Happy Holidays!
Every December has the most enjoyable moments for families all over the world. Many independent children find job opportunities in different states. But they will always be ready to come back home to celebrate Christmas and other December holidays with their families. Even though they are away, they plan for the date in a year to meet with all the families to celebrate these holidays.
Out of many Christmas celebrations, my memory will never be erased because of a one of a kind and enjoyable family from Wisconsin belonging to my brother in law. His grandfather and his uncle never miss to invite us over for the Christmas Celebration. As they own a large dairy farm, there were many things we learned in terms of how a high-tech dairy farm operates.
It also reminds me of my childhood days of celebrating events such as birthdays, festivals and weddings. For the majority of celebrations we host at home, we invited extended family and make traditional Burmese meals. Before the feast, we invite monks to offer them lunch prior to enjoying our meals and conversations held during such gatherings.
In this traditional meal, we usually cook coconut rice, chicken curry, fish cake salad, and soup. It is usually the way of celebration meal for most of our events. We may also add another meat dish and condiment as an option.
In this recipe, there will be the coconut rice and chicken curry as a combination meal. Then we will add fish cake salad for the side dish. As a soup for the meal, we may also add the Roselle leaves soup that makes a balanced combination for the rich coconut rice meal.
Chicken Curry ( 3 serving)
Ingredients
2 lb Chicken ( bone in or boneless) cut up into 1-inch cube size
1 tbsp Fine Chopped ginger
1 tbsp Fined Chopped Garlic
1 Cup Fine Chopped Onion
1 tsp Turmeric powder
1 tbsp Chili Powder
1/2 cup Oil
2 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Fish Sauce
Instructions
1. In a mixing bowl, add cut cubed chicken, salt, turmeric powder, chili powder, finely chopped ginger, garlic, onion, salt and fish sauce together and mix it well with hand by using food gloves.
2. In the 4 qt pan on the stove top with medium-high heat, add oil an heat up then all the marinated chicken and stir.
3. Cook all the chicken in the pan till all the water from the meat are gone.
4. When there is no more water in the pan, start seeing the oil and meat start sticking to the bottom of the pan, add two cups of water to cover the chicken then cover the pan.
5. We may turn down the heat to medium when the water starts boiling.
6. Cook for another 10 to 15 minutes depends on the tenderness of the chicken.
7. When the meat is tender enough to eat and water is reduced into half. It is ready to serve. ( We may add 1 tsp of curry powder for stronger flavor but it is totally optional.)
Coconut Rice ( 3-5 serving)
These days we could find rice cooker everywhere and it has a better result to use the rice cooker.
Ingredients
3 cups Jasmine Rice
1 can Coconut milk (8 oz. can)
1 Shallot Cut into quarters each
1 tsp Canola oil
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Sugar ( may add 1 more spoon if you prefer sweeter taste but not recommended)
4 cups water
Instructions
1. In the 3-5 cups rice cooker, add all the ingredients together and stir to mix it well.
2. Then cook with the electric rice cooker by the following instruction as needed.
Roselle Leaves Soup ( Chin Baung Ywat Hinn Cho)
Ingredients
2 cups Chopped ( rough chop) fresh roselle leaves
1 cup Chopped tomato
1 cup Cubed Egg Plant
1/2 cup Chopped Onion
1 tbsp Sliced garlic
0.5 lb Fish fillet ( tilapia fillet or tuna)
1 tbsp Fish sauce
1 tbsp Canola Oil
1 tsp Turmeric powder
1 tsp Shrimp paste
3 counts Thai green Chili
3 qt Vegetable broth (or) Chicken Broth
(salt to your own taste)
Instructions
1. In the 4 qt pan, with medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, oil, fish fillet, fish sauce and turmeric powder together and cover for 5-10 minutes.
2. Then stir all the fish and onions are blended well enough till fragrant.
3. Add the roselle leaves, tomato, and eggplant into the soup pot and stir a little bit. Cover the pot for 5 to 10 minutes to make sure leaves and vegetable are soften a little bit with medium heat.
4. Add the vegetable broth to the soup pot and cover then turn up the heat to high to make the soup boil. When start boiling, we may turn down the heat to medium to simmer the soup.
5. Finally, add shrimp paste and green chili to the soup pot and simmer again for 5-10 minutes more. Season the salt to your own taste.
Fish Cake Salad ( 2 serving)
Ingredients
1 cup Thinly Sliced Fish Cake ( we can get the frozen cooked fish cake from an Asian store)
1 cup Shredded Cabbage
1 cup Thinly Sliced Red Onion
1 tbsp Fine Chopped Thai Green chili
2 tbsp Chopped Cilantro (or) chiffonade lime leaves
Dressing
1 tbsp Garlic Flavored Oil
1 tbsp Fish Sauce
1 tbsp Lime Juice
1 tbsp Roasted Besan Powder
1/2 tsp Roast Red Chili Powder (optional)
Instruction
1. In the mixing bowl, add all the ingredients together except cilantro.
2. We may mix the dressing in a different bowl and pour on the ingredients.
3. Or we may add the dressing and ingredients together into the mixing bowl. Mix it well to make sure all the ingredients are blended in together.
(Note: Before slicing the thawed fish cake, it is better to steam the fish cake for 10 minutes to make it softer.)
