Burmese · Starter · Served at I Still Call It Burma (#2 and #3)
Laphet thoke
Tea leaf salad
Laphet thoke is fermented tea leaves with everything crunchy piled around them. I keep the greens light, because I want it to taste like tea leaf and not like a cabbage salad.
Fried garlic, yellow split peas, toasted nuts, and seeds give the salad its crunch. Toss with citrus just before serving.
- Yield
- Serves 4 as a starter
Ingredients
Serves
Fried garlic chips
- ½ headgarlic (~6 cloves), thinly sliced
- ¼ cupneutral oil
Fried yellow split peas
- ¼ cupdried yellow split peas
- neutral oil, for frying
- salt
Toasts
- ¼ cupraw peanuts
- ¼ cupsunflower seeds
- 1 tbspsesame seeds
Shrimp powder
- 2 tbspdried shrimp
Assembly
- about 1 cupcabbage, thinly sliced
- about ½ cupfermented tea leaf dressing (lahpet)
- 1Roma tomato, diced
- 1jalapeño, diced
- fish sauce
- lemon or lime wedges
Method
- Fry the garlic chips: heat the ¼ cup neutral oil over medium-low, add the sliced garlic, and fry, stirring, until evenly golden, 5–7 minutes. Strain immediately, because they keep crisping. Save the garlic oil.
- Fry the split peas: soak the yellow split peas 2 hours. Drain and pat very dry. Fry at 325°F until golden and crunchy, 3–4 minutes. Salt.
- Toast the peanuts at 350°F for 8–10 minutes. Cool, then chop coarse.
- Toast the sunflower seeds in a dry pan, 3–4 minutes. Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan, 2–3 minutes.
- Make the shrimp powder: toast the dried shrimp 2 minutes, then grind.
- Thinly slice about 1 cup cabbage and spread it on a platter.
- Spoon the tea leaf dressing into the center.
- Around the dressing, make separate piles: garlic chips, split peas, peanuts, sunflower seeds, sesame, diced tomato, diced jalapeño.
- Dust shrimp powder over everything. Drizzle fish sauce.
- Put lemon or lime wedges on the side.
- Squeeze over the citrus and toss just before serving.
Notes
- This assumes you already have fermented tea leaf dressing (lahpet).
- All the fried and toasted things keep up to 3 days airtight at room temperature, so you can make them ahead.
What I use
- Laphet (fermented tea leaves), non-spicy: Myanmar pickled tea leaves, 11.29 oz (opens in a new tab) (non-spicy)
- Laphet, medium spicy: Myanmar pickled tea leaves, with crunchy beans (opens in a new tab) (medium spicy)
- Laphet, spicy: Myanmar pickled tea leaves, spicy, 11.29 oz (opens in a new tab) (spicy)
- Fried bean mix (pyay kyaw): Assorted crunchy beans, 10.58 oz (opens in a new tab) (the crunch, if you skip frying your own)
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