Tibet has very little sweet food and what it has is made of cheese, which gives even the desserts a savoury undertow. Thue is the clearest case: hard dried cheese ground fine, worked by hand with brown sugar and a great deal of unsalted butter into a crumbly dough, then pressed into a thuedrom, a wooden frame about the size of a small brick. Nothing is cooked. The finished block is decorated with butter carved while cold into a sun, a moon, or the yungdrung, and it goes onto the Losar shrine as much as onto the table, appearing again at weddings and at Shoton, the yoghurt festival. People cut pieces straight off the brick, though the common way to eat it is to work a little into tsampa with tea to make pa. It is a dessert built entirely from what a herding household already has.
INGREDIENTS
- 200 g dried chhurpi or Parmesan (ground or grated as finely as possible)
- 150 g unsalted butter (softened but not melted)
- 120 g dark muscovado sugar
- 50 g walnuts (finely chopped (optional))
- extra butter (chilled, for decorating)
METHOD
- Grind the dried chhurpi to a fine powder in a food processor, or grate the Parmesan on the finest side of a grater. Sift out any coarse pieces.
- Beat the softened butter in a large bowl until pale and creamy.
- Work in the muscovado sugar until no lumps remain.
- Add the ground cheese a handful at a time, working it in with your hands until you have a smooth, slightly crumbly dough that holds together when pressed.
- Fold in the walnuts if using.
- Line a small rectangular tin or a loaf tin with baking paper and press the mixture in firmly and evenly, levelling the top.
- Chill for an hour until firm.
- Turn out, and decorate the top with shapes cut from chilled butter, a sun and a moon being the usual pair.
- Cut into small squares to serve, with butter tea. It keeps a week in the fridge.