Kaw bouk (ေခါပုတ္)

Yesterday, my mother managed to buy “half ready-made” kaw bouk from Myanmar (Burma) shop. This is one of my favourite snacks which I used to indulge in whenever my family went to visit my father’s hometown Kan Balu. Eager to share the recipe of this yummy snack with my readers , I asked my mother about it. Trust me… this snack tastes a whole lot better than it looks! So when you visit our golden land, please give it a try.

Ingredients needed are

Black or white glutinous rice

Black toasted sesame seeds

White toasted sesame seeds

Water

Salt

Oil

Kaw bouk (ေခါပုတ္) making

First, toasted sesame seeds are added into a huge mortar and coarsely pounded. Then add in the steamed glutinous rice and pound it together until it turns into a smooth, sticky paste. Remember to sprinkle salt to the mixture. Salt is the only seasoning that you need. Occasionally, you need to add in small amount of water. Pounding the glutinous rice is time-consuming as well as tedious. You can rub oil to the pestle or simply add oil to the mixture to prevent the mixture from sticking to the pestle. Once you have obtained a smooth and sticky paste you can shape it into any shape you like. Then, dry it under the sun so that you can keep kaw bouk pieces for a long period of time.

Kaw bouk can be eaten with boiled yellow beans (pe pyote), homemade tomatoes sauce or sugar.

  Sharing some old family photos back in Myanmar(Burma)....

My brother posing together with our cousins

 Toasting kaw bouk with Uncles, Aunts and cousins.

You can either toast or fry kaw bouk.  

One of our Grandmas also joining in :) 

Fun time with our relatives!

Really miss those days...

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Different garnishing for Oil rice(Si-htamin)

Please refer to the following link for making of oil rice (si-htamin) recipe.

oil rice (si-htamin) recipe

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Drumstick sour soup (ဒန္႔သလြန္သီးခ်ဥ္ရည္)

Today, I’m going to share another lip-smacking Burmese sour soup recipe. One thing I like about our Burmese dishes is that most of the ingredients needed are inexpensive. Also these dishes are reasonably quick and simple to prepare as well. Bravo!

Let’s get started!

Ingredients needed for Drumstick sour soup

3 drumsticks

14-16 small cubes of salted fish

2 tomatoes, sliced

2 red onions, coarsely pounded

5 cloves of garlic, coarsely pounded

2 tablespoons of cooking oil

½ teaspoon of turmeric powder

¼ teaspoon of chilli powder

1 tablespoon of fish sauce

2 teaspoons of tamarind paste

Seasons to taste

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Sesbania grandiflora sour soup (အေမ့လက္ရာ ေပါက္ပန္းျဖဴ ခ်ဥ္ရည္ဟင္း)

Hi, Good day to all my blog readers! Today post is Sesbania grandiflora sour soup recipe by my mother. You will be surprised how simple and quick to make this edible flowers soup. It was my first time tasting this irresistible soup. Thanks mother, I really enjoyed your soup :)

I also found out that these flowers are not only edible but also known to give many health benefits. If you would like to find out more about this edible flower, please follow the links below.

herbalsmyanmar.com (in Burmese)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sesbania_grandiflora

Cooking time : 7-8 minutes

Ingredients

300g Sesbania grandiflora

Coarsely chopped fresh chives

1 1/2 tablespoon tamarind juice

Mother's pre-made gravy paste

My mother said, " You need to open up the pau pan phyu (Sesbania grandiflora) to remove the yellow tips (anther, I guess) and then wash it."

I was interested to find out the names for flower parts and found the following picture with parts being labeled. If you are interested to know, you can take a look. I got it from this google image link.

Heat cooking pot over a medium heat.

Add 2 tablespoon of cooking oil.

Once the oil is heated, add in the coarsely chopped fresh chives.

Give it a stir.

Add in the flowers and stir well.

Add 2 cups of water, cover with the lid and let it cook for about 5 minutes.

Add 1 1/2 tablespoon of tamarind juice to the boiling soup.

Seasons to taste with salt and MSG.

Give it a gentle stir.

Let it simmer for another 2 minutes and that's it!

Thanks for dropping by and have a wonderful time. Bye guys!

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65th Anniversary of Burma's Martyrs Day

The above picture is taken from here.

* This We Promise *

We will break our silence and rise up to honour you.

This we promise!

We will pick up and carry the torch of freedom.

This we promise!

We will fight for our rights and dignity.

This we promise!

We will educate ourselves in order to help us build a strong and united nation.

This we promise!

We will love, respect, protect and promote our culture.

This we promise!

Today, you will hear the voices of a grateful nation rising up to honour you.

For this, we wish you could hear….

By Moulmein Thu

**********************************************

               

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Gravy Dish ( Beef cooked with potatoes )

First marinate the beef pieces (0.354kg) with the following ingredients.

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon mono sodium glutamate

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

Peel 4 potatoes and cut them into smaller sizes.

 

For a gravy paste

Peel the 2 large red onions, garlic and ginger.
Cut and grind them into a fine paste.

Cooking Time: 65-75 minutes

Heat up cooking oil (5-6 tablespoons of cooking oil) in a cooking pot over a medium heat. 


Once the oil is heated, add in the gravy paste ingredients mixture and stir. Then add in turmeric powder, coriander powder and chili powder (1 teaspoon each). Gently stir for about 4-5 minutes. Add in about 320 ml of water and stir. Cover with the lid and let it cook for about 20-25 minutes.

Now add in the beef and stir well. Cover with the lid and let it cook for another 5 minutes.


Add in the potatoes pieces and stir. Add in about 320 ml of water, cover with lid and let it cook for 30-35 minutes. Occasionally stirring the mixture as well as add in water to prevent the gravy from sticking to the cooking pot.

Add salt and mono sodium glutamate (1 teaspoon each) to the mixture. Sprinkle garam masala and let it cook for 5-7 minutes over a low heat. That's it. The aroma of masala gravy makes this dish irresistible!

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Home-made Burmese Tofu salad (တ႔ိုဟူးသုပ္)

Finally, I have learnt the skill of making Burmese tofu…hooray! Actually, it is really simple to make.

Let’s us start by getting all these ingredients ready.

Home-made Tofu
Serves: 2-3


Ingredients for making Burmese Tofu
150g Chick Pea Powder
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
640 ml water
I did not add salt since I would be adding salt as well as fish sauce in my tofu salad later on.


Directions
Add chick peas powder into a bowl. Then add 160ml of water and give it a stir for about 2 minutes. Add another 480 ml of water and stir well till the mixture becomes smooth. Now add in ½ teaspoon of turmeric powder. Stir well.

Place cooking pan/pot over a medium heat. Pour in the chick peas liquid and start stirring. Please note that you need to stir continuously. And it will take about 6-7 minutes. You need to lower the heat once the mixture become thickens and lumps begin to form. You can refer to my following video for better understanding of making tofu. Wish you success in making it!

Burmese Tofu Salad Recipe

Please note:
For tofu salad, I only use half of my tofu for one serving.
½ teaspoon of salt
½ teaspoon of mono sodium glutamate
2 tablespoons of toasted chick pea powder
1 tablespoon of fish sauce (adjust according to your taste)
3 ½ tablespoons of tamarind juice (adjust according to your taste)
3 ½ tablespoons of fried crispy onions and oil

Thinly sliced cabbage
You can add chili flakes if you want it to be spicy.
Mixed everything and ready to serve!



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Pork cooked with Fermented bean paste

I have posted the recipe for Pork cooked with Fermented bean paste   
(၀က္သားပုန္းရည္ႀကီး) before but i did not give a detailed recipe. So i decided to post a new improved recipe for this dish since one of my blog readers is asking for it. I haven't cook this dish for quite a long time and today I'm cooking this dish. Preparation would be slightly different from previous recipe but this is definitely better tasting :) Hope you too would try this out and let me know how it goes,OK?

The name of this dish in Burmese is called Wet thar poun yi gyi
Wet thar (pork)
poun yi gyi (Fermented bean paste)

Cooking Time : 35-45 minutes

Step: 1

Cut the pork(0.330kg) into small size and marinate with 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon mono sodium glutamate for 15-20 minutes.

Step: 2

Peel, wash and chopped 2 red onions and ginger.

Grind them into a fine paste.

Step: 3

Add 5 tablespoons of cooking oil to the cooking pot.

Heat the oil over a medium heat.

Add 1 teaspoon of chili powder to the heated oil and stir continuously for about five minutes.

Add 120ml of water. Give it a quick stir before covering with the lid.

Let it cook for about 5 minutes over a medium heat.

Step: 4

Now, add the marinated pork and continue to stir until all sides have turned white. Add 160ml of water and give it a gentle stir before covering with the lid. Let it cook for about 20 minutes over a low heat.

Occasionally, stirring the mixture.

Step: 5

Add the fermented bean paste(1 packet or est. 8-10 tablespoons). Add 40ml of water and stir gently. Cover with the lid and let it cook over a low heat for another 10-15 minutes. And that's it!
Please note
If you want to have a thick fermented bean paste gravy, then you add more. If not add less of it.

I hope everyone enjoy making our exotic Burmese dish !

See ya..:)

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