Khow Suey Khaogay?

I was a Khow Suey virgin until a couple of weeks ago, when my friend from Pakistan invited us over for a Burmese Khow Suey dinner in Canada. That’s how global we are!

This easy noodle soup had to find its way in our home too. Its that good.

I began by cooking the meat for the dish. I used minced beef, you can use chicken; the meat has to be boneless. I cooked my mince beef with chopped red onions, ginger-garlic paste, cumin powder, coriander powder, red chilli powder and salt.

I did add a little water towards the end of the cooking process to get the right consistency for the meat.

While the meat was cooking, I started on the coconut milk soup.

I used two cans of coconut milk, quarter cup fish sauce, 2-3 tablespoons of besan (mixed in water), some more water, sugar and salt to make my soup. It takes about 15-20 minutes of temperature-controlled cooking to finish making the soup.

The most time-consuming thing to do for Khow Suey though are the condiments. Especially if you are doing things from scratch, like I did. You obviously have a more viable option of using ready-to-use things.

For the topping/condiments of my Khow Suey I used crispy fried red onions, fried and crushed peanuts, slices of fried garlic, fried and crumbled Maggi noodles, bits of boiled eggs, chopped cilantro, chopped green onions, chopped green chillies, julienned ginger, and wedges of lemon.

At the end of all the prep work, my condiment station looked like this.

I left the pasta/noodle to be cooked right towards the end to prevent any lumps from forming. I used whole wheat spaghetti for my Khow Suey. You can use regular egg noodles and cook according to package instructions. Don’t forget to salt the water while cooking the noodles.

With the meat, noodles, coconut milk soup and condiments ready, now it is all about assembly! That’s the easy part I guess. If you have kids around, let them go ahead and make their own bowl of Khow Suey. They will love the grown-up feeling of throwing in a bowl what they like from that large spread of colourful condiments. Make sure the soup and meat are hot/warm enough for you to enjoy the taste.

Begin with the noodles, and follow it up with the meat and the soup.

Then toss in the condiments in no particular order. Finish with a squirt of lemon juice. Mix and slurp. 

P.S. If you are making a vegetarian version of the Khow Suey, use minced soya nuggets.

From BongMom with Lau’er Malaikari

This malaikari is inspired by everyone’s favourite – the BongMom! Though I’d admit, I did not follow her, sorry her Mum’s recipe to the T. I did minor hera-pheri here and there. Somewhere at the back of my mind, I had my Mum’s Chingri Malaikari too. I am hoping I will be pardoned for the culinary license I took.

The Lau’er Malaikari or Lauki (Bottle gourd) cooked in coconut milk is a very new recipe for me. Probably that’s what makes it all the more interesting.

Ingredients for BongMom-inspired Lau’er Malaikari are:

1 small lau/lauki, peeled and diced
1 medium size red onion made into paste
1 can of coconut milk (I use the Thai variety)
1 tablespoon ginger paste
3-4 whole green chillies
1 tablespoon mixed whole garam masala spices (cloves, green and black cardamoms, cinnamon)
2-3 bay
Half teaspoon red chilli powder
Half teaspoon turmeric
4-5 tablespoons desi ghee
Sugar
Salt

Heat the ghee in a thick pan. Add a pinch of sugar and let it caramelize. Now add the onion paste and the whole garam masala spices and bay. Very soon the onion paste will start turning a darker shade of pink. Keep moving the onion in the ghee and the spices, till you have a line of ghee on the sides. This will also indicate that the onion paste is cooked and does not have its conspicuous raw smell. Add a couple of green chillies if you want to at this stage. Do this cooking on low-medium heat. We don’t want the onions burnt.

Now add the cubed/ diced lau pieces. Mix with the onion paste. After about 2-3 minutes, add the ginger paste and salt. Add the red chilli and turmeric powder. Cover and cook for 5-7 minutes.

Open the lid to see that a lot of juices and moisture from the lau has been released. Cook on high for a minute or two and pour the coconut milk.

Let the coconut milk come to a rumbling boil, then reduce the heat. Let the lau cook in the coconut milk for about 8-10 minutes. You will see a thin layer of the ghee surface on top. Add sugar and more salt if necessary.

Move around the thickened coconut milk and lau pieces. Pray that you have done a good job and turn the heat off.

Your Lau’er Malaikari is now ready to be eaten with plain, white rice.

Thank you, BongMom for being an inspiration and a friend I can run to with my cribs and complains.

Thai-style Shrimps in Coconut Milk

A little pot of Basil can go a long way. Its rain-drenched leaves are there all ready for you to pluck when you need a little sprig for a Thai-inspired Shrimp curry.

Ingredients for Thai-style Shrimps in Coconut Milk are:

400 grams shrimps, cleaned, deveined
1 can of coconut milk
Handful each of vegetables which cook easy like green peas, snap peas, green bell pepper
2-3 green onions (just the green portions)
1 knob of ginger, very finely chopped
2-3 fat cloves of garlic, minced
Handful of fresh coriander, chopped
Few leaves of basil, torn
5-6 dry red chilies
Fish sauce (I use a Thai brand)
Sesame oil
Sugar
Salt

Heat sesame oil in a wok and toss in the snap peas and sliced bell peppers. Sauté for a couple of minutes and keep aside.

 

In the same oil, add the ginger, garlic and dry red chilies. Stir for a couple of minutes, reduce the heat to the lowest gas mark and add the coconut milk. Drizzle fish oil into the coconut milk, I added about two tablespoons.

Cook the coconut milk adding little water for about five minutes. Add the shrimps then.

When the shrimps start turning pink, add the already sautéed vegetables, handful of green peas, and season with sugar and salt. Cook for not more than 2-3 minutes.

Check on the seasoning. This curry should have a sweet balance to it because of the coconut milk. Garnish with freshly chopped coriander and some torn basil leaves. Just before you serve, finish it with some chopped green onions.

Its best to serve it straight out of the wok and onto the dinner table. With a hot bowl of rice, some more torn basil leaves and lemon wedges. I had some Gondho Lebu (you could try Kaffir Lime) which I used to squirt over my rice and curry and honestly it just took my Shrimp Curry to another level.