Gu is nine and thuk is soup, so guthuk is nine soup, and the nine is not decorative. Odd numbers have been auspicious in Tibetan custom since before Buddhism arrived, and nine most of all, so nine ingredients go in. It is eaten on the evening of the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth Tibetan month, the eve of Losar, alongside the Gutor rites that drive the past year’s misfortunes out of the house. The base is thukpa bhatuk, the ordinary pinched-noodle soup people eat all winter, turned once a year into something else. Each person gets one oversized dough ball with an object hidden inside, read aloud as a comment on their character: chilli means you talk too much, anything white means the year ahead is good, charcoal means a black heart. What follows is the point of the whole evening. The last of the soup is poured over a dough figure called a lue, carried out of the house with the year’s bad luck in it, and nobody looks back.
INGREDIENTS
- 300 g plain flour
- 180 ml water
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 medium onion (chopped)
- 5 garlic cloves (chopped)
- 3 cm ginger (chopped)
- 1 large tomato (chopped)
- 2 celery sticks (chopped)
- 150 g mushrooms (sliced)
- 1 daikon radish (about 250g, cut into finger-length strips)
- 100 g peas
- 150 g spinach (roughly chopped)
- 1.5 litres light stock
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp salt
- nine small objects (each wrapped in baking paper)
METHOD
- Mix the flour, salt and water into a firm dough, knead for 5 minutes, then cover and rest for 30 minutes.
- Soak the daikon strips in cold salted water, swish them about, then drain and rinse several times. This takes out the bitterness and the strong radish smell.
- Set aside a quarter of the dough. Divide it into as many pieces as there are diners, flatten each one, press a wrapped object into the middle and seal it into a large ball. Keep these separate.
- Roll the remaining dough into ropes about as thick as your finger. Pinch off pieces the size of a thumbnail and press each one flat against your palm with your thumb so it curls. These are the bhatsa.
- Heat the oil in a large pot and cook the onion, garlic and ginger for 3 minutes. Add the tomato, celery and mushrooms and cook for another 3 minutes.
- Pour in the stock and the soy sauce, add the daikon, and bring to a rolling boil.
- Drop in the bhatsa a handful at a time, then add the large fortune balls. Boil for 6 to 8 minutes, until the noodles float and the dough balls are cooked through.
- Stir in the peas and spinach, season with the salt and cook for a final 2 minutes.
- Ladle out so that every person gets one fortune ball, and open them at the table.