Htamin Laphet Thoke

 

Htamin Laphet Thoke

A cup of cooked long grain rice was mixed into Laphet Thoke for a sumptuous lunch. Tea Leaves Salad is a famous Burmese dish that is so easy to make. Once the ingredients are procured, all that is needed is for everything to be dumped into a bowl and mixed thoroughly by hand.

 Ingredients

Singapore Rice Noodles with Bacon

 

Singapore Rice Noodles
With Bacon

The use of curry powder in these noodles is what sets it apart from other noodle dishes. Apparently, in Singapore this dish is called Hong Kong Noodles and in Hong Kong it's called Singapore Noodles. Sort of like French Fries which cannot be found anywhere in France. When it's cooked properly, these noodles are to die for. Otherwise, if the curry powder tastes raw, they are horrible. I prefer to boil the curry powder in chicken stock before soaking rice noodles in the broth.

Singapore Noodles are most commonly made with shrimp and pork, but I used ground chicken and bacon. To make my life easier, I used fresh cole slaw mix which contains cabbage, carrots and other julienned vegetables. This dish can be prepared in under 30 minutes, is filling and very satisfying. 

Chili Chicken

 

Chili Chicken

This is a popular dish on Chinese menus at restaurants in India and Kolkata in particular. When I was pregnant, I craved Chinese food and couldn't get enough of it. Pickles and other tart condiments, which are a common craving for women who are pregnant, have never appealed to me. I must have been addicted to the Ajinomoto (a.k.a. MSG) used in Chinese cooking. Anyway, Chili Chicken had a special place on our order at Chinese restaurants. The more hot chilies there are in the dish, the better, so use as many as you and your family can handle.

Simple Bhapa Shorshe Maach or Steamed Fish in Mustard Sauce

 

Bhapa Shorshe Maach

The easiest way to prepare this dish is to use Colman's mustard powder instead of grinding mustard seeds that need to be soaked for a couple of hours. Any kind of fish can be used, but hilsa (ilish) and salmon steaks taste the best. The process is very simple. Fish pieces are combined with the mustard sauce and placed in a stainless steel tiffin box and steamed for 15 minutes. This dish is ideal for getting a meal on the table in under half an hour.

Shada or Pani Khola Maach - Fish Stew

Fish Stew

As you can surmise from this photograph, my kitchen caters to Jack Spratt and his wife. As the nursery rhyme goes,

Jack Spratt could eat no fat

And his wife could eat no lean.

And so betwixt the two of them

They kept the platter clean.

The man in this house is tall and lean and his wife, the opposite. She lives to eat and he eats to live. She loves 'bone-in everything' and he likes a no-fuss meal. That's why this fish stew is made with two cuts of fish. Nice, fatty fish steaks of Swai or Mekong catfish for the wife and fillets of Tilapia for Jack.

I didn't expect too much from such a simple recipe. There are only 5 ingredients to consider but requires killer prep. The most tedious part is to mash slivered onions, salt, green chilies and mustard oil until your hands ache and all the juices from the onions release. This takes a total of at least 15-20 minutes, so I do it in batches. I add salt to the onions and let them sit until they soften and then mash them. When my hands begin aching, I take a break, a sip of coffee, flex my fingers, relax a bit and go back to mashing the onions. In the end, all this effort pays off because not only is the stew light and refreshing, it's also easily digested which suits Jack Spratt to a Tee.

From all the recipes I've perused, this is generally made with hilsa or ilish maach, which I can only dream of because it's difficult to come by in North America. So I've adapted to my environment and learned to live with the scarcity of specialty fish. 

This is best served with steamed long-grain rice.

Faux Bubble and Squeak

Faux Bubble and Squeak

The traditional Bubble and Squeak is a British dish that is composed of cabbage and potatoes. The name is derived from the sounds that emanate while cooking this dish. The components are placed over medium-high heat until it bubbles vigorously, and then when the liquid evaporates, the vegetables squeak as if to say, 'I'm done! Take me off the heat!'

I came across this recipe with green beans on a Tik Tok video and because it's so easy, requiring minimal intervention, use it on occasions when a side dish is required to complement a meal. The first time I made it, the squeaky sound at the end caught my attention, so I call it Faux Bubble and Squeak because even though it's nothing like the original, the cooking sounds are the same. It takes only 3 ingredients, canned green beans, and a tablespoon each of oil and sugar.

Silken Tofu in Spicy Garlic Sauce

 

Silken Tofu in 
Spicy Garlic Sauce

I love the soft, velvety texture of silken tofu. This quick and easy tofu dish is nutritious and low in fat, and is boosted with protein with the addition of ground chicken. Every time we bring home ground chicken, I brown the chicken and freeze smaller portions so that it's ready to cook when I need it. Silken tofu absorbs the flavour of any sauce it's cooked in, much more easily that firm tofu. This tastes good with hot, steamed long-grain rice.

Spicy Garlic Green Beans

 

Spicy Garlic Green Beans

Spicy green beans, served in Chinese restaurants, is difficult to reproduce at home, so I came up with my own recipe. To retain crispness in the green beans, they are tossed with besan or chickpea flour and fried before stir-frying. If you prefer to use green beans without the besan, make sure the oil is very hot before frying them so that they remain crisp.

Burmese Chet Tha Hin - Chicken Curry

 

Burmese Chet Tha Hin

A package of supermarket chicken wings, already separated into flats and drumettes, quickly transformed into a comforting chicken curry. Ching's Singapore style noodles come with four little packages of curry powder. I used one of these curry powder packages in this chicken curry, but any brand of curry powder will work. It's a quick and easy dish to prepare and tastes wonderful.

Schezwan Noodles

 

Schezwan Noodles

A number of shortcuts were used in this recipe, but the Schezwan sauce was homemade, inspired by a YouTube video. In the video, dried red chilies were soaked in hot water, drained and then combined with a number of other ingredients and fried until the oil floated to the top. This looked like too much work so a substitution was made using red chili oil and Kashmiri mirch or hot paprika powder. 

Coleslaw mix is a huge bonus found in most supermarkets and consist of shredded red and green cabbage and carrots. This left me with little chopping to do and made the process go a lot faster.

Ohno Khawkswe and Kyaukyaw

Ohno Khawkswe

Memorial Day weekend this year brought warmer temperatures, but our nephew and niece from Florida wished they had brought their jackets with them. We celebrated the dawning of a new age, leaving behind the blight of Covid-19 shutdowns and related misery, with Burmese food for lunch. Even though our guests had not tried Burmese food before, they relished their steaming bowls of chicken and coconut noodle soup.

Noodles and Soup

We began by ladling noodles and soup into a bowl and then surveyed the host of garnishes that graced the table. 

With Garnishes

Working our way clockwise in the first picture, we had a choice of fresh lime cut in wedges, roasted and ground chili powder, minced cilantro or fresh coriander leaves, chopped boiled eggs, minced green onions, deep fried onions and deep fried garlic. Not shown in the picture were chili-garlic oil and roasted chickpea powder.

KyauKyaw for Dessert

For dessert we had KyauKyaw (chow-chaw), a cool and refreshing coconut jello that's made with agar-agar or seaweed gelatin.

Rice Noodles with Surimi in Black Bean and Garlic Sauce

Rice Noodles and Surimi

Rice noodles are comforting and filling and maybe because they're so thin, it seems healthy and okay to eat more of it. Singapore noodles are a favourite choice at Asian restaurants and that's made with rice noodles. It's easy to reconstitute these noodles at home, because all it takes is to blanch them in boiling hot water for 1 minute to soften. Drain noodles and place noodles in a saucepan, cover and set aside until ready to cook.

Surimi is also known as crab sticks or fake crab and is composed of different kinds of fish. I'm using surimi in place of shrimp because my husband has recently developed an allergy to shrimp.

Black bean sauce is quite salty so it may not be necessary to add any more salt.

Bhola's Alu Dom

 

Bhola's Alu Dum

A new item I haven't seen before at our Indian supermarket are packages of baby potatoes that are cooked, peeled and frozen. I've been dreaming of Bhola's alu dum we would gorge on in Darjeeling. Bhola had a food stall off the mall and his alu dum made a great after-school snack. They were delicious, bright red, piping hot, soft and spicy potatoes that made our eyes (and noses) water. 

I gathered all the red spices I could find in the spice cabinet but it needed a little something more so I added a teaspoon of sugar and 2 teaspoons of vinegar. With the help of a serrano chili, this alu dum came out tasting sweet, spicy and slightly sour. It will go well with hot steamed basmati rice or flat bread.

Tips

• Make sure to prick each baby potato all over so flavours can penetrate to the center of each potato.
• Onion paste will give more body to the gravy instead of minced onions. Cut an onion into four, blanch for 2 minutes and grind to a paste.

Mohinga - Burmese Fish Noodle Soup

Mohinga

Mohinga - the soup

Noodles and Garnishes

Boiled fresh rice noodles

Chopped green onions

Pae Kyaw - split pea fritters

Chili flakes

Sliced hard-boiled eggs

Sliced onions

Minced cilantro

Noodles and Soup

Noodles, Soup and Garnishes

Chicken and Chayote Squash in Black Bean Sauce

 

Chicken and Squash
in Black Bean Sauce

Any kind of meat, fish or seafood tastes wonderful cooked in black bean sauce. Lee Kum Kee sauces are available at any Asian market and are of excellent quality.

Chayote Squash is found in abundance at the supermarkets nowadays and grows wild in Darjeeling where I spent my adolescence. It's a hardy vegetable that does not spoil in the fridge and is a favourite vegetable in our household. They're peeled and thinly sliced so they cook quickly.

Chayote Squash

Skinless and boneless chicken breasts are cut in bite-sized pieces and velveted which tenderizes the meat and keeps it looking a pristine white. Velveting simply means soaking in baking powder for 30 minutes then washing thoroughly to remove all traces of baking powder. The chicken is then marinated in oil, salt and corn starch for 10 minutes before tossing in hot oil just until the colour changes. 

This is a very easy recipe that is packed with flavour and goes well with hot, steamed rice.

Phoolkop'r Bhortha - Cauliflower Mash

 

Phoolkopi'r Bhortha

This is the Bengali way of making Bhortha (Bharta in Hindi) or mashed vegetable. Phoolkopi is cauliflower, so this is Mashed Cauliflower. As you know, cauliflower has little flavour of its own and takes on the flavour and aroma of herbs and spices that are added to it. The overriding element in this dish is mustard oil that is added to the cauliflower while it's still hot from steaming. The pungency of mustard oil is what sets our bhorthas apart from bhartas from other parts of India. Another distinction is the addition of salt to taste along with raw, minced onions, green chilies, cilantro or coriander leaves and tomatoes that are mashed into the vegetable. It's a simple dish to assemble and takes center stage at any meal.

The leaves and stems from the base of the cauliflower are removed and the whole head of cauliflower is placed in a pressure cooker with 1/8 cup of vegetable broth or water and 2 tablespoons of oil. Salt is sprinkled over the cauliflower, the cover is put on, its brought to full pressure over high heat and then pressure cooked for 15 minutes over low heat after full pressure builds up. After removing from heat, always allow pressure to release naturally, for about ten minutes, before messing with the cover to prevent steam from burning your hands.

Use a masher like a 'daler kata' or lentils masher to mash the cauliflower and add all the aromatics before mixing it all together to make the bhortha. This bhortha  goes well with hot, steamed rice and is usually served as a first course or starter of a Bengali meal.

Won Ton Noodle Soup

 

Won Ton Noodle Soup

Sometimes, all it takes is a very simple soup to satisfy midnight or any-time-of-day cravings. For this reason, the freezer is always stocked with Korean mandu or  dumplings that are available all over town. Baby bok choy freezes well, so the leaves are separated, washed, dried and packaged in Ziploc bags for the freezer. Fresh Pad Thai noodles, available at Asian markets, are also a staple item stored in the fridge. 

This soup uses only 4 ingredients, not counting the seasonings, and takes no more than 10 minutes to assemble.

Khayan Thee Sipyan - Burmese Eggplant Curry

 

Khayan Thee Sipyan

Long cuts of eggplant combined with crab sauce, are simmered to a delectable softness nestled in a piquant gravy of sweet, sour and umami aromas and taste. If crab paste is not available, shrimp powder can be substituted.

Serve with hot, steamed rice, as a side dish. 

Stuffed Crepes

Stuffed Crepes

These stuffed crepes are also called Moghlai Parathas in India. 

Scrambled Eggs

To enrich this snack, ground meat could be cooked along with the scrambled eggs and crepes made larger to accommodate the bulkier filling.

Crepes

The inspiration video I followed had a simple recipe for making crepes, but do modify the amount of liquid to make a fairly runny batter so that the batter can spread to a desirable size.

Fish Pulao

 

Fish Pulao

This is a simple and satisfying one pot meal of buttery rice and fresh fish. I used a combination of basa steaks and filleted tilapia to cater to my preference for bone-in fish and Hubby's preference for hassle-free filleted fish. Large discs of russet potatoes provide texture and wholesomeness to the dish.

This main dish uses a few, simple ingredients and comes together with little effort to produce a flavourful dish that goes well with fresh salad or raita.

Served with fresh
Tomatoes and Onions