Khao Suey, the Burmese noodle soup you’ll be hard-pressed to find in Burma

How did a Burmese noodle crockery go truthful communal successful Kolkata? The reply lies successful history: during World War II, galore Indians moving successful Myanmar (then Burma) returned home, bringing the look with them. My maternal grandma lived successful Myanmar for galore years, and we travel her look religiously.

I retrieve relishing khao suey successful Kolkata homes, including my own, immoderate 4 decades ago. But it’s lone since 2005 oregon truthful that it started appearing successful edifice menus successful Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. As we say, what Bengal does today, the remainder of India embraces decades later.

Much similar Parsi dhansak, khao suey is seldom recovered successful its archetypal signifier successful its homeland. Dhansak is chiefly reserved for funerals successful Parsi homes. Similarly, you’ll beryllium hard-pressed to find Khao Suey successful Burma. Khao suey simply means “rice noodles”. The coconut beverage mentation truthful loved successful India is really a twist connected “ohn nary khao suey,” a Southern Myanmarese noodle soup, but the resemblance is minimal and is recovered practically obscurity successful the state of its origin. Other countries person their adaptations: successful Laos, khao soi is simply a hearty crockery with wide noodles, pork, and soybeans, topped with coriander and legume sprouts.

Each idiosyncratic should person a ample crockery bowl, successful which they instrumentality 1 serving of noodles. The lime should beryllium squeezed connected the idiosyncratic crockery servings. (Photo: Freepik)

During my research, I was amazed to observe that khao suey is intimately linked to the Memoni Muslim dish, khausa. The Memons, traders from Gujarat, would question to British-occupied Burma pre-Independence to commercialized successful textile, oil, and paper. Many Memons returned to India successful 1947 and successful the 60s during the Burmese unrest owing to the military. They brought with them the khausa. Unlike the atom noodles successful khao suey, khausa uses Italian-style wheat spaghetti, topped with boneless chickenhearted curry cooked successful yoghurt, coconut milk, and gram flour, and garnished with greenish chilies, julienned ginger, and crispy fried dough strips.

My large aunt’s navigator utilized to marque khao suey with handmade level ovum noodles, which elevated the sensation arsenic the noodles would soak up the gravy. On that sentimental note, here’s my household look for khao suey. I don’t cognize however authentic it is, but I bash cognize that my friends and household lick the vessel cleanable each time. If you instrumentality to the recipe, you shouldn’t fare excessively badly.

All the measurements are approximations. Tweak the ingredients to your taste. If you’d similar it little spicy, permission retired the chili powder. And if you’d similar it thicker, summation the quantity of coconut milk. You tin adjacent thicken it the accepted mode by adding 2 tablespoons of besan oregon gram flour oregon crushed chana dal.

Recipe:

• One packet of ovum noodles (egg noodles thin to soak up the crockery best, but you tin usage mean atom noodles arsenic well)
• 2 tbsps ail paste
• 2 tbsps ginger paste
• 2 onions (paste)
• 2 tomatoes (skinned and pureed)
• 2 tsp red chili powder
• 500 ml coconut milk
• 250 gms boneless chickenhearted oregon lamb chopped into tiny pieces astir 1 inch successful magnitude and thickness
• 1 tsp freshly crushed garam masala (equal portions cinnamon, cardamom and clove)
• Salt to taste

For vegetarians: regenerate the chickenhearted with chopped mushrooms, brinjals and cottage food oregon paneer

Accompaniments (the champion portion of the soup):

• 1 tiny vessel chopped outpouring onions
• 1 tiny vessel citrus wedges
• 1 tiny vessel chili flakes
• 1 tiny vessel roasted garlic
• 1 tiny vessel crisply fried babe prawns
• 1 tiny vessel sliced boiled egg
• 1 tiny vessel chopped coriander
• 1 tiny vessel chopped greenish chilis

Recipe:

• Heat a spoon of rootlike lipid successful a pan. Add the bulb and ginger and ail pastes. Sauté till they alteration colour.
• Add the chili powder. Keep sautéing.
• Then adhd the chicken/lamb pieces.
• If you are making the vegetarian version, adhd the vegetables now.
• Keep sautéing until the chickenhearted changes colour and is coated with the pastes. Then adhd the herb puree and brackish to taste. Sauté until the herb puree is cooked through.
• Then determination successful the coconut milk, bring to a boil erstwhile and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the garam masala pulverization astatine the extremity and brackish to taste, disturbance and instrumentality disconnected the flame.
• In the meantime, boil the noodles.

To serve:

Each idiosyncratic should person a ample crockery bowl, successful which they instrumentality 1 serving of noodles. They whitethorn apical it up with arsenic overmuch crockery arsenic they want, and the accompaniments of their choice.

The lime should beryllium squeezed connected the idiosyncratic crockery servings.

We usually service this astatine location with outpouring rolls and steamed momos.

If you can’t beryllium bothered to marque it astatine location and you hap to find yourself successful Calcutta––the metropolis of joyousness and bully food––simply get yourself invited to a nonmigratory Calcuttan’s house.

Next week, since it’s getting cooler and cooler, I thought I’d speech astir that different crockery favourite – the thupka.