Khow Suey

I have done a movie marathon this week, well a little over a week really, with two out of the three I watched being really good - Lion and Hidden Figures, while Logan felt a little draggy and pointless. And it has been a week of lots of eating out too - with a friend's mom cooking us some delicious food,  friends flying down to Pune on work and takeaway food before the movie.  

I tried this Khow Suey at one of the places we ate at - @Jonky's Cafe and really loved the intense flavors that the chef had packed into it. I had made a mental note of making it at home someday soon. Only, knowing myself, I didn't expect to make it this soon. 

This dish definitely takes time to make as there is a lot of prepping involved before the actual cook. However, the result is worth the 50 odd minutes I spent making this dish. I still have some way to go before I can make it taste exactly like the one the chef made but for a first attempt, I am very happy with the dish. I adapted the recipe from here - http://food.ndtv.com/recipe-vegetarian-khow-suey-579451 but made a quite a few changes to it.

Also, I completely skipped the noodles in this dish because while I really wanted to have Khow Suey, I also wanted something light. So this thick, soupy Burmese dish with lots of veggies but sans the noodles made for a flavor packed, light weekend lunch for me! 

Khow Suey (Veg) - Serves 2 

Ingredients

Paste

1 large onion - chopped

1 inch ginger stalk - chopped

4-5 garlic pods - chopped

2-3 dried red chillies

1 tbsp turmeric powder

Curry

2 tbsp gram flour (Besan)

1 pack coconut milk

1 cup water

2 tall stalks of lemongrass - cut into 1 inch length pieces

Veggies and Tofu

half a head of broccoli - cut into small flore

6-7 mushrooms - each cut into four pieces 

half red pepper - diced

3-4 baby corns - sliced

10-12 pieces of diced tofu

Toppings

1 onion finely chopped

7-8 garlic pods finely chopped

a handful of peanuts 

1 spring onion stalk finely chopped

1 large cayenne pepper - sliced

half a piece lemon

Cooking 

In a shallow pan, heat oil and toss the dry red chillies into it. let it roast for a min on low. Now combine the rest of the ingredients in a mixer and grind it to a fine paste.

In a deep dished pan, heat oil and add the paste into it once it is hot. stir and cook for 2 - 3 min till the paste starts to leave oil on the sides, add the gram flour and cook for 5-6 min while continuously stirring. Then add the coconut milk and whisk so that the paste gets incorporated. Add water as per thickness needed and keep stirring the curry on low flame. Also, toss in the lemongrass stalks so that the curry steeps in it to absorb its flavor. 

Meanwhile, boil water in a vessel and toss in the broccoli, baby corn and mushrooms when it starts to boil. stir for a min and then strain out the hot water with a big strainer. Keep aside. In the same shallow pan, add unsalted butter, some salt and stir fry the tofu till golden brown. keep aside. In the same pan, once again stir fry the red bell peppers and keep aside. 

Once the curry is simmering and becomes thicker, scoop out the lemongrass stalks and then toss in the tofu and all the vegetables. Stir for 2-3 min and the switch off the heat. 

In the shallow pan, brown the onions and once done, put into a small serving brown. Repeat for the garlic and peanuts. 

In case you do want to have the authentic Khow Suey with the noodles, take about 100gms of noodle sticks and boil them for 5 min. Add a pinch of salt and a some oil so that the noodles do not stick. Add the noodles along with all the vegetables and tofu.

Assembling

Scoop out the curry into a bowl. Top with some more cubes of tofu, sliced cayenne peppers, peanuts and spring onions. Serve with a slice of lemon, small bowls of roasted onions and garlic on the side. 

Squeeze the lemon all over the curry, top with the roasted onions and garlic and dig in!