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.

Panch Mishali Tarkari - 5 Vegetable Medley

Panch Mishali Tarkari

Panch means five, Mishali means mixed or medley and Tarkari means curry. This vegetable medley comprises spinach, sweet potato, potato, chayote squash and green peas. Any combination of vegetables can be used and it's a great way to use up scraps of leftover vegetables hiding in the crisper.

Firm vegetables that take longer to cook are stir-fried first until almost cooked, followed by the more delicate vegetables, to keep the latter from turning to mush.

Sambar - Tangy Yellow Split Peas Cooked with Vegetables

Sambar

Sambar is a South-Indian dish of lentils & vegetables that is usually fiery & spicy and I love it. Hubby, however, can't tolerate spicy food so when I cook this at home it is much milder with the spices toned down several notches, which is why I refer to it as Bengali or simple sambar. This dish is generally made with toor dal or yellow split pigeon peas, and any vegetables you have on hand.

Bori Diye Doodh Lau - Bottle Gourd/Chayote Squash Simmered in Milk

Bori Diye Doodh Lau

Doodh Lau (Milk Bottle-Gourd) is a simple way of cooking squash which is suitable for people suffering from stomach ailments. This dish uses no spices and the seeds from the peppers can be removed, if need be. Bottle-gourd is widely available in most parts of India whereas chayote squash is found in the hilly regions, namely Darjeeling, which is nestled in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains.

Chayote Squash

Lau or Bottle Gourd

Chayote squash, sourced from Mexico (I think), is more readily available in North America and can be found in supermarkets across the US. Lau or bottle-gourd can only be found in the Indian markets and some Asian markets where I live. Both chayote squash and lau have no taste of their own and absorb the taste of the gravy in which they are cooked. Lau tends to break down more easily than chayote squash and reduces to practically nothing because of its high water content. I use chayote squash interchangeably with lau and have cooked it in all the ways that I've seen lau being cooked, most notably with shrimp, in a mustard sauce and in milk and bori.

Sona Mung Bori

Bori are lentil dumplings that are spiced heavily in North India, but more delicately in West Bengal. Made from mung beans, Bengali bori are small and round with a pointed crest. They are dry and hard because they are traditionally formed by hand and dried in the sun. I like to fry them to a golden brown and soak them in boiling hot water and left to soak until ready to use. I drain the bori and save the water for flavouring the lau or chayote squash. 

Plain milk can be used to make the gravy for doodh-lau, but I prefer to use the shelf-stable variety called evaporated milk, from which 60% of water has been removed from fresh milk. It differs from sweetened condensed milk which contains added sugar.

Squash Simmered in Milk

Lau Chingri - Bottle Gourd/Chayote Squash with Shrimp

Lau Chingri

This is a Bengali recipe that traditionally uses bottle gourd, which I often replace with chayote squash because it's more readily available. Zucchini also works well in this recipe.

Bottle Gourd with Fish Heads - Lau'er Muro Ghonto

Lau'er Muro Ghonto

A friend of Hubby's enjoys fishing and brought me some of his catch. We got into a discussion of how the fish he catches is cleaned. He catches salmon and trout that are pretty big in size. Fish is my protein of choice and he was quite surprised to hear that the head is the most tasty part of the fish. He throws the heads away, so I begged him to save a couple for me the next time he went fishing.

Today he dropped by with six big heads. So I'm all set for the next month. Can't believe I don't have to go to the Asian store and pay for my next fish head. These heads are so fresh which I could tell by the bright red color of the gills. It took me a fair amount of time to clean the heads, discarding the mouth, fins and gills.

Fish head or muro in Bengali is prepared with a number of different vegetables, such as spinach, potatoes, eggplant, cabbage and even in pilaf with cauliflower. Bottle gourd (chayote squash is a good substitute) also pairs well with them, so I spent this afternoon making Lau'er Muro Ghonto. Regardless of how big the squash is, it amounts to practically nothing once it's cooked and releases its juices, so use 2 bottle gourds or 5 chayote squash, if necessary.

Enjoy!

Lau Shukto - Bottle Gourd in Mustard and White Poppy Seed Sauce

Lau Shukto

I love kitchen gadgets and finally broke down and bought a julienne-peeler. It's so easy to use and made short work of peeling and julienning 3 chayote squash.

On the menu for dinner was jumbo prawns steamed in mustard (sorshe) sauce. The ground mustard is strained for this dish, but I don't feel good about discarding the pulp, so I used it for making this lau shukto. Even though I didn't use bottle gourd (lau), chayote squash tastes just like it. The former is not available in the supermarkets and requires a special trip to an Asian or Indian market, so I often substitute chayote squash for bottle gourd. Any Indian preparation that uses bottle gourd tastes just as good with this squash. Zucchini is another option that works well.

Both the mustard and white poppy seeds are ground with a green chili each and salt. The bitterness of the black mustard seeds is eliminated by soaking them in an equal quantity of salt and tap water for at least 2 hours or until the seeds turn red. They need to be rinsed thoroughly through several changes of water to get rid of the salt. I use a tea strainer to do this.

The white poppy seeds are soaked in boiling water and set aside to cool to room temperature. This softens the seeds and produces a smoother paste when blended.

This is a very quick and easy dish to prepare once the two sauces are blended. Using the julienne-peeler cut the squash in very even strips, so it took no time at all to cook.

Burmese Squash with Salad Shrimp

Chayote Squash with Shrimp

Chayote squash is practically tasteless and takes on the flavor of whatever it's cooked with. Shrimp goes really well with this squash, especially when it's cooked in the Burmese way with a hint of shrimp sauce or ngapi.

This dish reminds me of Mum who made this often with fresh shrimp. To speed up the cooking process, I pressure cooked this dish which cooked the squash in ten minutes. The shrimp was added at the tail-end of the cooking process to prevent over-cooking.

Burmese Squash with Dried Shrimp

Squash with Dried Shrimp

Chayote squash is practically tasteless and takes on the flavor of whatever it's cooked with. Shrimp goes really well with this squash and dried shrimp even better! 

This reminds me of Mum who made this often, but she used fresh shrimp. Dried whole shrimp has intense flavor but is chewy, so I microwaved the package of shrimp in a cup of water. To speed up the cooking process, I also pressure cooked this dish which softened the shrimp and cooked the squash in ten minutes.

Be careful with the salt because there's plenty of it in the dried shrimp.

Burmese Minced Pork with Chayote Squash

Burmese Minced Pork with Chayote Squash

Chayote Squash is called Gurkha Thee in Burmese, probably because they were introduced to the Burmese people by Gurkha soldiers.

This squash acts as a tenderizer for all kinds of meat and is a popular vegetable that grows profusely in the higher altitudes of the Himalayan mountains. The Nepalese call it Eskuus or Darjeeling Squash. We grew up eating this squash which was usually cooked with meat. 

I'd forgotten about it until a friend from Texas showed me around her vegetable patch. She had it growing in the ground but suggested growing it in a container because it spreads out of control. Apparently, a green thumb is not necessary to grow chayote squash. All one has to do is bury the whole fruit in a container of soil and water on a regular basis. Each plant produces several squash and the tender greens are delicious in their own right. 

Serve this as a main dish with steamed rice as part of your Burmese meal.

Ingredients:

1 lb. minced pork, marinated for 30 minutes in

   2 Tbsp. fish sauce

   1/4 tsp. turmeric powder

4 Tbsp. vegetable oil

5 chayote squash, peeled & cut in strips

2 onions, peeled & diced

2 medium tomatoes, diced

1/4 tsp. ground white pepper

1 tsp. Kashmiri mirch/chili powder

2 green chillies, diced

3 stalks green onions, chopped

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

Directions:

1. Heat oil over medium-high heat and brown pork, along with diced onions.
2. Add remaining ingredients except green onions and cilantro.
3. Stir-fry on high heat until squash is tender.
4. Adjust salt to taste & garnish with green onions & cilantro.

Serve with steamed Basmati or other long-grain rice.

Lau Chingri II - Squash Cooked with Ginger and Shrimp

Lau Chingri

This is a Bengali recipe that traditionally uses bottle gourd, which I often replace with chayote squash because it's more readily available. Zucchini also works well in this recipe.

Roasted Split Mung Beans with Chayote Squash

Bhaja Mooger Dal Squash Diye

Toasting split, yellow mung beans just until golden brown in a dry skillet gives these lentils a deep & rich flavour. It takes about the same amount of time for the julienned chayote squash and lentils to cook. The ghee can be omitted to make this a vegan dish.

Gurkha Thee Pajun Chet

Squash with Shrimp

This uses the same recipe as KHAYUN THEE NGA CHAUK CHET but replaced eggplant with bottle gourd or gurkha thee (chayote squash).  

Stir-Fried Chayote Squash & Chickpeas

This recipe was inspired by one on Facebook with a few modifications. The original recipe used green papaya and kala chana. Neither are available readily, so I used chayote squash and chickpeas/garbanzo beans. It's a very simple stir-fry using very few ingredients and is quick and easy to make.

Bottle Gourd with Shrimp in Mustard Sauce

Lau Chingri Shorshe Bata

Lau Chingri is a favorite dish in our household. It is traditionally made with bottle gourd, but I prefer using chayote squash because it is more readily available and to me, they taste the same. To try something a little different, I added mustard paste and it tasted wonderful!

Tilapia & Spinach in Ginger Sauce

Bengali Fish Florentine

This should be called Bengali Fish Florentine and is adapted from a recipe on Facebook. Mustard oil has become a staple in my kitchen only recently and now I cannot cook meat or fish without it. It is the preferred cooking medium in the state of Bengal in India. The flavour of mustard is further enhanced with the use of Coleman’s mustard powder, added at the end of the cooking process.

Burmese Stir-Fried Chayote Squash with Anchovies

BU THEE NGA CHAUK CHET

This uses the same recipe as KHAYUN THEE NGA CHAUK CHET but replaced eggplant with bottle gourd or gurkha thee (chayote squash). 

Lau Chingri - Bottle Gourd/Chayote Squash with Shrimp & Potatoes

Lau Chingri

This is a Bengali recipe that traditionally uses bottle gourd, which I often replace with chayote squash because it's more readily available. Zucchini also works well in this recipe.

Lau Chingri Posto - Bottle Gourd/Chayote Squash & Shrimp in White Poppy Seed Sauce

This is a traditional Bengali recipe that I have tweaked by adding the white poppy seed sauce and replacing bottle gourd with chayote squash. 

Ground Chicken Stew with Chayote Squash

A one-pot meal/stew of
ground chicken & chayote squash

This one-pot meal is quite typical of the way the Burmese people make stew. All the ingredients are dumped into a skillet and simmered until the oil resurfaces and chicken & vegetables are cooked.