Pennywort Salad

Click to Enlarge	Pennywort Salad Burma - Myin Khwar Thoute
	Serves Effort: Sched: DoAhead:	4 sal ** 1/2 hr Part		This is a very popular salad in Burma and Malaysia and often served in Burmese restaurants worldwide. Similar salads are made in Sri Lanka and southern India. I find it a very pleasant salad of interesting flavor and hardly more bitter than a salad of loose leaf lettuce.

4
2
2
1
3
1
1/4
1/2

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lg
oz
sm
oz
T
t
t

Pennywort leaf (1)
Lettuce leaf (2)
Shallots
Thai Chili
Coconut, fresh
Lime Juice
Salt
Palm Sugar

Separate PENNYWORT LEAVES from the stems. I'm too cheap to discard the stems so I make them into Pennywort Drink - not as pretty bright green as with leaves, but still good.
Cut stiff stem ends from LETTUCE LEAVES and roll up tightly from side to side packed full of Pennywort Leaves and then slice the rolls crosswise into thin threads.
Chop SHALLOTS fine and CHILI very fine.
Grate COCONUT fine.
Run the Palm Sugar to a powder in your spice grinder so it distributes evenly.
Mix everything together and serve. See Note-3.

NOTES:

Pennywort Leaves: To get 4 ounces you'll need to buy about a 1 pound bag of pennywort (rau-ma). For more information see my Pennywort Page.
Lettuce Leaves: I use green leaf (loose leaf) lettuce which has a flavor quite compatible with pennywort and helps bulk out the salad. You can roll much tighter from side to side than from the stem end up.
Serving: This salad is excellent served "as mixed", but some like it lightly cooked. Bring 1 T water and a dash of salt to a boil. Add a handful of salad, cook briefly stirring and serve. I find the slightly more bitter cooked version quite interesting too, but prefer the raw.
U.S. measure: t=teaspoon, T=Tablespoon, c=cup, qt=quart, oz=ounce, #=pound, cl=clove in=inch