I’ve never dined in a Burmese restaurant nor had a chance to taste any of their dishes, this explains my ignorance about Burmese cuisine all these years. The other day, while surfing the net I happened to read about Burmese cuisine and my curiosity led me to try a popular Burmese chicken noodle dish in my kitchen. The ingredients for this dish, the style of cooking and finally the taste of the food confirmed me that this cuisine has been influenced by Indian, Thai and Chinese cuisines. So anyone who loves these cuisines would definitely fall head over heels for Burmese food as well.

Khow Suey, is a soup meal made of noodles and curried chicken in coconut milk and is served with a variety of condiments. It’s rich, flavorful and aromatic, I can tell you one thing, you won’t be able to stop with just one bowl of this.

Khow Suey

Ingredients:

• Vegetable oil- 2 tbsp
• Chicken, boneless cubed- 1 pound
• Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
• Onion, chopped- 1
• Ginger, minced- 1 tsp
• Garlic, minced- 1 tsp
• Cinnamon- 3 inch stick broken
• Bay leaves- 3 no’s
• Green pepper, diced- 1
• Ground Cumin- 1 tsp
• Chilly powder- 3/4 tsp
• Coriander powder- 1 tsp
• Garam masala- 1/2 tsp
• Water- 1 cup
• Fish sauce- 2 tsp
• Coconut milk- 1 cup
• Green Onions, chopped- 2 stalks
• Rice Noodles or Egg Noodles- 1/2 packet

Preparation:

• Cook the rice or egg noodles in boiling water along with a dash of salt till it’s soft, drain water and keep aside.
• Heat a pan over medium heat, add oil, when it turns hot add turmeric powder and saute without burning it.
• Add onions, and salt saute till tender.
• Add minced ginger and garlic, saute for a few minutes.
• Add cinnamon and bay leaves.
• Add chicken along with ground cumin, chilly powder, coriander powder and garam masala.
• Combine everything well.
• Add water and cook the chicken covered.
• When the chicken is half done, add green pepper and cook covered till chicken is well done.
• Uncover the pan, add fish sauce, combine well.
• Now, add coconut milk and let it come to a boil.
• Sprinkle chopped green onions and give it a stir.
• Remove from the heat.
• While serving, place some cooked rice noodles or egg noodles in a bowl and add the chicken along with the gravy over the noodles.
• Serve warm along with other condiments like fried onions, cilantro, boiled eggs, lemon wedges etc.

Tips:

• Vegetarians can make this with mixed veggies like carrot, beans, green pepper, corn etc.

I told ya I am hooked on my griddle…

After making non-veg dishes on my griddle, I wanted to try a veggie dish, so I had made a stir fry with vegetables and noodles. I blindly threw few veggies on the griddle along with fried paneer and seasoned the veggies with few sauces. It was a simple stir fry made with less effort and tasted truly delicious.

Veggie Noodle Stir Fry

Ingredients:

• Rice Noodles, or any noodles of your choice- 8 oz
• Green pepper, diced- 1
• Carrots, cut lengthwise- 1
• Celery, diced- 1 stalk
• Onions. diced- 1
• Cabbage, chopped- 1/4 cabbage
• Paneer, fried (frozen)- 8 no’s (optional) or use Tofu
• Soy Sauce, low sodium- 2tbsp
• Oyster Sauce- 2tbsp
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Sesame oil- 2tsp
• Non-stick cooking spray- to grease the griddle

Preparation:

• Dice the veggies and keep it ready.
• Heat up the griddle to 350 F and grease the griddle with non-stick cooking spray.
• Spread the veggies on the griddle and let it turn tender.

• In the meantime cook the noodles: boil water in a pot, season with little salt and put the noodles into the water and cook till soft.
• Drain the water from the cooked noodles, add little vegetable oil and stir the noodles, keep aside. Don’t let the noodles stand for a long time as it would stick to each other.
• Stir-fry the veggies on the griddle and let it caramelize slightly.
• Add fried panner to the veggies and stir fry for a minute.

• Pour soy sauce and oyster sauce over the veggies and give it a stir.
• Add ground pepper and combine everything well.
• Now add the cooked noodles and stir fry along with the veggies.

• Add the sesame oil to the noodles and veggies and stir fry it for few seconds.
• Transfer the veggie noodle stir fry on a plate and serve immediately.

Tips:

• If you want your stir fry to be spicy add 1/2 tsp of Chilli-Garlic paste to it.
• You could use tofu instead of paneer.
• Paneer is available in the frozen aisle of Indian stores.
• You could make this stir fry completely vegetarian by not adding oyster sauce.