Mixed vegetable curry

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Prata in chicken and potatoes curry

This is my homemade tasty appetizer. This appetizer is inspired by the exotic flavours of India.

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Mixed Vegetables Curry

Ingredients

Brinjal

Tomatoes

Long beans

Potatoes

Lady's finger

Chinese parsley

Red onions

Garlic

Cooking oil

Chili powder

Turmeric powder

Coriander powder

Tamarind juice

Salt

Mono sodium glutamate (MSG)

Cooking Time : 50 - 60 minutes

~ Heat up oil in the cooking pot over a medium heat.

~ Add the coarsely chopped red onions and garlic . Saute for about a minute 

   before adding in turmeric powder, chili powder and coriander powder. Give it 

   a stir and let it cook for about 2-3 minutes.

~ Add in the potatoes cubes and stir well. Add a little bit of water, cover with

   the lid and cook for about 8-10 minutes over a medium heat.

~ Add the brinjal cubes and tomatoes slices to the mixture and give it a gentle

   stir. A little bit of water is added in. Again, cover with the lid and let it cook 

   for another 5-7 minutes.

~ Add in the lady's finger pieces as well as long bean pieces to the mixture and

   stir gently. Add a bowl of water and let it cook for about 12-15 minutes.

~ Season the vegetables curry with salt, MSG and tamarind juice. Stir and

   spread chopped Chinese parsley on top. Cover with the lid and let it simmer

   for 10-15 minutes on low heat.

The delicious mixed vegetables curry!

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Mum’s savory pumpkin recipe

Cooking Time : 25 - 30 mins

Cut the pumpkin into small cubes.

Place the cooking utensil over a medium heat.

Add Mum's homemade gravy to the heated cooking pot.

Please refer to the previous post for Mum's homemade gravy recipe.

Add the pumpkin cubes to the cooking pot and give it a quick stir.

Cover with the lid and let it cook for about 5 minutes over a medium heat.

Add small amount of water, salt and mono sodium glutamate (MSG).

Give it a gentle stir, cover with the lid and let it cook for another 20-25 minutes over a medium heat.

This is another side dish that my mother cooks quite often at home.

Enjoy!

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Stuffed eggplant with peanuts, dried shrimps and spices

My mother cooks this eggplant curry at home quite often. I like the rich taste of this eggplant stuffed with peanuts, dried shrimps and spices. Recently, i tried out this simple recipe in my own kitchen.
Mmmmmm...
Not bad :)

I have a feeling that I will be making this eggplant curry fairly often in the future.

For my this recipe, let me just eye balls things as i never like to measure.
I guess it runs in the genes.
Whenever i asked my mum how to prepare certain dishes, she would just say, " Well, you need to add this and that ingredient.....".
That's why, i often ended up cooking many dishes with no proper recipes.
To be honest, i prefer it this way too :)
Why not?
In fact, it makes my time in the kitchen more challenging and exciting.

Ingredients

Pounded dried shrimps

Pounded peanuts

Mixture of chilli powder, red onions and garlic

Turmeric

Cooking oil

Seasons to taste

Method

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly in the pan.

Wash the eggplants. Slit the eggplants as shown in the picture below.

Stuff the eggplants.

Add 1/4 cup of water and let this cook on medium heat until all the eggplants are well cooked.

note: During cooking process, add warm water as needed and gently turning the eggplants so that all the sides are equally cooked.
Serve this with rice.

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Spicy squid

Serves : 3-4

Cooking Time : 20-25 minutes

Ingredients

~ 0.352 kg squid

~ 6 cherry tomatoes

~ a handful of curry leaves

~ 1 large red onion, coarsely chopped

~ 4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped

~ 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, pounded

~ 2 teaspoons of lemon zest

~ 5 tablespoons oil

~ seasons to taste

Steps needed to clean and prepare the squid

• Pull the tentacles out from the body
• Cut the tentacles just below the eyes and then remove the ' beak ' ( Be careful not to cut the ink sac )
• Gently reach inside the body to remove the quill and discard
• Tear away the skin and wash the squid under running water
• Cut the squid into estimate equal length

Method

1. Marinate the squid pieces, lemon zest, pounded cumin seeds, garlic and 1 teaspoon of oil in a bowl. Place this inside a fridge for about 40 minutes.
2. Heat oil in a pan over medium heat.
3. Add the onions and stir for about a minute before adding in the marinated squid. Then add the water. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes.
4. Add the cherry tomatoes and give it a quick stir.
5. Then spread curry leaves on top. Cover and simmer for 5-10minutes. Occasionally stirring the mixture until the liquid has reduced and the oil has separated from the gravy.

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Fried roselle leaves (chin baung kyaw)

Today, i managed to buy 2 bunches of roselle leaves (chin baung ywet) from the wet market. I was not searching for it and did not expect to find it either. So, i was pretty happy to have spotted it :)
Next i quickly went on to buy 1 canned of shredded bamboo shoots to make an absolute appetite stimulating dish,
chin baung kyaw.




Cooking Time: 30-40 minutes
Serves : 4-5

Ingredients
2 bunches roselle leaves
1 small canned shredded bamboo shoots (not raw)
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1/4 tablespoon red chilli powder
1/4 tablespoon turmeric powder
1 medium sized red onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon pounded dried shrimp
6 green chillies
seasons to taste
note: I use salt for seasoning instead of shrimp paste or fish sauce. I guess my preference for using salt is influenced by my mother. My Mum told me that fish sauce will make the dish smells bad when it gets cold. It smells great when the dish is still hot or warm. Do pardon me if my word usage 'smells bad' offended anyone who uses fish sauce. We still use fish sauce occasionally in our salad. It is great in its own and one of the essential seasoning ingredients.


Method
1. Prepare the vegetable by breaking off the leaves at the base. Washed roselle leaves and drained the water.

2. Heat up the oil in the frying pan.

3. Add the turmeric, red chilli powder, onion and garlic. Give it a stir until the onion paste becomes golden brown.

4. Add dried shrimp, roselle leaves and 1 tablespoon of water and stir well.

5. When the roselle leaves turned soft then add the shredded bamboo shoots and green chillies. Cover and simmer for about 10-15 minutes, occasionally stirring the mixture until the leaves turned into a dark reddish brown paste. It is ready when the oil has separated from the gravy.

Absolute appetite stimulating dish!!!!!

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Spicy split yellow lentils

Cooking Time : 45 - 60 minutes

Serves : 4 - 6

Chana dal which is also known as split yellow lentils is a bean that comes from India. It looks just like yellow split peas but is quite different. Spicy split yellow lentils is one of the common dry curries in Myanmar. Of course, it way of cooking is greatly influenced by the way Indian cooks. This is one of my father favourite dish too. This delicious dry curry can be used as a dip with bread or chapati.


Ingredients
Chana dal 250g
3-5 cups water
1/4 tablespoon turmeric powder
5 cm garlic, sliced
1/4 tablespoon masala
1 tablespoon oil
1/4 tablespoon cumin seeds
5 garlic cloves, chopped finely
1/2 tablespoon of chilli powder (adjust to your spice level)
Seasonings to taste


Method
Put the dal into a bowl and remove any small stones or any unskinned (dark) dal.
Soak it in water for about 2-3 hours, then wash it under running water and drain.
Pour it inside the cooking pot and add water to boil.
Remove any surface scum.
When it starts to boil, add turmeric powder and ginger slices.
Let it boil for another 20-30 minutes.
Stir occasionaly to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of cooking pot.
Remove the ginger slices then add salt and masala and give it a quick stir.
Lower the heat.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in the pan, then add cumin seeds, garlic and red chilli powder.
Stir the mixture until the garlic pieces are lightly brown then pour it into the dal pot.
Give it a quick stir and cook it for another 5-10 minutes.
Seasonings to taste.

Serve Hot !

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Fermented bamboo shoots with pork (wet thar hmyint chin)

Cooking Time : 45 - 70 minutes

Serves : 4 - 6

Ingredients
Pork
1 packet fermented bamboo shoots
(can be purchased at Myanmar shops in Singapore)
2 onions chopped finely
3 cloves of garlic chopped finely
1/4 tablespoon turmeric
1/4 tablespoon chilli powder
1 tablespoon oil
3-5 bowls of water
seasonings to taste ( salt & Ajinomoto)

Method
1. Chopped the pork into desired equal size and marinate with turmeric,
salt and Ajinomoto.

2. Heat up the oil in the cooking pot.

3. Add chopped onions, garlic and chilli powder. Give it a stir till the onions
turns a bit of yellow and add the marinated pork.

4. Give it a quick stir and let it cook for about 3 minutes.

5. Add fermented bamboo shoots and give it a quick stir.

6. Add water just enough to cover the fermented bamboo shoots and
pork. Let it cook for about 40-60 minutes.

7. Add seasoning to taste and it is ready to serve.

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