Munch Bunch: Burmese Food- Vegetarian Khao Suey

This weekend marked our next cooking adventure in Munch Bunch. We wanted to challenge ourselves and decided that let's do something different: Burmese

Menu:

Appetizer: Tea Leaf salad

Entree:    Sambusa Kadhi

           Khao Suey

Dessert:   Tapioca Pudding

Drink:     Pineapple, Pomegranate lemonade

My story with Burmese food is simple, there is only one restaurant: Myanmar in Virgina that I have ever eater Burmese food in. I Love it. We used to go there once a week when we lived there if not more. We have seen that restaurant transform from a little 20 people family run to the full-fledged establishment it is today.

So, the attempt for re-creating some of that was so worth it.

I tried the Vegetarian Khao Suey.

Now, this time, my friend reminded me, munch bunch is to try, sometimes fail and sometimes succeed with our attempts. This time my attempt was not as successful.

So I write this recipe, I will include things that I plan on doing differently next time. It was delicious, but I do think it can be tweaked a little to improve.

Ingredients:

For Khao Suey-

Coconut Milk: 1 1/2 cans

Onion: 1 medium sized, finely chopped

Garlic: 2 cloves, finely chopped

Ginger: 1/2 inch, finely chopped

Lemon Grass: Root-1, shredded

Chili: 2,finely chopped

Besan(Ground gram flour):  4 tsp

Finely Chopped vegetables: 3 cups (Carrots, Broccoli, Green beans, Peppers, Corn)

Water: Per taste

Fine Rice noodles: 1 packed, cooked per instructions

Olive Oil: 2-3 tsp

Spices-

Chili powder: 2-3 tsp, add if you like it more spicy

Cumin Powder: 2 tsp

Coriander Powder: 2 tsp

Salt: Per taste

For Toppings-

Garlic -4 cloves, finely sliced

Chili: 3, cut length wise

Onion: 1/2 chopped and fried. I used store bought fried onion

Ginger: 1/2 inch, sliced

Fried Noodles: 1 cup

Spring Onions: 1 cup thinly sliced

Making the Khao Suey-

1. Heat olive oil in a deep pan

2. When heated, add ginger, garlic, chili and sauté

3. Add onion and the spices and stir until translucent

4. Now add lemon grass, Ground gram flour (besan), mix well cover and simmer for 2-3 minutes

5. Take a blender, add the cooked onion paste and the coconut milk. Blend well

6. In the deep pan, sauté the chopped vegetables for 3-4 minutes. Add the blended onion-coconut milk mixture

7. Feel free to add water to make it slightly liquid. Consistency should be like a 'tomato basil bisque'

8. Separately cook the rice noodles per instructions.

Making the toppings:

1. Shallow fry the garlic, chili, ginger all separately.

Assembling/ Serving the Khao Suey

1. Dish the noodles, top with the Khao Suey, add toppings per taste

Enjoy!

Things I would do differently next time around:

1. My noodles got overcooked, So when I added to the Khao Suey, it was chunky and did not separate. So next time, as mentioned in the recipe above, I would serve the noodles and top the Khao Suey soup/gravy as a topping on noodles

2. Spice: I realized that the Khao Suey was not as spicy. So add additional chili powder/ finely chopped chili as needed.

3. Since coconut milk is heavy, feel free to reduce the quantity to 1 can if you need it more liquid.