Hot Laphing

This weekend, I went to visit Tashi Jong for my first social visit in more than a year.  Of course, I went in large part to visit my friend Sonam, the one who taught me how to make the Summer Chili that I posted very early on in this history of this blog.  Sonam and her sister are absolutely amazing cooks.  I think I eat more when I visit them than any other time in India, except when I visit certain restaurants in New Delhi.

Anyway, not long after I arrived, one heckuva storm hit, knocking out power. This meant we had nothing to do but cook, eat, and talk.  I ended up staying the night because of the sheer strength of the storm (which is always a pleasure with Sonam's family) and I took that time to interrogate her about some of my favorite dishes from her home.  For now, I will just post the recipes. I hope to post a photo guide when I get back to the states.  So let's start with the most unique dish I've ever had at her home, one I've never had anywhere else and I've been craving in the two years since I first tried it: Hot Laphing.  It's a unique mix of Chinese influence in Tibetan cooking!

Now, I've made a Laphing post before, however this starts with a completely different kind of laphing entirely, so be ready for something completely different.

Sonam's recipe started off with "buy one block of white laphing," but for most of us not living in a few specific countries in Asia, that's not possible. Fortunately, white laphing is very simple to make, unlike it's yellow sibling. I'll dedicate a post to white laphing and it's accompanying sauces later, but making the laphing itself is quite simple so let's start with that.

White Laphing (Without Sauce)
1 package of Mung Bean flour (available at most asian groceries)
Water

Take a very large pot on the stove, fill it about half way with water, get that going to a boil.

Meanwhile, take a pitcher and mix the mung bean flour and water until you have a liquid that looks like and has the consistency of light cream.

Slowly, and while stirring, pour the "cream" into the boiling water until you have an odd, gelatinous mess that is mostly clear, but slightly white-ish, like ice. It should not be white.  It should be distinctly translucent.  If it is white, the concentration of mung bean flour is too high and it will have a nasty consistency.


Here is a picture of finished white laphing (the blue is because it is under a tent).  Your gelatinous mess should be slightly-slightly more clear than this:

(Not my photo! So, credit where credit is due)

Once you have your weird gelatin, pour that into a wide tray, I usually use a cake pan, and let it cool and set.  This should take roughly an hour in a cake pan, less if you refrigerate it, and more if you use a deeper pan.  There you go! Laphing!

So now, what we use it for...

Hot Laphing
A large chunk of white laphing (say 2 cups per person), cut into 1" cubes
Vegetable oil
Finely chopped garlic
Meat, cut into bite sized pieces OR vegetables cut into bite sized pieces (less traditional and FAR less flavorful)
Erma/Hua Jiao (Sichuan peppercorns, mentioned at length here) finely ground-a few pinches
MSG (optional)-a large pinch
Salt to taste
Chili powder to taste
Sesame oil
Green onion, chopped

In a pot or pressure cooker, boil up the meat/veg in as little water as you can use to get it to boil.  We don't want to lose any flavor with excess water and we will be using the boiling water.  Just boil it for a minute or two, maximum.

In a large pot, heat up a few teaspoons of vegetable oil (enough to coat the bottom). When that's hot, toss in the garlic and stir until the garlic has browned and the oil has picked up the garlic aroma

Now add the meat/veg and when the oil has stopped sputtering, add some of the water from boiling (approx 1/3 cup per serving. NO MORE.  In fact it's better to go with less and you can add more later!)

Add powdered erma to taste, a pinch of MSG, salt to taste, chili powder to taste and let this cook together for a little while (a few minutes is all it needs).

Gently add the laphing, piece by piece.  Stir gently. It will break up a bit, but you don't want to break it up completely.  Break as little as possible. When the laphing is all stirred in, drizzle with sesame oil and sprinkle the green onion over this.  Give that a gentle stir to mix it in.

There you go! A super quick meal that is absolutely delicious!

Drokpa Tenthuk--Nomad's Noodle Soup

Drokpa Tenthuk-Nomad’s Tenthuk

During my first trip to Tibet, I was lucky enough to stay with a nomad family in Amdo in the middle of winter. The family consisted of a husband, wife, and two daughters, seven and ten years old. After a day of yak herding, horseback riding, and playing with the girls (who had never met foreigners, much less foreigners who spoke Tibetan!) we came inside for dinner.

The father had recently slaughtered a yak, something only done in winter, and was preparing a feast for us. The nomadic kitchen is very small, as nomads live in one room tents and occasionally one room huts in winter. All cooking is done on a small, clay, dung burning stove.

Our meal, an absolute feast, was made only in one pot and illustrates how the nomads like to use all parts of the yak. The recipe here is an abridgment of what could only be replicated by re-making that entire meal.

To start, large chunks of yak meat on the bone were boiled in a large pot over a period of several hours( These were fished out and served to us, with daggers to cut the meat and a mix of dried chili and salt. As we ate, freshly stuffed Gyuma Nakpo (Blood sausage) boiled in the same water, which soon became a deep, rich, meat stock. Then, as we ate the steaming hot Gyuma, our hard working host and hostess pulled tenthuk for us and the children.

Especially in winter, vegetables are rare fare for the nomads of Tibet. The spinach was a special treat, bought just for the foreign guests. I remember watching, as the father spoke animatedly, he was holding his bowl of soup in his left hand, just out of his sight. There, his seven year old daughter, like seven year olds anywhere in the world, was carefully picking all of the spinach out of her bowl, and dropping it into her father’s.

1 Lb Lamb or Beef on the bone (Short Ribs or something similar)

1 Medium white onion, Chopped

2-3 sprigs of scallions, coarsely chopped

2 Cloves of Garlic, finely chopped

4-5 cups of fresh spinach

Salt

Soy Sauce

Chili Powder

12 cups of water

Thenthuk Noodles (Although this is made at the end of the recipe, it's easier just to put the explanation here)

Flour

Water

vegetable oil

The skill of a chef is judged, in part, by how quickly and evenly he or she can make the tenthuk noodles. A skilled Tibetan chef pinch out the noodles faster than the eye can follow.

In a large mixing bowl, pour a large pile of flour. Make a pool in the center with your fist. Fill the pool with water. Carefully mix water from the sides into the pool, adding water until the flour is fully incorporated. The end result should be a stretchy, but not sticky, dough. Knead the dough until smooth. Separate dough into fist sized balls. Pour 1 tsp of oil per ball into the bowl. Roll the balls around until evenly coated. Allow to sit for at least 15 minutes.

Roll out each ball between your palms to form a long coil. Pinch the coils between your thumbs to form a long, thin tape around 1 inch wide. Tear 1 inch pieces into your boiling soup.

But Back to the Soup!

Roughly cut the meat off the bones. Leave a little bit of meat on the bones and save the fat. Cube the meat. If you want to be really authentic, buy more meat and just boil it on the bone with some salt and fish that out after several hours and enjoy eating the lightly salted boiled meat.

Bring the water to a boil. Add the bones and fat and let the water boil on a low flame for at least 30 minutes, an hour or more is preferable. The water should turn a rich brown. If the water reduces too much, add more. The final volume should be around 10 cups.

Add onions and continue to boil. Add the garlic and stir. Add Soy Sauce, Chili Powder and salt to taste. When the water is boiling, add the tenthuk noodles (stirring occasionally to make sure the noodles don’t stick together. Let the noodles boil for at least 3 minutes. Add the scallions and stir. Add the spinach and stir until the spinach has reduced, which should only take a minute or two. Serve hot with black vinegar, chili, and soy sauce as condiments.