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1.8 Lephet Thoke
Try this adaptation of the classic Burmese green tea leaf salad.
Kitchen Caravan | September 28, 2007
Home » Recipes » Green Tea Leaf Salad (Lephet Thoke)
Green Tea Leaf Salad (Lephet Thoke)
4 cups thinly sliced Napa cabbage (about 2/3 head)
2 T unsalted roasted peanuts
1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
6 medium shrimp, shell on
2 garlic cloves + 2 T oil for frying
3 T sesame oil
2 T green tea leaves
1 tsp fish sauce
1 juicy lime
2 T cilantro, finely chopped
½ tomato, seeded and diced (optional)
Shell and de-vein the shrimp.
Fill a medium sized saucepan with water and bring it to a simmer. Poach the shrimp until just cooked through, which only takes a matter of minutes.
Remove them from their poaching liquid as soon as they are done cooking, cool, and refrigerate.
Clean the shrimp shells under running water. Dry them well.
Heat up the sesame oil in a small pan, and add in the shrimp shells along with the tea leaves. Let them infuse in the oil on moderate heat for 5-10 minutes, then turn off the heat and continue to let them infuse while you prepare the rest of the salad.
Slice the poached shrimps in half lengthwise.
Heat up the 2 tablespoons of oil in a skillet, and fry the garlic until golden brown. Remove the garlic with a slotted spatula and set it on some paper towel to soak up some of the oil.
Combine the cabbage, peanuts, sesame seeds, shrimp, and tomato (if you are using) together in a bowl.
Drain the infusing oil of the shrimp shells and tea leaves, pressing hard on the solids, in order to extract all of the flavored oil.
Make the dressing by whisking together the infused oil, fish sauce, lime juice, some salt to taste, and the cilantro.
Pour the dressing over the salad and toss well.
Top the salad with the fried garlic.
Serves 2 as a main dish, 4 appetizer portions.
http://www.blinkx.com/video/1-8-lephet-thoke/mtRJFiaAK2AUVyj2Ub0zhA
La Phet Thote (Fermented Tea Salad) Recipe
Recipe Story 
The making of the pickled tea is abit complicated. In Myanmar, the steamed leaves are heaped together in a pulp mass and thrown into basket and left until the next day. The baskets are then put into pits in the ground and covered with heavy weights placed on top of each. Inspection is often made to see how fermentation is progressing and sometimes there is re-steaming . There are pickled tea leaves brands such as Pin Pyo Ywat Nu, Yuzana, A Yee Taung, etc.
There are also different sorts of la-phet. There’s one type of laphet called “shuu-shel” which is a descriptive word of the condition of your mouth when you eat that extra-spicy la-phet. Another type is chin-set, which means spicy and sour.
In this recipe, you gotta have some fermented (or pickled) tea leaves.Or just buy ready-made fermented tea leaves.
Ingredients
5 teaspoons laphet (fermented tea leaves) 2 teaspoons crispy fried garlic 2 teaspoons crispy fried yellow beans 2 teaspoons roasted peanuts 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds Extra Ingredients (add to your liking) – Chopped Tomato – Chopped Cabbage – Dried Prawns – Peeled Garlic – Green chili Dressing: 1/2 teaspoon limejuice 3 teaspoons peanut oil
How to make La Phet Thote (Fermented Tea Salad)
Put in crispy fried garlic, crispy fried yellow beans, roasted peanuts and sesame seeds in the bowl. Mix them together. You can also add chopped tomato, chopped cabbage, dried prawns, peeled garlic and green chili as you like.
Put 1/2 teaspoon of limejuice, and some soysauce to your liking.
(Another way)
Some people don’t like mixed laphet thote. So what you can do is put crispy fried garlic, fried yellow beans, roasted peanuts and salad separately in a flat dish. Mix laphet and oil together (adding lime juice and salt as seasoning) and put them in the plate. The eater can take a little bit of each with his spoon and leave out the parts that he doesn’t like.
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Goodies First: Queens
Lephet Thoke. The tea leaf salad truly is a strange combo, hot, sour and crunchy all at once. It seemed to contain sesame seeds, sliced green chiles, …
www.goodiesfirst.com/queens/index.html
Burmese Cafe
My only experience with Burmese food includes two non-recent visits to Rangoon in Philadelphia and a late ’90s undocumented delivery meal from Village Mingala in the East Village (strangely, Village Mingala is quite possibly the first restaurant I ever set foot in in NYC. I first visited in ’94 and accompanied a friend to pick up a take out order for the artsy bisexual Indonesian girl who was letting us stay at her 11th St. and Ave. C walk-up). I recall things like night market noodles and thousand layer bread, rich dishes that hinted at India. Burmese Café is nothing like that.Part of me doesn’t want to admit that their food wasn’t immediately accessible. Some cuisines jump out while others don’t. I find Thai and Sichuan food grabs my attention without even trying, and not just because of the spice. Also heat-driven and good-oily, Malaysian and Indonesian fall right behind. Burmese feels like it’s in the realm of Laotian or Cambodian, lesser known and kind of raw and sharp. Though I don’t think Myanmar shares much in common with the Philippines, the vinegary, bitter, pungent qualities I tasted in the dishes we ordered felt vaguely Filipino. The style could grow on me but I have to get to know it better.
Lephet Thoke
The tea leaf salad truly is a strange combo, hot, sour and crunchy all at once. It seemed to contain sesame seeds, sliced green chiles, bean sprouts, dried broad beans, peanuts, dried shrimp and tomato slices. James, who’s fairly open-minded food-wise said, “I hope it tastes better than it looks.” It did look a little swampy. Let’s just say I had plenty of leftovers for lunch the next day (it’s better fresh because after a few hours the crunch turns to mush). I was thinking the leaves would be dry like you’d find in a teabag but they’re wet and fermented, very much like grape leaves for dolmas. I don’t recall it being described as using green tea leaves, but that’s the case.