Burmese Tohu

Chickpea Tofu

A weekly challenge on a food group in Facebook with a main ingredient of chickpea flour or besan (sounds like baisin) as it is known in Hindi, prompted me to try this for the first time. There were certain foods in Rangoon, Burma that were best left to the experts, the street vendors, with the result that they were rarely, if ever, made at home. Ohno Khaukswe, Mohinga and Tohu were among these. After leaving Burma, all we were left with were memories of these delicasies but now, thanks to all the foodies on the Internet, our shadowy memories are coming to life in our own kitchens.

After chilling in the refrigerator, the tohu develops a firm and creamy texture. This recipe yields 2 lbs. of tohu and can be used as a garnish for Mohinga and as the main ingredient in various salads. 

Baked Tandoori Chicken with Mayonnaise

This dinner took exactly half an hour to put on the table. The boneless, skinless chicken thighs were very tender, the onions crystallized and the potatoes fork tender because the dish was baked at a high temperature.

Shrimp & Peas Pilaf

For a first attempt, this dish turned out to be a hit! I usually make a Chicken Biryani when company dines, but we needed a break from that. We're fortunate that shell-on shrimp (26-30 count/lb.) are available already cleaned of their digestive tracts.

Bijoya Lunch - October 12, 2013

BIJOYA LUNCH
October 12, 2013

Cockwise from top left -
Shrimp Pulao
Cucumber Raita with Dill & Mint
Chana Dal Cooked in Coconut Milk
Yellow Alu (Potatoes)
Nahari Gosht
Pineapple Srikhand
Tomato Date Chutney
Palang Shaag (Spinach) with Potatoes & Peas

Friends of ours from London, Ontario spent Bijoya weekend with us. The Shrimp Pulao and Spinach were Baby Anil's favourite dishes. He is one year old.
This meal fed six adults and one baby.

 

Burmese Black Sticky Rice & Coconut Pudding

This pudding is pure comfort food for a cold, snowy or rainy day. A good friend of ours who lives in the neighbourhood walked over last evening and presented us with a generous amount of black rice. She must have read my mind because black rice is on my list of things to get from the Oriental grocery store. Black rice is called Kao Hnyin Baung in Burmese and, during my childhood, was sold by street vendors for breakfast in Rangoon. So it has a special place in my heart.

Black rice, according to the information on the package, was known as “Emperor’s Rice” in ancient China and was reserved exclusively for Chinese Royalty. Loaded with antioxidants, Vitamin E and fiber, it is delicious with a sweet and nutty taste which, combined with its rich, dark purple color, is a treat for the eyes and taste buds.

Pickled Eggs, Beetroots & Onion Salad

I love eggs cooked in any and all ways, and first came across a similar recipe to this in a foodie group on Facebook.  The pinkish-red hue on the surface of the peeled eggs deepen the longer they sit in the brine and absorb color from the beets. Adding onions is an adaptation to the original recipe and turned out to be a good idea because they add a crunchiness to the salad. The pungency of the onions is diminished and they actually are quite sweet and go well with the beets.  

To hard-boil eggs, place them in a saucepan and cover with water. Boil for 10 minutes, remove from heat, cover and set aside to cool. Drain the eggs and cover with cold water before peeling.  

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.

Eggplant & Shrimp in Mustard Sauce

Begun Chingri Shorshe Bata

Begun Chingri Shorshe Bata - Eggplants, shrimp and potatoes cooked in a coarse ground mustard sauce. It generally takes a while to prepare black mustard seeds for this dish. To remove the bitterness from black mustard seeds, they are generally soaked in salt-water overnight and then blended to a smooth paste. To save time, I decided to use Grey Poupon's Harvest Coarse Ground Mustard, which worked quite well.

Red Lentils with Cucumbers

Masoor Dal with Cucumbers

Mum's favourite way of preparing red lentils was with onions, tomatoes & garlic. She would sometimes add cucumbers to it, but always peeled them. As a shortcut, I decided to leave them unpeeled and was surprised at how good it tasted. The cucumbers retained their shapes, added a bite and weren't mushy at all.

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.

Burmese Eggplant Skin Cooked with Dried Anchovies

I concocted this dish one day when my husband brought home 4 huge eggplants from the market. I decided on 3 different preparations of eggplant, a salad, stir-fried eggplant & potatoes with lots of onions & tomatoes, and begun bhaja or pan-fried eggplant. In a hurry to get the cooking done, I thought the stir-fried dish would cook faster if I peeled the 2 eggplants, but I didn't want to throw the peels away and came up with this delicious dish. The peels were full of texture and so tasty when cooked with the anchovies.

Stir-Fried Spinach with Potatoes & Eggplant

Chicken Keema Mattar - Ground Chicken with Peas and Potatoes

There are so many ways to prepare keema curry, but this one is really delicious because of the addition of Shan Pulao/Biryani mix, which is available in Indian grocery stores throughout the United States & Canada.

Shukto - Bitter Melon with a Melange of Vegetables in Mustard & Poppy Seed Sauce

Ilish Maacher Jhaal - Hilsa Cooked in Mustard & White Poppy Seed Sauce

Ilish, or Hilsa as it is known in English, is a Bengali delicasy. 

The spawning habits of this fish reminds me of the salmon runs in Alaska. In the city where I live in Michigan, USA, Bangladeshi & South Indian grocery stores stock flash frozen Hilsa. In Bengal, India, this fish is always eaten fresh, never frozen. 

Hilsa is notorious for its bones, so it definitely is an acquired taste. My Father would soak this fish overnight, bones and all, in vinegar and salt and roast it the next day in the oven. The resulting aroma and melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness is something I will never forget. The vinegar works overnight to melt the bones, so every part of the fish is edible.

This preparation with a mustard/poppy seed sauce is the typical way this fish is cooked in the Bengali kitchen.

Homemade Ghee or Clarified Butter

8 oz. Ghee

Each little bottle of ghee that I buy from the local Indian grocery store lasts about a month because I use it only for garnishing. The 8 oz. bottle costs $5.00 or thereabouts which is not too bad a price. However, several friends have said they make their own ghee at home, so I thought I'd experiment with it since I had used up the last bottle and didn't want to waste time going to the store.

Chicken Pot Pie Casserole

Today being Thursday, is GrandBoy’s day. GrandBoy #2 who is 5 years old, will be visiting us and preparing something appealing for him is a big concern. I thought of individual chicken pot pies, but the thought of fiddling with puff pastry and individual bowls of stuff was pretty daunting. Here is the result of simplifying the entire process – a casserole of chicken pot pie ingredients topped with cracker crumbs.  Hope he likes it!

Burmese Roasted Eggplant Salad - Khayan Thee Pope Thoke

Burmese Begoon Pora

For all you eggplant lovers out there, here is a quick and easy hand-mixed salad, ideal for a hot summer day. It is perfect served as part of a Burmese meal with Basmati rice or as a starter with pita triangles.

Burmese Fried Peanuts - Myay Bae Kyaw

Myay Bae Kyaw
(Pronunciation: MmmYay Bare Jaw)

Here is a vegan/vegetarian snack that is very quick & easy to prepare and is always a hit with guests. We’re fortunate that deep fried onions & garlic are available at the local Oriental grocery store. I also used already roasted, unsalted peanuts, white sesame seeds & chili flakes so it took me just a couple of minutes to toss everything together in a bowl and serve.

Orange Cranberry Amish Friendship Bread

Orange Cranberry Bread

Each cup of starter batter makes 2 loaves of friendship bread. One loaf is wrapped and ready for presenting to the family across the street and the other loaf was shared with friends who dropped by for coffee & dessert this evening.