I scored this mohinga recipe from James, a Burmese chef in Honolulu that owns a Burmese takeout business called Aloha Burma. I had the opportunity to learn it from him last month when chef Paul Matsumoto from Beni Co. Bentos invited him down to the Pacific Gateway Center to teach him this dish for our Chef Hui meal distribution. The ta’ape is sourced from Local Iʻa and the banana stems, plus most of the rest of the ingredients, are from BI Farms Market in Chinatown.
Adapted from a recipe by @alohaburma
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 each (1 lb) whole taʻape, cleaned and filleted (save the bones)
1 stalk lemongrass, smashed
250 g yellow split peas
100g shallot, minced
25 g garlic, minced
25g lemongrass, minced
50 g cilantro roots and/or stems
330 g banana stems, tender inner core, halved lengthwise and sliced thin
2 g coriander, ground
2 g chili flake
10 g mushroom powder
1 g blk pepper
TT salt
44 g rice vermicelli noodles (Bun Giang Tay)
1 lime, cut into 4 wedges
1 hard-boiled egg, cut into 4 wedges
1/4 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
1/4 cup fried shallots (Cu Hanh Phi)
Instructions
Place the fish bones in a pot w/ 2 qt of water and 1 lemongrass stalk. Bring to a simmer and cook, skimming often, for 30 minutes. Strain.
In a small pot cover the split peas with water, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook about 20 minutes or until tender. Strain liquid reserving a quarter cup. Place the peas in a blender with 1/4 cup liquid and pulse until roughly chopped.
Sauté the shallot, garlic, lemongrass, cilantro roots, and banana steams, until soft. Add the coriander, chili flakes, mushroom powder, salt and pepper and sauté 2 minutes more.
In a separate pot, boil water and cook rice noodles according to the directions on the package. Strain and rinse under cool water.
Strain the fish stock and add the stock and split peas to the soup base. Bring to a simmer and add in the diced ta’ape. Simmer a couple minutes, until fish is cooked through and then remove from heat.
Divide the noodles into 4 bowls, ladle the hot soup over the top and garnish with hard cooked egg wedges, cilantro, fried shallot, chile flake and lime wedges.