Have you ever had Khowsuey? Pronounced cow-seh, it’s a dish that originates in Burma. I had never heard of the dish until moving to Australia, funnily enough from fellow South Africans. For some reason it never appealed to me. A few years ago my sister in law moved back to Australia, she was pregnant – close to the end and I was at the beginning. I was sick, so, so sick. She made Khwosuey and I didn’t want to be anywhere near that table, to be fair, all I could stomach at the time was ice tea and dry cereal. She made it again much later on, this time I was feeling better, and it was delicious. Soft spaghetti, flavoursome meat, silky smooth soup, crispy onions, crunchy potato chips, spicy chopped chilli and coriander. The textures and flavours work so well together, what’s not to love?
Find Aasiya’s recipe below. Enjoy!
Khow suey – a signature Burmese dish
This recipe was shared with me by a good friend. After trialling the dish a few times, I have made a few changes and modifications to suit the taste of my family. The number of components to this dish is enough to scare anyone away, however they are fairly simple to make and they complement each other incredibly! All the different tastes and textures together feel like a party in your mouth! Next time you have family or friends over try surprising them with this treat… It’s sure to be a hit!
1 tsp chilly powder (adjust for desired level of spice)
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
¼ tsp turmeric powder
¼ tsp garam masala (this can be made by crushing black pepper, clove, elaichi and aniseed)
Spiced potatoes (optional)
2 potatoes
1tblsp oil
½ tsp crushed garlic
½ tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp cumin powder
Salt to taste
½ lemon/lime
Coconut soup
1 onion
1 tin coconut milk
1 cup whole milk
1 cup water
1 tblsp desiccated coconut
2 tblsp chick pea flour
2 tblsp oil
½ tsp crushed garlic
Pinch of black pepper
¼ tsp turmeric powder
¼ tsp salt
Fried onions
2 onions Oil
Toppings
Finely chopped fresh coriander
Red chilli flakes/ sliced fresh green chillies
Sliced lemon
Original/ plain/ lightly salted potato chips
Instructions
Noodles
Bring spaghetti to boil with salt , once cooked strain and mix through oil and keep aside
Saucy beef/chicken
– Finely chop onion and place it in a pot with oil, braise till slightly brown.
– Add diced beef or chicken, crushed garlic and crushed ginger and stir
– Add all the dry spices and braise for a few minutes on low (add water if mixture is too dry)
– Add finely chopped tomatoes and braise till tomatoes are soft
– Add water and cook on low, stir occasionally and add more water if needed.
– Cook until meat is tender and gravy is reduced to a thick consistency just enough to coat the pieces of meat. (Keep in mind this is not a curry)
Spiced potatoes
– Peel and cut potatoes into small cubes
– Boil until potatoes are cooked through but still firm and strain
– In a pan add oil, cooked potatoes, tumeric powder, cumin powder, crushed garlic , salt and juice of half a fresh lemon or lime
– Stir and keep aside
Coconut soup
– Finely chop and braise onion in oil till golden brown
– Add crushed garlic, black pepper, tumeric powder and salt. Stir and lower heat
– Blend together milk, coconut and chick pea flour, once blended add coconut milk and whisk together
– Increase the temperature of the pot to high and add milk mixture to the braised onions
– Add water and bring to boil, stir and lower for a few minutes until it reaches a soup-like consistency. (Add more water if too thick or boil it a bit longer if too weak, keep in mind as it stands it will thicken slightly).
Fried onions
-Finely slice onions
-Deep fry till brown and crispy
Assembly
In a bowl add noodles and top with beef or chicken gravy and spiced potatoes, spoon coconut soup over and around the noodles. Garnish with chilli flakes/sliced chillies, crushed potato chips, fresh coriander and fried onions. Finally finish with a squeeze of fresh lemon and enjoy!:)
Khow suey for kids
Add pieces of chicken and steamed vegetables to the spaghetti and top with coconut soup for a deliciously wholesome dinner for kids :)
My next guest post is by another good blogger friend, Sumaira from The Muslimah Mommy. She writes about all things mummy and parenting related. If you aren’t already following her, you should be.
Sumaira decided to step a little outside of her normal blogging to bring us a recipe today. Before I continue I probably should clarify something for my Aussie readers, cilantro is coriander. You know that delicious herb that adds amazing flavour to anything you add it to. As a child I never liked coriander, I would ask my mum to keep it out of every dish she made, thankfully she never listened to my crazy talk. And if you enjoy it just as much as I do, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this one. I’m going to have to give it a try when I’m back.
Rustic Cilantro Chutney
Chutney is a big hit at our house, even the kids enjoy it! There are so many variations of chutney, for instance there’s mint chutney, mango chutney, and etc. At our house, we try to keep things simple to suit our busy lifestyle, and that’s why I prefer to make cilantro chutney- because it only takes 3 minutes to make!
I call this chutney ‘rustic’ because instead of using an electrical kitchen device, I use a mortar and pestle to grind the cilantro leaves; thus bringing back the element of the Pakistani village that both of my parents grew up in. The chutney itself is not a smooth mixture- it’s chunky and well…rustic looking! In our household, we eat this chutney with chicken, fish, curried vegetables, and rice; in other words, pretty much with anything!
Ingredients:
A handful of cilantro (coriander)
1 green chilli pepper
1 ½ cups of plain yogurt
½ tsp of salt
1 tbsp of vinegar
Method:
In a mortar, crush the leaves of the cilantro with the the green chilli pepper.
Transfer the mixture into a bowl and add the yogurt, salt, and vinegar.
Mix well, and enjoy!
If you are serving this to children, you can always adjust the spiciness by adding more yogurt or putting in half of a green chilli pepper instead of a whole one.
I’m going for an Eid party and I had to take something! So I’m taking burfee. Yeah I know. It’s burfee. Your plain, old, typical, traditional burfee! I had plans, I did, big plans in fact! You all know how it is though, life takes over, it gets busy, all that usual mum stuff! Before I go on, I need to tell you about this Eid party. It’s being hosted by my blogger friends Sarah of Flour and Spice and Asiya of Chocolate and Chillies. Where is this party happening you might ask? On their blogs of course! It’s another virtual party. Be sure to head over to their blogs to check out what everyone else is taking!
Isn’t Burfee just one of those things, it screams Eid. I mean I don’t know what other time of the year you’d make Burfee. Oh, family weddings of course! Family weddings always call for celebration food and Burfee is definitely celebration food and Eid is definitely a celebration. So Burfee it is.
Combine your milk powder and cream until it resembles breadcrumbs, set aside. On a medium heat in a small saucepan, combine icing sugar, milk and butter, gently stir until it comes to a boil, the sugar should be dissolved. Remove from the stove and add in the condensed milk, mix well. Pour the milk and sugar mixture into the powdered mixture and mix well until it comes together. Wrap in cling film and store in the fridge until needed. The burfee will firm up and can be easily shaped or cut. Top with slivered almonds and serve.
I need to tell you a story. One year, I sent a little Eid plate to my husband’s work. It included burfee and a few other special treats. His colleagues each took one of the treats and shoved the whole thing in their mouths, little did they know each one was meant for sharing. It was after this incident I realised burfee should come with some sort of instruction manual on proper eating etiquette. You see for those of you who don’t know, burfee is an Indian sweet treat referred to as a sweet meat, weird name I know, don’t know who thought up that one. Burfee is sort of like a milky type fudge or a rich milky truffle. It’s made with sugar and milk powder. It’s meant to be eaten in small doses, just like you would fudge or a truffle. It’s usually laid out in a big block and people are expected to cut away a small piece and savour it.
Today’s burfee is traditional but I did turn this into a yummy modern treat when I made Burfee Frosting once, it was SOOO good. Be sure to try either of these recipes out!
To my food blogger friend Henna of My Ninja Naan, who was originally co-hosting this event. I am so sorry to hear about your dad, you and your family will be in my prayers.
I’m attending an Iftar party tonight, all the way in Dallas, Texas. Yip, me, this Brisbane mum is heading to an Iftar in the US of A. How is this possible? It’s already after Iftar time and I’m right here snuggled under a blanket in the comfort of my house.
It’s virtual!
Great idea, isn’t it? Lail from With a Spin is throwing a Virtual Iftar Potluck and she generously invited me as well as other food bloggers into her virtual home for the night. Pop on over to her site to see what everyone is bringing.
I’m taking this, a rose flavoured… Falooda? Halwa? Panna cotta? Jelly? Phirni? Call it what you will, a rose by any other name would taste as sweet. See what I did there? Please tell me you get the Shakespeare | Romeo and Juliet reference.
This is a vegetarian soft jelly type dessert that was common at my nani’s (maternal grandmother’s) house at the time of Iftar. I’m not sure why it had pride an place during Iftar, but the cooling fragrant jelly was definitely a welcomed treat after a fast. You could have it for Iftar like we did at my nani’s or you could save it for a post-Taraweeh snack (dessert).
Place your milk into a saucepan on a high heat. Add in your agar agar and rose syrup. Stir this constantly. When the milk mixture starts to bubble and agar agar is dissolved add in your cream. Bring the mixture to a full boil and turn off the heat. Pour your mixture through a strainer into a dish of your choosing and set aside to cool. Top with almonds and saffron and place in the fridge for a few hours until set.
Who likes butterscotch? I do! In fact I just made a yummy Date, Walnut and Buttescotch cheesecake recently. With it’s silky sweet, deep toffee flavour, what’s not to like. Well I’ve got something a little different for you today, butterscotch sojee.
For those of you that don’t know, sojee is an Indian sweet dish, made with semolina which is traditionally served at the beginning of a meal, yes, Indians eat dessert first.
My mum makes the best sojee, seriously the BEST. Recently I was making her recipe when I tipped in the brown sugar in instead of the normal stuff. What? I know, total mistake, but lets keep that between us. When butterscotch sojee becomes a thang I totally want to be able to claim it was me who invented it.
This sojee has a much deeper flavour than the traditional obviously, and also a deeper, richer colour.
This recipe is purely altered by the use of brown sugar instead of white sugar. If you want a great sojee recipe, just try this with normal sugar, if you’d like to try this butterscotch version, follow the recipe below.
1 tblsp chopped almonds and some strands of saffron to serve (optional)
Instructions
Add butter and semolina to a small saucepan on the stove on medium heat.Cook the semolina in the butter until it starts to lightly colour (almost pinkish), at this point take the semolina off the stove and set aside to cool a bit. In a measuring jug (or measure into a bowl) mix the eggs, milk, sugar, saffron and cardamon powder. Pour the milk mixture in a slow stream into the semolina while whisking briskly until all the milk is absorbed (your mixture will be runny). Put this back on the stove for a few minutes on a medium heat to begin to absorb. Once the liquid starts to absorb, put the stove on the lowest heat possible and cover, let it steam for about 15+ minutes until all the liquid is absorbed and the sojee is fluffy. Sprinkle on some saffron threads and chopped almonds to serve.
I love paneer, I think I’ve told you all that before. I could honestly eat it everyday. I sometimes even make my own. After having some really tasty palak (spinach) paneer at a restaurant recently, I decided to make an at home version. It doesn’t taste the same, but it’s just as good (hubby says mine is better, but he’s biased).
I’m totally digging my Indian serving bowl, what do you think?
2 handfuls baby spinach (approx. 3 cups) and a little water
1 med tomato
Paneer approx 300g
3 tblsp cream
Instructions
Finely chop your onion and add to a pan on medium heat with the oil. Sauté until onions are soft and translucent. Place all the spices including the ginger/garlic into the pan.
While spices are toasting, throw the spinach and a few tablespoons of water (use more if you need to) into a blender and blend until you have a runny purée consistency. Add the spinach purée to the pan and cook. Blend your tomato and add this to the pan to cook with the spinach purée.
While this is cooking, chop you paneer into cubes (approx. 1,5 cm) and throw this into the pan as well. Cook this for about 5-10 minutes or until paneer is tender. Add in your cream, and gently stir through. Serve hot with some rice or naan.
Please don’t buy your paneer from an average supermarket, I’ve tried it and it doesn’t taste very good, instead try a deli or even better an Indian grocer or spice shop.You could serve this with rice, but I enjoy it best with naan.
Many of you have asked me and I promise I will try to get up a recipe/tutorial for home-made paneer as soon as I can. I just have a backlog of so many things I need to blog first. Trust me though, it’ll come, even if it takes me another year 😐
