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Mohinga

Australian Gourmet Traveller recipe for mohinga.

By Lisa Featherby
  • 40 mins preparation
  • 3 hrs 30 mins cooking
  • Serves 4 - 6
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Mohinga
Mohinga is widely regarded as Burma's national dish. The base is a fish stock flavoured with turmeric and tamarind, and it's absolutely delicious and also quite light. You can add more or less toasted chickpea flour at the end to suit your taste - the more you add, the creamier the soup will become. This version is adapted from a recipe pubished by Naomi Duguid in her book Burma: Rivers of Flavour.

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp tamarind pulp
  • ½ tsp shrimp paste
  • 1 snapper (1.5 kg), cleaned, scaled and halved
  • 25 gm galangal, coarsely chopped (5cm piece)
  • 8 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
  • 2 tsp fish sauce, or to taste
  • 60 gm chickpea flour (½ cup)
  • 120 ml <b><a href='/recipes/recipe-search/feature-recipe/2013/7/xinjiang-style-noodle-soup/'>garlic oil</a></b>, plus extra for seasoning
  • 5 gm turmeric, finely grated (1cm piece)
  • 400 gm dried rice vermicelli
  • To serve: coarsely chopped coriander
  • To serve: lime cheeks
Chilli oil
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 2 tsp chilli flakes

Method

Main
  • 1
    Combine tamarind pulp with 125ml hot water in a small bowl and stand for 5 minutes. Strain, pressing on solids, and reserve tamarind liquid.
  • 2
    Preheat oven to 180C. Wrap shrimp paste in foil and roast until fragrant (5-10 minutes). Combine shrimp paste, snapper, galangal, garlic and 2.5 litres water in a large saucepan and bring to the boil, skimming scum. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until fish is cooked through (5-10 minutes). Remove fish from stock and set aside until cool enough to handle, then coarsely shred flesh (discard skin) and refrigerate until required.
  • 3
    Return fish bones to stock with galangal and garlic and simmer over low heat until reduced to 1 litre (3 hours). Strain into a clean saucepan (discard bones) and season to taste with fish sauce and tamarind liquid. Set aside.
  • 4
    Meanwhile, for chilli oil, stir oil and chilli flakes in a small saucepan over medium heat until fragrant (2-3 minutes). Set aside.
  • 5
    Stir chickpea flour in a large frying pan over medium heat until fragrant and lightly toasted (1 minute). Transfer to a small bowl and set aside.
  • 6
    Heat garlic oil in a non-stick frying pan over high heat, add turmeric and reserved fish and stir occasionally until starting to turn golden and crisp (10-15 minutes). Set aside and keep warm.
  • 7
    Season warm serving bowls with a little extra garlic oil to taste. Cook noodles in boiling water until just tender (3-4 minutes), drain well and divide among bowls. Top noodles with fish, sprinkle with toasted chickpea flour, scatter with coriander and pour hot stock over. Serve hot with lime cheeks and chilli oil.