Burmese Poppy Seed Pan Cake ! ...  My favorite

Every time we go out for brunch on weekend mornings, I get reminded of having Burmese Pancake in our childhood days. Here in America, I love to enjoy pancake once in a while because of the fruity syrup that is sweet and refreshing. By comparison, the Burmese pancake is already sweetened with the caramel-like flavor because of its sweeten batter with brown sugar syrup.

One memory that is always with me that my Grand Aunt. She liked that pancake and she always treats me when I was young. Thinking of her inspire me to make that Burmese food because it relates to my sweet memories. My Grand Aunt slept with me since I was young until primary school age as our home did not have a lot of bedrooms. She always snored and it scared me when I was young. But after getting used to her snoring, it became like a lullaby for bedtime. Don't laugh at me. I mean it really....! Sometimes, if I don't hear her snoring, I felt like something was missing.

Oh! what am I saying. Yes... I am talking about the pancake. It will be boring if I only talk about food. You may find anywhere else. Let get back to that pancake. Our Burmese traditional pancake is made with rice flour, as rice is our staple diet and is the most useful main ingredient in Burmese traditional sweets. Incidentally, Burma was the biggest rice exporting country in the world half a decade ago.

 The unique flavor of this pancake is the palm sugar( similar to Brown Sugar), which is combined with coconut chips, peanut and poppy seeds. This traditional authentic dessert is available at some of the big tea shops in Yangon ( Rangoon), to enjoy as brunch or as an afternoon snack with coffee.

Burmese Poppyseed Pan Cake ( 3-4 serving)

Ingredients

1 cup      Pancake Mix
1 cup      Rice flour
2 cup      Brown Sugar
2 counts  Egg
1 tsp       Baking Soda
1 tsp       Salt
2 Tbsp     Toasted Poppy Seeds
2 Tbsp     Toasted Sliced Almond or Peanut
1/4 cup    Grated Fresh Coconut
1/4 cup    melted butter

Instructions

1. In the saucepan, add brown sugar, salt and 1 cup of water then let it boil on the stove with medium heat. Cool it down after getting the brown sugar syrup.

2.  In the mixing bowl, add the egg and scramble thoroughly.

3.  Then add pancake mix, rice flour, baking soda and cooled brown sugar syrup. Add 1 cup of water or coconut milk to make the pancake batter consistency. ( optional to use coconut milk)

4. In the baking tray, brush the pan with melted butter before adding the batter mix.

5. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

6. Pour the batter mix into the tray. And bake it in the oven for 30-45 minutes.

7. After 30 minutes, you may notice the cake is puffy and the top layer is getting firm.

8. Take out the tray at that time and brush thoroughly to the melted butter on the top of the cake. Then sprinkle the poppy seeds and toasted almond nuts on that cake and bake again for 15 more minutes.

9. When the cake color is the golden brown turn off the oven and take that tray out of the oven and cool it down.

10. When it cooled enough to cut. Cut into prefer pieces into the individual serving plate. Sprinkle all 1 tbsp of grated coconut on each of the plates.

( Note: We may also make that pancake on the stove top with the skillet individually too.)
           The authentic Burmese cake is made with rice flour. But it is easier to make with pancake mix as we could get it from any grocers. )

 Lake Trout can be One Good Recipe

We grew up with my mom's homemade food that lived in our memories. Our mom never allows us to complain or be choosey of food. She always cooks whatever our dad like to have for dinner. She might be right as there are four siblings and she couldn't make each and everyone happy. But most of the time our mom cook fish with lemongrass flavor in chili broth. This became our favorite as we grew up eating that homemade recipe.

In the summertime in Minnesota, I enjoy shopping at the farmer market because of local authentic Asian vegetables are available. As weather colder in fall in the month of October, the markets are closed for the winter. We always look forward to the opening days of the farmer markets after cold bitter winter is over. During winter we rely on the big chain and Asian groceries to get what we want.

I tried cooking the fish with lemongrass with frozen fish but it is not fresh and flavorful as the fresh, local lake trout. Lemon basil is always available in the summertime so we can use it to have the enhanced flavor of this fish and lemongrass sauce.

Fish with Lemongrass Broth (2- 3 serving)

Ingredients

2 lb      Lake Trout cleaned and cut into 3 pieces each
2 stalk  Lemongrass clean and pounded
1 cup    Fine chopped shallot ( or yellow onion)
1 tbsp   Fine chopped ginger
1 tbsp   Chili Powder
1 tsp     Turmeric Powder
3 tbsp   Canola Oil
3 tbsp   Lemon Basil leaves
2 tbsp   Fish Sauce
1.5 tsp  Salt

Instructions

1.  Clean and cut the fish into 3 pieces. Then marinate with salt and turmeric powder.

2.  In the dutch oven, add oil and heat up with the medium-high heat on the stove top.

3.  Stir onion and ginger together with chili powder. Add a 2 tbsp of water to make the onion soften.

4.  When all the water from chili mixture reduced, add the fish pieces into the pan and mix with chili oil then add the fish sauce and pounded lemongrass.

5. We need to make sure fish and chili mixture are blended with fragrant with fish sauce.     Stir and flip fish pieces each time we stir.

6. When the liquid reduced and fish is fragrant with all flavors, add 1/2 cup of water and cover the pot.

7. When it boils, turn down the heat and let it simmer for 5 more minutes.

8. Finally, add the lemon basil leaves on the top of the fish and cover the pan for few more minutes.

9. Turn off the heat and enjoy with white jasmine rice.

10. We may add whole okra to that fish curry but it is optional.