice and potatoes. Let cool. (Ideally, these are leftovers from other meals.)
• Cut vegetables if not already done. See ingredient list for suggested shapes.
• Toast the chickpea flour in a dry pan. Add it to a cold pan and heat it on medium. Stir frequently. Once it is warm enough, it will toast quickly.

  Set aside.

Deep frying

• Cut the tofu into ~2 cm cubes, the wanton wrappers into strips and thinly slice the onion and garlic. The thinner the garlic and onion, the faster it will fry.
• Set up your dep frying things. I use a shallow pan, a slotted metal spoon, a strainer and a plate with tissue paper.
• Heat the oil in a shallow pan. To test the temperature, add a sliver of garlic. It should start to bubble and float around.
• Deep fry the garlic until it is a deep brown. Don't burn it. Fish it out of the oil (leave as much oil as possible in pan). Put garlic in strainer or on kitchen towels to get rid of the last oil.
• Deep fry the onion in the same pan and in the same manner until it is a deep brown.
• Deep fry the wanton wrappers in the same oil. Move them around so they don't stick to each other.
• Deep fry the tofu in the same oil. Only add half at a time so the oil doesn't lose too much heat. Flip them a few times if the oil is not deep enough to cover them.
• Preserve the oil, it will have acquired a lot of flavour from the onion and garlic.

Other preparations

• Bring a large pot of water to boil.
• Fill a large bowl with cold water.
• If using multiple noodle types, add the first type to the boiling water.

  When it is done, use a spider/pasta claw/pair of tongs to fish out the noodles and dunk them in the cold water. When cold, strain them.

  If desired, use a pair of scissors to cut the noodles into smaller pieces.
• Repeat for the other noodle types (if any)
• Mix the tamarind paste with 3 tbsp water.
• Mix the tahini and the peanut butter with 3-4 tbsp water.

Assemble

• Mix all the carbs, vegetables and tofu.
• Mix in the toasted chick pea flour, the tamarind-water anda few tbsp of the reserved garlic/onion oil. Add salt to taste.
• Serve with the fried crunchy bits (onion, garlic and wanton wrappers), the chopped peanuts, the tahini-peanut sauce and a few lime wedges.

Notes

Noodles: Use whatever noodles you have at home. If you use multiple varieties, you will get some texture variations and the dish will look more interesting. It is also a good opportunity to get rid of that last nest of noodles you didn’t use last time.
Here I used 1 bunch of soba, 1 bunch of somen and one nest of thin rice noodles.

Wanton wrappers: these are the then dough sheets you can generally buy in the frozen section of asian supermarkets, used for making dumplings.

Chickpea flour: I used ½ dl here but next time I will double this amount as it was not very noticable.