Mohinga, Burmese Fish Soup Noodle

Recently, we were invited for Lunch at our friend's place. They are of Burmese origin and had served us Mohinga, a type of Burmese fish soup noodle. According to Wikipedia, Mohinga is a rice noodle and fish soup from Myanmar and is an essential part of Burmese cuisine. It is considered by many to be the national dish of Myanmar.

It is sort of like Asam Laksa minus the spiciness, looks a bit like mee rebus and tasted sweet, sour and a little sourish.. a very refreshing combination of natural taste without the use of salt or pepper which are quite core ingredients of most recipe.

After some googling around checking out on different recipes, I had attempted to try this out. Ingredients are quite easily available and all I needed was a little twist and combining the various recipes to render this version.

Please note that I had adjusted some of the ingredients due to my low carb diet, feel free to switch it to whichever you are comfortable. And this may not be authentic dish like those in Myanmar but rather my own adaptation based on information gathered from the internet.

Ingredients:

• 3tbsp of olive oil (you can use any oil like canola, or even peanut oil)
• 1/2tsp Natvia (if using sugar, use 1tsp)
• 1 shallots (sliced)
• 2.5 big onions (sliced)
• 6 garlic cloves
• 4 lemongrass stalk (2 pcs halved lengthwise and the other 2 sliced)
• 4-5cups of water
• 2tsp of turmeric powder
• 1tbsp of anchovies powder/granules (I used the japanese type)
• 2tsp salted anchovies paste
• 2tsp of tamarind paste
• 6 slices of ginger
• 300-400g of barramundi fish (cut to cube pieces, you may use any white fish and original recipe in Burma uses catfish)
• 1tsp of smoked paprika (if you are not cooking for kids, feel free to use crushed chilli)
• 1/4 cup of chick pea powder/flour (also known as garbanzo bean)
• 2tbsp fish sauce
• 4 hard boiled egg (either quartered it or sliced)
• 4 servings of cooked rice noodles (I used dried laksa noodle, boiled for bout 5-7mins)
• chopped red chilli for garnishing (and spiciness)
• sliced scallion for garnishing
• chopped cilantro for garnishing
• lime wedges (we used one lime)
• a packet of pea chips to serve along

Steps:

1. In the blender, blend these ingredients together till it form a paste: 1/2 portion of the onions, sliced lemongrass, smoked paprika and 3 slices of ginger.
2. In a pot (I'm using the french oven aka enamel coated dutch oven), add in water, turmeric powder, garlic (crushed), lemongrass (the halved), 3 ginger slices, tamarind paste, anchovies stock, anchovies paste and fish sauce. Let the boil and simmer for bout 5-6mins.
3. Add in the fish to the simmering broth and let it cook. It should only takes bout 2-3mins depending on the size of the cutlet. Sieve the fish out and side aside. 
4. Remove the lemongrass, garlic and ginger from the broth.
5. Pour the chickpea flour on a pan, on low heat, saute it till golden brown. Dish out and set aside once done.
6. Using the same pan, heat 1tbsp of oil in the pan, sprinkle the sugar in it and saute the shallots till light golden brown. Once down, dish out set aside.
7. Again on the same pan, add in the balance of the oil, saute the blended onion mixture till fragrant, add in the fish to give it a stir and coat the fish with the mixture. Dish out the fish and set aside.
8. Now dish the balance of the sauted onion mixture to the broth and continue to let it simmer. While simmering slowly stir in the fried chickpea flour so that it helps to thicken the sauce.
9. Add in balance of the onion to simmer. Simmer till the onion soften.
10. Once done, assemble the serving with noodle, top with the fish. Then scoop the broth with the onion over it. Sprinkle with chopped chilli, cilantro, crispy shallot and a piece of the pea chips.

Popiah Skin

This project has been put on hold for a long time and finally, I bought the Lodge raw cast iron pan and thought of giving it a test run with this recipe. And it is absolutely fantastic.. it works.

Ingredients:

• 100g sourdough discard
• 100g flour
• 105g water
• a pinch of salt

Steps:

1. Mixed the ingredients well and stir it hard up and slam it down. Do this till you see the mixture begin to form "fibre". If too tired or lazy, just use the mixer with the dough hook, that should just take bout 1-2mins, but iIjust needed some hand exercise so i used the hand and the spoon. 
2. Cover well and store in the fridge to rest over night. you may use the dough once warm to room temperature.
3. Heat up the pan at medium heat and lower it once you can start to feel it out of it when u place your hand above it.
4. Use the hand to grab the dough mixture and dollop it to the pan. for reference, you can youtube the instruction how to it. However I had done a shortcut/lazy job and used the ladle instead for this task. I drop bout half a dollop on top the pan and quickly spread it out to as thin as I can.
5. Once done you may peel it off (I had timed mine at 2mins each) and let it warm up another 20seconds before doing the next sheet. Refer to the video below of me peeling it off and almost burnt my fingers... hehehe

Note: The skin will be rather crispy/tough when you peel it off. Place it on a plate and cover with a piece of cloth. It will soften once it cools down.