BURMESE CUISINE
More flavourful than its soya bean counterpart, Burmese chickpea tofu is a great snack on its own. Serve these deep-fried fritters with a garlic dipping sauce
Make deep-fried tofu fritters
Burmese food is a feast for the senses: the aroma from a bubbling pot of pork and green mango curry; the vibrant colours of a rainbow salad made up of rice, carrots, potatoes and coriander; the crackle and crunch of homemade crisps; and the silky feel of noodles dripping with tomato and turmeric sauce.
Our cuisine takes influences from neighbouring Thailand, India and China, and combines them with our own unique ingredients, flavours and techniques to create something delicious and distinct. Growing up, I never understood why tofu almost seemed to be a dirty word in the UK – until I discovered that Burmese tofu is quite different from what most people here are used to. While standard soya bean tofu is more of a blank canvas, in Burma (also known as Myanmar) we use chickpeas and split peas to make a golden tofu that’s scrumptious on its own. Burmese tofu is versatile enough to be used as a topping for noodles before it’s even set, in salads and stir-fries or served as a moreish snack – as in our recipe for Burmese tofu fritters, known as ‘tohu jaw’, on p148. This is how the Burmese like to cook; whether we’re drawing on other cuisines or creating something unique, we pride ourselves on being adaptable and making the most of what we have.
There’s no shame in using shortcuts, either. Traditionally, this tofu would be made from scratch by grinding pulses – but you can easily make it from a handful of storecupboard ingredients. We Burmese adore texture almost as much as flavour, and these tofu fritters brilliantly showcase both attributes – they’re crisp on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside and so tasty that any dipping sauce is a bonus rather than a necessity. Serve a batch of these fritters as a pre-dinner starter, as canapés at a party or as a simple beer snack, and watch your guests burn their tongues in their haste to eat as many as possible. Mimi Aye is a British-born Burmese food writer and author of Noodle! 100 Amazing Authentic Recipes and Mandalay: Burmese Food & Beyond, out next summer.
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