Rice Noodles and Asparagus in Spicy Black Bean Sauce

Rice Noodles and Asparagus
In Spicy Black Bean Sauce

It feels like the world is slowly waking up from this pandemic that has gripped our lives for the last two months. Supermarkets are still displaying sparsely stocked shelves except in the vegetable and fruit departments.

Asparagus
In Spicy Black Bean Sauce

When asparagus is available, it's best to cook them as soon as they arrive home or they lose their flavour and texture in a hurry. An easy and tasty way to have asparagus is to use south-east Asian flavours and here's what I did.

Thursdate Meatball Stroganoff

Meatball Stroganoff

Thursdays are Grand-boy's day, nicknamed Thursdate in our home. One of our three grandsons is picked up at 4 pm., has dinner and spends the evening with us and gets dropped home at 8 pm. It's our favourite day of the week and the grand-boys enjoy it even more. The dilemma for me is to come up with a kid-friendly dinner such as spaghetti & meatballs, fajitas, taco salad, et al.

This meatball stroganoff was popular when our own boys were growing up and it was delegated to hubby to make the meatballs from scratch. The aroma of garlicky mushrooms and browning meatballs simmering in mushroom soup and sour cream would cause neighbours to drop by for a taste test. But that was many moons ago and became a distant memory until today. 

I hope Grand-Boy #2 likes it as much as I do.

Chicken & Broccoli Lo Mein

Chicken & Broccoli Lo Mein

Any noodle dish, whether in the form of a soup or stir-fried is so comforting, especially during these cold winters. Today we had a lo mein with chicken & broccoli that was drenched in a garlic-soy sauce which was poured over and tossed with a package of Ajinomoto Vegetable Chow Mein. Delicious!

If you're making your own there's no need to add sauce to your noodles. Use this sauce instead.

Laksa Soup with Minced Chicken Stir-Fried With Hoisin Sauce

Chicken Laksa Soup & Fresh Spring Rolls

My last post described how I made the fresh spring rolls. The two bowls of chicken laksa soup, pictured above, were made with ramen noodles the same way as Shrimp Laksa Noodle Soup. This tasted better than my Ohno Khaukswe, according to my husband. 

You can swap out the shrimp for chicken & shrimp dumplings with julienned Malabar spinach.

Singapore Vermicelli Noodles

Singapore Vermicelli Noodles

This is one of my favourite dishes to order in a Chinese restaurant. It's usually made with very thin rice noodles (Mei Fun) but I decided to use toasted, golden-brown vermicelli (Sevai/Semiya) instead.

Toasted Vermicelli

Toasted vermicelli is available at Indian markets and I like using the toasted variety to save having to toast it at home. The untoasted variety tends to turn to mush when cooked in water.

 The main ingredient in Singapore noodles is curry powder & I prefer S&B brand because it is high in taste, flavour and aroma, but low in spicy heat. To beat the overpowering raw taste of curry powder, it's a good idea to boil it in chicken broth or water and to soak the vermicelli in this liquid. That way, the taste of the curry powder permeates throughout the pasta.

This is a one-dish meal that can be made in under 15 minutes and is a great lunch idea.

Ingredients:

1 cup toasted vermicelli

8 oz. cooked shelled shrimp, shredded chicken or tofu for vegetarians

2 cups chicken/vegetable broth or water

1 heaping tsp. curry powder

4 Tbsp. vegetable oil

2 tsp. minced garlic

1 large onion, sliced

1 + 1 green chilies, diced

multi-coloured sweet peppers, cut in half lengthwise and sliced

1 carrot, julienned

1 beefsteak tomato, diced
1 cup mung bean sprouts, tails removed

Directions:

1. Simmer curry powder in broth for 3 minutes and remove from heat.
2. Soak vermicelli in this liquid until water is absorbed doubles in volume. 
3. Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat and saute garlic and 1 green chili.
4. Add onions, peppers, carrots and tomatoes.
5. Toss with salt to taste and saute for 2-3 minutes.
6. Add vermicelli, along with soaking liquid, shrimp and adjust salt to taste.
7. Turn heat down to medium, stir, cover skillet and simmer until liquid evaporates and vermicelli is cooked.
8. Add bean sprouts and toss.
9. Garnish with remaining diced chilies and serve immediately.

Ohno Khauk Swe Made Easy

Coconut Chicken Soup

Lunch is Ready!

My bowl of Ohno Khauk Swe

I've made this meal many times and usually follow the recipe used by my family. You may notice that it's not a simple preparation, so this time I made several modifications to simplify the process. First of all, I planned ahead and did the shopping earlier in the week. Two nights before, after making sure that the ground chicken and chicken thighs had been refrigerated to thaw overnight, I made the onion-garlic-ginger-chili paste and refrigerated that also. The night before, I prepared the soup to which I made one time-saving change. Instead of roasting the half-cup of chickpea flour used to thicken the soup, I cooked half a cup of red lentils (masoor dal) in two cups of water and added it to the soup along with the coconut milk towards the end. This not only saved a whole lot of time, but also added a lovely flavour and creaminess to the soup. It also lightened the soup so it was not as rich as in the original recipe. On the day of the lunch, all I had to do was heat the soup, cook the noodles and prepare the garnishes. Using ready-made deep fried onions and garlic are further time-saving ways of simplifying the preparation of this meal.

Chicken Chow Mein

Mum used to make the most awesome stir-fried noodles! Here is my version that is dedicated to her memory.

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.

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.

Beefy Shanghai Noodles

Thursdays are GrandBoys' Day. Today Reid, GrandBoy #3, will be spending the evening with us and we'll be having these noodles, accompanied by chicken & vegetable dumplings. Well (huge sigh!), he wanted no part of it, so we went to The Friar's Kitchen & Bakery where he had Mac 'n Cheese!!!


Thin slices of beef tenderloin marinated in soy and hoisin sauces, stir-fried with green beans, soy beans, red pepper and water chestnuts & tossed with thick, fresh egg noodles.

Burmese Htamin Let Thoke - Rice & Noodle Hand-Mixed Salad

A rainbow salad of small quantities of left-overs
with rice, noodles, fish & tamarind sauces as
the main ingredients

Burmese Noodles with Cilantro Pesto - Khawkswe Thoke

Khawkswe Thoke

Khawkswe Thoke & Taster's Bowl
with Garnishes

This recipe is a modified version of one I made a while back. I cut down the cilantro from one bunch to half a bunch and added a couple of more ingredients to the garnishes. Look here for the original recipe.

Burmese Noodle Salad with Cilantro Dressing

Noodle Salad with Cilantro Dressing

Taster's Bowl (bottom right) garnished with
fried onions & garlic, roasted sesame seeds,
crushed cashews and a squeeze of lime

Fish Tofu

For another variation of this recipe, take a look at Burmese Noodles with Cilantro Pesto.

The cilantro dressing is reminiscent of pesto which is usually made with basil and pine nuts. This dressing uses cilantro and cashew nuts, along with other Burmese ingredients. The salad can be eaten at room temperature, cold or microwaved for 30 seconds, just enough to take the chill off. I added fish tofu (similar to fish cake) to add some protein to the dish.

Chicken Chow Mein & Crispy Rice Soup with Dumplings

This is a real "cheater's lunch". The Chow Mein is a mixture of frozen, pre-cooked & packaged vegetable Chow Mein from Sam's Club and left over Chicken & Vegetables cooked in a white sauce from our favourite Chinese take-out restaurant.  The soup is made from chicken broth, dumplings and crispy rice from the Vietnamese grocery store called Com Say Cha Bong, whose listed ingredients are crispy rice, dried shrimp floss, red chili flakes and deep fried onions. The dumplings are also available frozen from the Vietnamese store and are stuffed with shrimp.  Here's how I put together this speedy lunch for two.

Ingredients:

Chow Mein
1 pkg. Ajinomoto Vegetable Chow Mein (6 or 8 pkgs./box)
Left over Chinese Chicken & Vegetables in White Sauce

Dumpling & Crispy Rice Soup
2 cups Tyson or Campbell's chicken broth
1 cup water
8 frozen, pre-cooked shrimp dumplings
1/2 pkg. Com Say Cha Bong (from Vietnamese store)

Directions:

Chow Mein

1. Remove packaging from noodles, place noodles in a covered pan over medium heat and cook until thawed.
2. Stir in chicken & vegetables along with sauce and simmer until thoroughly combined and heated.
3. Divide between 2 noodle bowls.

Dumpling & Crispy Rice Soup

1. Bring broth and water to a boil in a saucepan.
2. Add frozen shrimp dumplings and cook until dumplings float to top.
3. Divide Com Say Cha Bong between 2 soup bowls.
4. Top each bowl with 4 shrimp dumplings and pour the broth over.
5. Enjoy the sound of the snap, crackle and pop of the crispy rice when the hot broth is poured on it.

Enjoy!

KHAWK-SWE KYAW & DUMPLING SOUP

Ingredients

Recipes I Must Try

Here is a list of recipes that I found on other blogs that I must try out in my kitchen.
Sources:

Blog Hop

• Archana's Kitchen
• The Chef and Her Kitchen
• Easy Cooking
• Gayathri's Cook Spot
• Love2 Cook Malaysia
• My Jhola
• My Mom's Recipes - by Anshu Bhatnagar
• My Singapore Kitchen
• Sanjeev Kapoor
• Tarla Dalal

Rice Dishes

1. Baby Potato Biryani
2. Cauliflower Biryani 
3. Chettinad Mushroom Biryani
4. Easy Fish Biryani
5. Malabar Coconut Rice
6. Masala Congee 

Appetizers

1. Sago Potato Rolls

Vegetable Dishes

1. Bean Sprouts with Tofu
2. Brinjal Theyal
3. Cabbage Carrot Thoran
4. Carrot Thoran
5. Cauliflower Thoran
6. Chayote Thoran - Chayote/Darjeeling Squash cooked with Thoran Mix.
7. Mixed Vegetable Thoran
8. Quick Cauliflower Sabzi
9. Spinach Thoran
10. Spinach Stir Fried with Garlic
11. Thoran Mix - a shredded unsweetened coconut mix used to cook vegetables and dal.
12. Winged Beans with Eggs
13. Winged Beans Thoran

Main Dishes

1. Chicken Fry
2. Dry Chicken Curry (Kethal Chicken)
3. Fish Curry
4. Fish Fry
5. Ground Chicken and Eggs
6. Hot and Spicy Chili Crab
7. Lentils (Toor Dal) with Mutton and Brinjal
8. Malai Kofta Curry
9. Mutton Curry
10. Mutton Fry
11. Paneer Malai Kofta
12. Pork in Coconut Milk - Slow Cooked
13. Prawn & Potato Fry
14. Puliya Mulaku Fish Curry
15. Singapore Style Pepper Chicken
16. South Indian Mutton Curry
17. Special Chili Chicken

Lentils

1. Easy Sambar
2. Lentils (Toor Dal) with Mutton and Brinjal

Sauces and Accompaniments

1. Coconut Chutney
2. Roasted Coconut Chutney 

Noodles

1. Egg Noodles
2. Rice Vermicelli - Singapore Bee Hoon
3. Vegetable Lasagna with Mushroom & Spinach

Desserts

1. Aam Doi - Baked Mango Flavoured Yogurt - Tried and truly delicious!
2. Black Glutinous Rice in Coconut Milk
3. Gulab Jamun - Pantua
4. Mango Burfi
5. Mango Fudge - Mango Burfi
6. Pati Shapta - Crepes with Coconut Filling
7. Shahi Tukda 

Khawkswe Thoke

Khawswe Thoke

There's always plenty left over from an Ohno Khawkswe feast.

Combine the leftover noodles, chicken soup and all the garnishes (except lime wedges, roasted red chili flakes, fried onion and garlic) into the saucepan in which the soup was made, and refrigerate overnight.  This allows the noodles to absorb the gravy and the garnishes flavor the entire dish beautifully.

Make a flavoured oil. Place a Tbsp. of roasted red chili flakes, fried onion and garlic in a glass jar and fill with heated vegetable oil. This chili, onion and garlic flavoured oil is perfect as a garnish for any Burmese thoke (salad) dishes.

To serve the Khawkswe Thoke, fill a serving bowl with the noodles and heat it in the microwave. Garnish with flavoured oil, more fried onions & garlic, and a generous squeeze of lime wedges.

Enjoy!

Ohno Khawkswe

Burmese Coconut Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken Soup 

The garnishes, clockwise from top left:
cilantro, green onions, hard boiled eggs, fried garlic,
fried onions, limes, red chili flakes.