Then means pull and thuk means noodle, and the name is a set of instructions. There is no rolling pin and no cutting board in this soup: a soft dough is rested until it will stretch, then torn into the boiling broth in rough flat pieces straight from the hand, which is why every bowl has noodles of slightly different thickness and why the edges hold the broth the way a cut noodle never does. It belongs to Amdo, the grassland country of northeastern Tibet, where it is a winter dinner and a nomad food, cooked fast because the broth is thin and the noodles need only minutes. Mutton or yak is the meat where there is meat, but monastic and refugee kitchens have made the vegetable version equally standard, and neither is a compromise on the other.
INGREDIENTS
- 250 g plain flour
- 130 ml water (room temperature)
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp vegetable oil (plus 2 tbsp for the broth)
- 250 g lamb shoulder (cut into thin strips)
- 1 medium onion (sliced)
- 3 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
- 3 cm ginger (finely chopped)
- 1 large tomato (roughly chopped)
- 1 carrot (cut into thin batons)
- 1.2 litres light stock or water
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 spring onions (sliced)
- a large handful of spinach
- a few coriander sprigs
METHOD
- Mix the flour, salt and water into a firm dough and knead for 5 minutes until smooth. Rub the teaspoon of oil over it, cover, and leave to rest for at least 20 minutes.
- Flatten the dough into a rectangle about 1cm thick, cut it into strips roughly 3cm wide, and oil them lightly so they do not stick. Cover and leave while you make the broth.
- Heat the 2 tbsp oil in a large pot and brown the lamb over a high heat for 3 minutes. Add the onion, garlic and ginger and cook for another 2 minutes.
- Add the tomato and carrot, cook for a minute, then pour in the stock and the soy sauce and bring to a rolling boil.
- Take a strip of dough, stretch it thin between both hands, and tear off pieces about the size of a large stamp straight into the boiling broth. Work quickly through all the strips.
- Boil for 4 minutes, until the noodles float and turn from matt to glossy. Stir in the spinach and spring onions, take the pot off the heat, scatter over the coriander and serve at once.