Homemade food that makes our heart a Home

One morning, my husband called me from work "Can I bring one of my coworker for lunch?" I said, "Of course!". Every time at my husband's work many Burmese coworkers from Singapore visit for training. As we stayed so many years in Singapore, the country became our second home after our native land " Myanmar". Most of Myanmar Engineers get a good salary job in Singapore and settle down with their own families there. Such was our case and we were able to make a lot of friends from Singapore.

 I often hosted lunch or dinner for the Burmese guests when they are away from their home. I treat Burmese food as our memory of home. Even though we stayed overseas for nearly half of our life, we still miss home. Most Burmese coworkers from my husband's work gave very nice compliments about food that they will never forget. I'm always happy to witness their appreciation of authentic homemade food.

I understand when people struggle by having to eat unfamiliar food for several days. Such was our case, and back then, we always missed food from our hometown like crazy. There are always good memories we will never forget about families get together parties.
From all authentic Burmese dishes, this meal is easy to prepare and keeps well in a fridge for later days.

This dish reminds me of our time of struggle in Singapore only a few days after arrival. We miss homemade food after getting tired continuously of having meat dishes.

Today's recipe is Burmese Egg Curry. In this meal, I paired the curry with a portion of panko breaded fish to make it a complete meal.

Burmese Egg Curry 

Ingredients

5 counts Egg (Duck egg or Chicken egg) (hard boiled)
1 cup finely chopped onion  (1 big onion)(Vidalia onion or red onion)
1 tbsp    Fine chopped Ginger (1/2 inch)
1 tbsp    Fine chopped Garlic (3 cloves)
2 sprig   Curry leaves
2 counts Russet potato (peel, wash and cut 4 pieces each, 8 pieces if the potato is big)
2 Count  Tomatoes (Roma)
1 cup    Tamarind Juice extract (1 tbsp tamarind paste make one pot of curry)
1 tsp     Curry Powder
5 pieces 1 inch cut dried fish (preferably dried mudfish or red snapper)
3 count  Thai Green Chili (Serrano chili as a substitute)
1 tbsp    Fine red chili powder
1/2 tsp   Paprika
1/2 tsp   Turmeric powder
1/2 cup  Oil

Instructions

1. In the chopper, we need to add onion, ginger, Turmeric powder, chili powder, paprika, and garlic together to make the curry paste.

2. Peel and cut into half to each of hard-boiled egg and get ready.

3. Cut tomatoes into very small pieces and set it aside.

4. In the bowl, add the tamarind paste and add one cup of water to make tamarind juice extract.

5. Soak the cubed dried fish with water for 3, 4 minute if it has too much salt.

6. In 4 qt size dutch oven pan or Chinese wok on the stove top with medium-high heat, add oil and heated through.

7. Add curry paste from (no. 1), then stir for 5 minutes. Then add strained cubed dried fish into the pan and stir to mix it well with the paste.

8. Add the fish sauce (1 tbsp) into the pan till fragrant then add potato pieces together with chopped tomato.

9. Stir all the ingredients together and add curry powder. Stir and cook for 5 minutes and add the tamarind juice then cover the pot.

10. When the curry sauces are started bubbling, turn down heat to medium-low to simmer the sauces. After simmering for 10 minutes add the cut egg into the pot yolk side up to protect from melting yolks into the sauces.

11. Cover the pan again to make the sauces get into the egg and cook all ingredients to bring out the flavor. (about 5, 10 minutes more)

12. Finally, add curry leaves and Thai green chili on top of all the ingredients to get enhanced rich curry flavor. Cover the pot for 5 more minutes.

13. Test the potato with a fork to make sure potato is tender. We may add a little salt to our own taste. The dish is ready to go with cooked white rice (Jasmine Rice).

(Optional recipe for Crispy Pan-fried Fish)

1. Cut up the fish fillet ( any kind but prefer Codfish or Tilapia). about 1 lb.
   (Season the fish with 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp soy sauce, 1/2 tsp white pepper)
2. In the dry bowl. Add Panko bread cramps (1cup), 1 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp white pepper, 1/2 tsp salt, ( may add chopped parsley and Parmesan cheese  ) mix it together and set it ready.
3. Heat the oil to get the degree of 400 degrees F.
4. Beat 1 egg in small bowl.
5. When the oil is hot, dip each fish pieces into the beaten egg bowl then breaded with the bread mixture from no.2. then fry until golden brown.

Garlic Flavor Noodle (or) China Town Delight of Rangoon

As our high school is in downtown Yangon (Rangoon), our father frequently treated us to after-school snacks. Among these varieties of food, the garlic flavored noodle has always been my favorite dish available in Chinatown.

In Yangon (Rangoon), Chinatown is the one of a kind food paradise for everybody who lives in the city.

Many changes have occurred since then including the emergence of a large shopping mall and a locally famous restaurant that offers food commonly found in Chinatown. But we can definitely say that the authentic taste of Satay, Kyay Owe (pork meatball soup with rice noodle), steamed dumpling, porridge and an immense variety of deep fried snack foods are always available. This food market usually opens in the evening and serves plenty of customers before its closing in the middle of the night.

These noodle shops have earned a reputation of lining 20th street of the Latha Township. The shops are still thriving there in recent days even though we enjoyed since we were very young. It is also nice to hear that the owners of the shops are healthy and remember old memories as well.

This garlic noodle is easy to make a quick lunch. If we have rotisserie chicken, this noodle dish is a quick fix meal for any busy family. This meal can be made with either chicken or pork. For the noodle, it is strongly recommended to use wonton noodle, however, if wonton noodles are not available, they can be substituted for flat egg noodles.

I hope you enjoy this simple, yet delicious meal that can either be eaten as a breakfast or lunch.

Garlic Favored Noodle ( Serves 5)

Ingredients

5 tbsp   Chopped Fresh Garlic
1/2 cup Canola Oil
1 lb      Boneless Skinless white meat Chicken
12 oz    Wonton Noodle Packet
2 tbsp   Light Soy sauce for Noodle
1 tbsp   Light Soy sauce for Chicken
1 tbsp   Chopped ginger (or) sliced ginger
1 tbsp   Salt for noodle
1 tsp     Salt for Chicken
1/2 cup Thinly sliced spring onion.
1/2 tsp  White pepper
1/2 tsp  Black pepper

Step by Step instructions

1. Place the chicken in the 2 or 3 qt pot. Add sliced (chopped) ginger and soy sauce together with salt and pepper. Then add water about 2 cups to cover the chicken completely then boil slowly with medium-high heat.

2. When the water starts to boil, turn down the heat to medium-low and let it simmer for another 20 minutes. We just need to make sure the meat is fully cooked.

3. Boil the noodle according to the packet direction and rinse with cold water then strain it and set it aside.

4. When the chicken is cooled down completely, take out the chicken from the broth. Cut the chicken into small pieces 1/8 inch cubes each. It is OK not to get an exact measurement. But cubed meat should be in small pieces.

5. In the non-stick pan add oil and heat up the pan with medium-high heat. Then add garlic to get the garlic flavor oil by frying garlic with medium-low heat till the golden brown color of garlic. Set aside in the bowl and let it cool down. (This procedure is most important part of the recipe and fried garlic should not be burnt.

6. After pouring out all the garlic oil in the bowl, add the chopped chicken into the pan, season with salt and pepper with 1 tsp of fried garlic then heat the pan and stir the meat to make seasoned meat topping.

7. Chop the spring onion very fine and set aside into the bowl. This chopped spring onion is also the topping for the noodle dish.

8. When every ingredient is ready. In the big bowl, add the chicken broth, Soy sauce, garlic flavor oil together and then mix it with either chopstick or fork.

9. In the premix, sauce bowl add all the noodle and mix it all together. We may use either chopstick or big spoon and fork to make the noodle to mix with sauce. Add salt and pepper to our own taste. We may choose to add more light soy sauce if we want.

10. We need to divide all the noodle into the 5 bowl to prepare the individual serving.

11. Add the chopped chicken on top of the noodle each individual bowl equally.

12. Then add the spring onion topping on top of the chicken.

13. We may also choose to add more crispy fried garlic (1tsp each) on the very top of the bowl above spring onion to make it more presentable and flavorful noodle.

14. This noodle is also good to serve with clear chicken soup by garnishing with finely chopped spring onion.