Burmese Garlic Noodles with Pork - Hsee Chet Khawk Swe

Stir-Fried Burmese Garlic Noodles with Pork

Hsee Chet Khauk Swe in the Bowl

Hsee Chet refers to the garlic oil which is used to stir-fry and garnish this dish. Pancetta is a fatty bacon that the Italians use in pasta. Like fish sauce, oyster sauce and bacon, pancetta is highly salted, so please taste the noodles before adding any salt.

Laab Gai - Thai Chicken Salad

1st Try

2nd Try

The picture on the left is my first attempt at making a Thai chicken salad and it turned out to be really easy to make and delicious! The sliced shallots are not visible in the salad because I served them on the side in deference to those of my guests who do not like onions in the raw.

On the right is my second attempt at making this salad and is garnished with sliced shallots.

The left-over salad was combined with a package of mung bean noodles (kya zan or glass noodles) that were soaked in hot water for ten minutes. This naturally neutralized the seasonings so the juice of one lime, 2 tablespoons of fish sauce and salt were added. It was delicious and made for a great lunch! 

Vegetable Medley in Spiced Coconut Sauce

Clockwise from left to right:
Oriental Eggplant
Cauliflower
Peas
Mushrooms
Sweet Potatoes

This vegetable dish is really easy to make because everything is simply stewed in the peppery coconut sauce. Any combination of vegetables can be used. This is a gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian dish.

Tuna and Chickpeas Hash

The inspiration for this recipe came from my brother during one of our telephone conversations.  I plan to try his sometime soon, but here is what I came up with. The packaged tuna fish can be replaced with any fish fillets that have been poached and flaked. Generally, a hash is made with potatoes but in an attempt to reduce the carbohydrate content, the chickpeas (garbanzo beans) came in handy. Diced water chestnuts in this hash gives it an interesting crunch.  

Khichuri - Rice, Lentils & Vegetable Stew

Yesterday we had 96°F temperatures and today it was down to 69°F. Looks like Fall is on its way, so I decided to make Khichuri for dinner. 

Khichuri, a Bengali one-pot-meal once considered comfort food for the poor, is now a delicacy served during the Monsoon or rainy season when the weather turns considerably cooler. Core ingredients are rice and lentils but vegetables, eggs, poultry or meat are added according to taste. 

For added interest, a cup of coconut milk was added towards the end which imparted an Asian flair to this dish.

Panthey Khauk Swe - Egg Noodles in Rich Chicken Curry Sauce

This noodle dish is a simplified version of Ohno Khauk Swe, more suitable for small groups of people, and influenced by the Indo-Chinese Muslim population in Burma. The chicken curry recipe provided below may be replaced by left-over Chicken Sipyan to which a cup of coconut milk is added and the gravy reduced by half. If you choose to do that, ignore Chicken Curry ingredients and skip to step 8 of Directions.