Burmese · soup

Mohinga (Catfish and Lemongrass Rice Noodle Soup)

Mohinga (Catfish and Lemongrass Rice Noodle Soup) reads umami 6.6, funk & ferment 5.9 and salinity 5.4 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Burmese soup, about 1 hr 19 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

The measured notes (of 18)

Umami 6.6 · Funk & Ferment 5.9 · Salinity 5.4 · Marine & Briny 5.1 · Citrus 4.9 · Allium 4.2 · Sourness 4.0 · Richness 3.2 · Herbaceous 2.6 · Nutty 2.5 · Warm Spice 2.0 · Earthy 1.7 · Floral 1.5 · Sweetness 1.5 · Bitterness 1.0 · Fruity 0.5

What's in it (16)

Time & effort: about 1 hr 19 min · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 87.5 kcal, 4.5 g protein, 1.7 g fat, 13.1 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains seafood · Contains egg — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (7 steps)

  1. Toast the rice in a dry frying pan over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes, shaking often, until the grains go the colour of weak tea and smell like popcorn. Tip them onto a plate to stop the cooking, cool for 5 minutes, then grind to a coarse powder in a spice grinder or mortar. This powder is one of the two thickeners; the other is chickpea flour, and mohinga made without both tastes thin no matter how long you simmer it.
  2. Bring the water to a boil with the lemongrass, slide in the catfish, drop the heat so the surface barely trembles and poach 10 to 12 minutes, until the flesh flakes at a fork. Lift the fish out, keep the broth, and when the fish is cool enough to handle pull the flesh into coarse shreds, discarding skin and any bone.
  3. Blend the shallots, garlic, ginger and turmeric to a wet paste with a splash of the broth, about 2 to 3 minutes in a blender.
  4. Heat the peanut oil in a large heavy pot over medium-high heat and fry the paste, stirring, for 10 to 12 minutes. It will go from raw and sharp to sweet and jammy, and you are waiting for the moment the oil separates and pools at the edge of the paste, glossy and orange. Burmese cooks call this si byan, the return of the oil, and it is the single step that separates good Burmese cooking from flat Burmese cooking.
  5. Whisk the chickpea flour into 250 ml of the reserved broth until smooth with no lumps, then pour it and the rest of the broth into the pot along with the toasted rice powder. Bring to a simmer, stirring often so the base does not catch, and cook 25 minutes. The soup should thicken to the body of single cream and lose all raw-flour taste.
  6. Drain the banana stem and add it with the shredded fish; simmer gently 15 minutes more so the stem softens but keeps a slight crunch. Banana stem is sold frozen or in brine at Burmese and Thai grocers; if you truly cannot find it, leave it out rather than substituting celery, which tastes nothing like it. Season with the fish sauce and taste: mohinga should read savoury and round, not salty.
  7. Boil the noodles until just tender, 3 to 4 minutes, and drain well. Pile a nest of noodles in each bowl, ladle the hot soup over, and top with half a boiled egg, a scatter of coriander and a lime wedge to squeeze at the table.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.