Shamey Gongthuk: Recipe for Veggie Egg Noodles

Recently, we took a YoWangdu community survey that showed a strong interest in Tibetan-style vegetarian food. (Our friend Dan Haig from Tibet Online teased us about this, knowing how much Tibetans traditionally love their meats 🙂 We love vegetarian Tibetan dishes too, so Lobsang experimented with a new Tibetan fusion veggie dish, Shamey Gongthuk, “no meat” egg noodles. The hearty hand-made egg noodles are Lobsang’s first try at the beloved noodles he remembers watching his uncle make in Tibet.  Enjoy, and let us know how you like it 🙂

For 4 people

*For a vegan version, use the instructions for making the (eggless) dough from our thenthuk recipe.

Ingredients

For Dough

• 2 eggs
• 2 cups of all-purpose flour

By putting egg in the dough, your noodles won’t absorb moisture as much, and get soggy as leftovers.

Other Ingredients

• 1/2 small onion (we used red)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons ginger, minced
• 1 large tomato, chopped
• 5 ounces English peas (we used raw, fresh peas)
• 6 medium or large Shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• 2 cups of celery, diced
• 5 ounces super-firm tofu, chopped
• 2 stalks green onions
• 2 tablespoons cilantro, minced
• 1 heaping teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce (we use a low-sodium version)
• 1/8 teaspoon very well ground emma (also called yerma or Szechuan pepper) About 10 peppercorns.
• 6 tablespoons cooking oil (we are using avocado oil these days)

[CookingMiddle]

Prepare the Dough for the Egg Noodles

• Mix your eggs and flour together very well. If your dough seems too runny, you can add more flour, perhaps 1/4 cup more.
• Shape to form a smooth ball
• Roll the dough out very thin (3/8 of an inch or even a bit thinner) on a flat surface with a rolling pin
• Cut the dough into long thin strips, about 3/4 of an inch wide
• Like you would for thenthuk, gently pull the strips to lengthen and thin the dough. (If you need to see how this works, see our thenthuk recipe and video.)
• Pick up one strip and pull off pieces of dough that are each 1 and 1/2 to 2 inches long. You can pile these up on your flat surface or put in a bowl.

• Add a teaspoon of salt to a large pot of boiling water
• Add all the dough pieces to the boiling water and stir gently to separate them
• Cook for 5 minutes then remove from heat and drain the water
• Add a little bit of oil to your noodles to keep them separated (like 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of oil)

Cook the Vegetables

• You can start this while your noodles are cooking
• Heat 6 tablespoons cooking oil on high heat in a largish frying pan or wok suitable for stir-frying
• When the oil is hot, add onions and stir fry constantly
• After one minute or so, stir in your chopped tofu, and continue to stir fry
• After about 3 minutes, stir in your ginger and garlic
• After one more minute of stir frying, add the sliced mushrooms, diced celery and chopped tomatoes. Stir well and cover your pan.
• Note all of this is happening still at high or medium high heat.
• After 7-8 minutes, add your soy sauce plus a pinch of salt and the emma. Stir the dish and re-cover.
• Once the lid is on again, turn the heat down to medium or medium low, and cook for about 20 minutes to infuse flavor in the veggies.
• After 20 minutes, add your English peas. Increase the heat back to high and stir to mix well
• After 3 more minutes, stir your noodles into the pan, mixing all the ingredients well.
• Stir fry just long enough to heat the noodles through, 2 or 3 minutes.
• Turn the heat off, and add your green onions and cilantro.
• Give it all a quick stir and you’re ready to serve!