Laksa Khauk Swe - Coconut Chicken Noodle Soup

Clockwise from top left
Laksa Paste
 Ohno Khauk Swe in the Bowl
 and Garnishes

A member of our Burmese food group on Facebook posted the recipe for Singaporean Laksa and suggested we could use it to make Ohno Khauk Swe. So I tried it today and was pleasantly surprised how well it worked! This Burmese chicken noodle soup is usually a time-consuming process because of the curry paste that's made from scratch and stir-fried and simmered for close to an hour. Laksa paste saved a lot of time because it's already cooked and makes it a great option for entertaining unexpected guests.

Dimer Dhokar Dalna - Steamed Egg Cakes in Tomato & Onion Gravy

Dimer Dhokar Dalna

An interesting variation to Egg Curry, eggs beaten with turmeric powder, salt, minced onions, tomatoes and green chilies are steamed in the microwave oven and cooked in a tomato-based gravy.

Dhoka, which means fake or deceptive in Bengali, refers to the vegetarian substitute for meat served on auspicious occasions. Dhokar Dalna is generally made with lentil cakes in gravy. The lentil cake method is tedious and time-consuming requiring soaking the lentils overnight, blending them the next day and cooking the paste until all liquid evaporates, then cutting the cake in cubes and frying the cubes until browned. In the process, a lot of oil is used and a lot of effort expended. 

Dimer Dhoka is much simpler to make, although it would not be considered a vegetarian dish. It doesn't require as much preparation and uses a lot less oil.

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.

Panch Mishali Tarkari - 5 Vegetables in Coconut Cream

Panch Mishali Tarkari

Gather together all the vegetables you can find, including bits and pieces in the fridge, to compose this simple and satisfying stew. I used a sweet potato, an eggplant, pui shaak with data (malabar spinach), chayote squash and potatoes, but any five or more vegetables will do. After all, who's counting?

Coconut milk makes it extra special by imparting a creamy quality to the vegetables.

Toasted Mung Dal with Hilsa Head

Ilish Muro

Maacher muro or fish head adds an enormous amount of flavour, also known as umami, to anything to which it is added. Umami, in my opinion, is that robust taste that is tough to satisfy; it makes the epicure crave more of the same. Hilsa or Ilish heaps on the flavour manyfold. There are a myriad ways to prepare fish head and since I have so many of them in my freezer, I plan to serve them up in all the known ways. 

I have blogged about a few of these ways - Fish Head Pilaf, Squash with Fish Head and Bottle Gourd with Fish Heads. Toasted mung bean lentils serves as a creamy base for fish heads. The whole head is pan-fried to a golden brown crisp before immersing in the lentils to finish cooking.

Served with a steaming bowl of Basmati rice, I need nothing more than some peace and quiet so I can focus on removing the bones which is a huge part of enjoying this dish.

Pressure-Cooked Doi Ilish

Doi Ilish

It's not easy to get Ilish Maach, a.k.a hilsa, here unless there is a Bangladeshi market in the neighbourhood or at least within driving distance. I was so happy when Alladin opened up around the corner in a strip mall. First of all, they are my source for Balachaung-in-a box, better balachaung than I can make at home. A couple of days ago, I went there to replenish my stock of balachaung and casually inquired if they had Ilish Maach. I've watched a few videos on pressure cooking ilish that causes the bones to soften sufficiently that scaredy cats can enjoy this lovely fish.

The videos make it look pretty simple - all that's required is a pressure cooker and the ingredients for Doi Maach or fish cooked in yogurt gravy. The store owner was a friendly soul from Chittagong who was happy to clean and cut the ilish I picked out. 

Ilish (the closest to an American fish is Shad) is a fatty fish that's rich in Omega 3 fatty acids. It's taste and aroma when cooked is quite spectacular. I decided to follow the instructions in the video so what we had was Doi Ilish or ilish in yogurt gravy.

Cooking the fish for 1.5 hours under pressure was pretty daunting, but there was no reason to worry because there was plenty of gravy left and it didn't stick to the bottom of the pressure cooker. The secret? To use lots of sliced onions as the first layer and to bring it up to pressure and reduce the heat to its lowest setting then forgetting about it for 1.5 hours. 

The videos recommended simmering off the excess gravy for another half an hour after removing the cooker cover, but there was no need to do that because the amount of gravy was perfect! The dish tasted awesome and the best part of this experiment was to watch the hubster/DH eat a whole piece of fish. The bones really did soften, reminiscent of sardines or salmon in the can. 

Poila Boishak 2018 - Bengali New Year 2018

Poila Boishak 2018

Clockwise from top left

Reshmi Chicken Wings

Bhaja Mug-er Dal e Phool Kopi

Dim-er Dalna

Begun Alu Posto

Bhaja Mug-er Dal e Phool Kopi - Toasted Split Mung Beans with Cauliflower

Toasted Mung Beans with Cauliflower

This lentil dish is a great side dish to add to any festive meal.  Split mung beans are toasted to a golden brown, washed and cooked until soft then combined with stir-fried cauli-florets, ginger paste and garam masala powder. A pinch of sugar and salt to taste season the lentils. It's finally garnished with cilantro, green chilies and of course, ghee.

Dim-er Dalna - Egg Curry

Dim-er Dalna

Eggs in any shape or form are easy to prepare for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Hard boiled eggs and boiled baby potatoes in an onion and tomato sauce are an egg-cellent choice for a dinner entree because they go so well with steamed rice.

The sauce is easy to prepare too, because all it requires is for the onions and garlic to be blanched in boiling water and blended with tomatoes, a green chili and ginger, then stir-fried with spices and the potatoes and combined with the eggs. 

Begun Alu Posto - Eggplant & Potatoes in White Poppy Seed Sauce

Begun Alu Posto

Alu Posto is a favourite Bengali preparation and adding eggplants to it makes it creamier and more delicious. Japanese eggplants are practically seedless which makes it a good choice in this dish.

White poppy seeds, soaked in boiling water and ground with salt until thick and creamy is best served for lunch because it induces a restful afternoon nap. I love posto stir-fried with any vegetable. Add shrimp to it for boosted flavour and call it a main dish.

Surimi in Black Bean Sauce

Surimi in Black Bean Sauce

"Surimi seafood, often called “Imitation Crab”, is real seafood made with Wild Alaska Pollock, a mild whitefish related to cod, which is flavored with crab or lobster. To make surimi seafood, Wild Alaska Pollock is finely minced and then blended with other ingredients such as starch, salt, natural crab meat, and egg white. It is then formed, cooked and cut into the various shapes and styles you find at your local grocery store." This description was taken from the Louis Kemp website.

Louis Kemp Crab Delights

I like to have a package of crab delights on hand for busy days when we're too tired to dress up to go out for dinner. My sister-in-law who is a whiz in the kitchen shared a version of this recipe with me, but it was so long ago that the details have become fuzzy. From what I remember, she made it in the microwave oven and it was ready to eat in under 15 minutes.

Lee Kum Kee Chili Black Bean Sauce

For Chinese dishes, I like using Lee Kum Kee sauces. For this recipe, I mixed their Chili Black Bean Sauce with Premium Oyster Sauce and Mirin or rice wine for the sauce. Both the sauces are salted, so no extra salt was required. A sliced onion, minced tomatoes, some sliced garlic and oil combined with the sauce mixture and crab delights were microwaved for 5 minutes, stirred and microwaved for another 2 minutes. This was served over steaming, hot rice for a sumptuous dinner. The leftovers were heated in a skillet the next day for breakfast, a little oil drizzled around the edges and fried with beaten eggs that were left undisturbed to cook without stirring and served garnished with green onions over toast. That's two meals for the price of one package of crab delights.

Reshmi Chicken Wings

Reshmi Chicken Wings

These melt-in-the-mouth, fall-off-the-bone chicken wings were marinated overnight in salt & pepper, oil, and Greek yogurt whipped with ginger and garlic pastes. It's a quick and easy dish to serve at lunch or as a starter to a more elaborate Indian meal.

Meijer's Fresh Chicken Wings

They started with a 2 lb. package of chicken wings which were segmented into drummettes and wings. I saved the wing tips for noodle soup later in the week. The wings came out meaty and juicy and were ready to serve in 30 minutes, after being marinated overnight.

The recipe was inspired by one on Facebook which I adapted to my liking. I've added specifics regarding ingredients and oven settings using American weights and measures. 

It's Poila Boishak or the Bengali New Year and these wings were a great starter to our celebration dinner for my husband and me.

Murgi'r Malai Curry - Creamy Chicken Curry

Murgi'r Malai Curry

Malai Curry refers to anything that is simmered in spices and coconut milk. For those who are allergic or don't like coconut, evaporated milk can be used in its stead. Even when coconut milk is used, a few teaspoons of evaporated milk added towards the end makes the gravy smooth and extra creamy.

My niece introduced me to the ease with which chicken tenderloin pieces cook, especially in gravy dishes. Simmering them for just 20 minutes is enough to tenderise the chicken so dinner is ready in 30 minutes.

Chicken curry tastes best served with long-grain rice, but any variety of Indian bread goes just as well.

Tilapia Macher Jhal - Tilapia in Mustard Sauce

Tilapia in Mustard Sauce

The simplest of fish curries, this is a favourite among Bengali families. I love tilapia because it's very mild with little or no fishy smell and it's easily available in supermarkets any time of year. Japanese eggplants go very well with fish and cook in no time at all.

While I was cruising around an Asian supermarket, I came across a bottle of "hot dressing oil". Turns out, it's a concentrated combination of mustard oil and wasabi oil. It has a fantastic aroma and made me tear up because it's so pungent. Just 10-12 drops of this oil applied to the fish while it was left to marinate gave it the perfect touch of mustard oil flavour. 

Here's one of the easiest ways to prepare fish curry.

Nga Hsi Pyan - Burmese Fish Curry in Red Sauce

Nga Hsi Pyan

The holy trinity or mirepoix in Burmese cooking consists of pureed/pounded onions, garlic and soaked dried red chillies. 'Nga' means fish and 'Sipyan' means 'oil returns'.  So that I don't have to skimp on the oil, I use a healthy oil such as extra-light olive oil in all my cooking.  The other thing to keep in mind is that for the full flavour to develop, this dish must be simmered on low heat for as long as it takes for the liquid to evaporate and oil to resurface.

Any fish can be used in this dish, cut into steaks leaving the bone in, or boneless fish fillets.

Fried Okra Smothered in Toasted Chickpea Flour

Fried Okra Smothered in
Toasted Chickpea Flour

The alkalinity in okra takes some getting used to, if you're trying it for the first time. It's a popular vegetable in India and Burma (or Myanmar as it is now known). There are several techniques to cut down on the alkalinity. 

Keep the okra dry at all times, so wash the pods and dry overnight before cutting or wipe each pod dry before cutting. Toss the cut okra in sufficient amchur (dried mango powder) before cooking. Fry the okra in oil until de-alkalized before seasoning or adding chopped onions and tomatoes. Toss the cooked okra with toasted chickpea flour and toast some more until it turns golden brown.

To add a Burmese flavour to this dish, I seasoned the chickpea flour with dried shrimp powder and seasoned the okra with fish sauce instead of salt, before frying with onions, garlic and tomatoes.

Burmese Stir-Fried Spinach & Eggplants

Burmese Spinach & Eggplants

Supermarkets now stock bags and tubs of triple washed spinach which cuts down on prep time. Baby spinach leaves are small enough to leave whole and that cuts down on prep time because they don't need to be chopped.

I fry the eggplant first then add the spinach, cooking it just until wilted.The leaves have to be moved from the bottom of the pan to the top several times because the pan is usually too small to accommodate the entire contents of the bag or tub.

Sorrel

Sorrel is an herb, delicious and tart, that look very much like spinach. If sown in the ground, this vigourous plant will take over just like mint. I've bought it at the farmer's market as seedlings and potted them successfully. They die back in the winter and return in the spring. The tender & tangy greens are edible when they first sprout but become more and more bitter as they mature. 

To emulate the tangy flavour of sorrel and roselle leaves (chin baung ywet in Burmese), I add the juice of a lime just before removing this dish from the stove. 

Hsi Hta Min - Burmese Golden Rice

Hsi Hta Min

As in any other fried rice recipe, it is best to use day old rice that has been refrigerated overnight so that the rice absorbs all moisture. I've used Basmati rice, but jasmine or any other long-grain rice would work just as well. Sticky rice makes it even more special.

Burmese Stir-Fried Tofu - ShanTofu Kyet

Shan Tofu Kyet

Shan Tofu Kyet originated in the Shan states of Myanmar or Burma.  Made traditionally with yellow tofu (derived from ground & steamed chickpeas), the more commonly found white soya bean tofu can also be used in this dish. Mashed tofu is stir-fried with fish sauce, fresh tomatoes, minced onions and garlic, and garnished with cilantro and green chilies.

This tofu dish is usually served as a side dish with steamed long-grain rice accompanied by meat or fish and some vegetable soup (hin cho). 

Alu Bhathe - Potato in Rice

Alu Bhathe

Alu (potato) Bhathe (in rice) is comfort food that brings back memories of my childhood. Babies thrive on it and grown-ups relish it. 

Alu Makha

It's obvious I need to visit the Indian market because there's not a drop of mustard oil at home. Fortunately, there's a bottle of kasundi (mustard sauce) in the fridge which worked well to give this mash the hint of mustard it needs. 

Basmati Rice & Russet Potato
Cooked in Microwave Oven

It takes 18 minutes for basmati rice to cook to perfection in the microwave which was perfect for the russet potato as well. The potato can also be cooked in rice in a rice cooker. Just to be on the safe side, I cut the potato in half to make sure it cooked all the way through.

Shahi Palak Murgh - Royal Chicken & Spinach

Chicken & Spinach Fit for a King!

A quick and easy chicken and spinach curry that goes well with steamed rice or chapatis/tortillas. Using Shan's Chicken White Korma masala eliminated the need to come up with a similar blend of spices and flavours. Why waste time reinventing the wheel?

Begun Pora - Roasted Eggplant Salad

Begun Pora

Eggplant is probably the best loved vegetable (or fruit?) in our family. My son, especially, can have it everyday, cooked in countless ways. On this blog alone, I have tagged this vegetable at least 25 times, each recipe unique from the rest.

Whole Roasted Eggplant

Begun (eggplant) Pora (burnt) gets its name from the way in which this dish is prepared. Using the big globe eggplant, slits are made on the bottom opposite the stalk end, rubbed with oil and baked in a 400*F oven for 30 minutes or so. Turning the eggplant occasionally, it is baked until the skin appears singed and wrinkled and the center is soft when tested for doneness. Alternatively, it can be charred over an open gas flame or placed on an iron skillet on the stovetop and grilled. After it comes to room temperature, the skin is removed and the pulp is hand-mixed with salt and mustard oil along with diced onions, green chilies and cilantro. It is served as a salad or first course in a meal, and is eaten with steamed rice.

Boy or Girl?

Look for a firm, glossy skin and pick the lightest eggplant in the pile. The heavier ones have more seeds and could be bitter to the taste. A good clue to picking a practically seedless eggplant is to check the bellybutton at the bottom. Pick the one with the roundest navel (boy eggplant) as opposed to an elongated navel (girl eggplant). Believe it or not, eggplant(s?) are not gender-neutral and the boy eggplant is better for eating because it has less seeds.

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.

Red Snapper in Mustard & Coconut Sauce

Maacher Jhaal

My most favourite way to prepare fish is to steam it in a mustard gravy, but this was cooked on the stove-top. The ground mustard was mixed with coconut milk which made the gravy thick and creamy.

Any variety of fish can be prepared in this way. I've used red snapper here and in the past have made this with filleted and bone-in tilapia, catfish and shrimp. The shrimp tasted delicious!

Best served with basmati rice, this serves as a main course, accompanied by a vegetable and dal.

Oyster Crackers Snack

Years ago, while I was still a working woman, a co-worker brought in this snack for a potluck. It's so crunchy, delicious, and easy to assemble that I wonder why I don't make it more often.

It needs just 5 ingredients and 20 minutes to bake.