Well for starters, looks like I was right in the first place about Myanmar being Myanmar. It's been brought to my attention that it was Burma up until just last year when they changed their name back to the original Myanmar (Huh?). Right. Apparently there is still some confusion even in the mainstream media about what to call the place. Anyone who is really interested can read up on it. I was more concerned about making my mohinga to pay too much attention.
Today I realized that many of the dishes I may make are going to seem iffy at first, and some may not really be appealing at all. My goal in all of this will be to elevate the traditional recipes into something yummy and edible.
In the course of making the mohinga I feared this could be one of those challenges.
I had trouble finding many recipes for the dish, but Wikipedia did have a list of traditional ingredients that included chickpea flour, garlic, onions, lemongrass, banana tree stems (huh?), ginger, fish paste, fish sauce and catfish. This is all cooked in a rice broth and served with vermicelli and garnished with various things like lime juice, more fish sauce, spring onions and crushed chile peppers. I did use most of these, with the exception of the fish paste and banana tree stems.
As I indicated in an earlier post, I was a little wary of the catfish. I had never tried it, but it strikes me as one of those dirty kind of bottom feeder fish with little flavor. My parents feed them in the murky pond behind their house, and they don't look like anything I'd ever want on my dinner table. Sorry Emily. One we call "lips" even has some sort of weird, red ball on its mouth that my sister suspects might be a tumor.
But I digress...
I learned a few things making the mohinga. 1) Catfish is in fact tasteless, in my opinion, but a meaty, hearty fish 2) Fish sauce smells absolutely terrible and 3) Crushed dried chickpeas smell equally as awful.
All this had me a little worried what the heck I was going to end up with. Despite the above, this soup came out surprisingly tasty. The broth has a bit of a tang to it, but I added cayenne pepper to the recipe so that gave it a little balanced kick.
Without any further ado ... My mohinga.
Ingredients:
About 1 cup of chickpea flour (you can make this my grinding dried chickpeas in a food processor)
4 tbsps. coriander
3 tbsps. cayenne pepper
salt
pepper
1 lb. catfish
1 packet of vermicelli noodles
4 yellow onions
4 cloves of garlic
2 tbsps. lemongrass (I used a paste I found with the fresh herbs)
2 tbsps. grated ginger
3 tbsps. fish sauce
2 limes
1 cup of chopped green onions
1 cup crushed, dried chiles
How I did it:
I start by bringing a pot of water to a boil and cooking the rice noodles. The instructions on the bag actually say to let them soak in warm water for 20 minutes, but I find it works just as well to boil them a few minutes until they are somewhat tender. As I drain the noodles, I reserve the water to use for the soup later. I figured this counted as the rice broth.
I wanted to season the catfish a bit before cooking in an effort to give it some semblance of flavor - based on my assumption it has none - so I make a rub with about half of the chickpea flour, half of the coriander, half of the cayenne and some salt and pepper. I heat a few tablespoons of canola oil in a soup pot while I rub the catfish fillets. When the oil is heated I drop the fish in and cook it. When the fish is done, I remove it and set aside for later.
Then I scrape the seasoning left in the pot off the bottom and add 1 grated onion, the garlic, the lemon grass the ginger and about half of the fish sauce. I let this cook for a few minutes. Then I add the rice broth back in. You may want to add some additional water depending how much you have, the rest of the chickpea flour, coriander and cayenne and bring to a boil. When it is boiling, I add the catfish (cut in chunks) and the rest of the onions (also cut in chunks) and let simmer. The broth thickens pretty quickly, but that's ok. It should be kind of thickish when served.
I toss the vermicelli noodles in the rest of the fish sauce and the juice of two limes. Serve the soup over the noodles and garnish with the onions, chiles and more coridaner (if you feel like it).
I enjoy with a nice cold glass of Santa Alicia Chardonnay!
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