Let Thoke - A Version

Burmese food is varied. The cuisine covers a gamut of items that can be tossed to make something. From goat testicles to a dosa. They have it all. Rather they use it all. The best are their toss-ups. Subtle Influences from a myriad of food cultures, yet an innate character which is unique and unparalleled.  

ps; Mukund, my friend are you grimacing? Well, Mukund, my buddy as I have written on my FB page has been more than a 100 times to Myanmar. Love does to you, I guess, Yes Mukund? 

I love the way Burmese have adapted the sumusa and the falooda with tapioca pearls. And the use of green tea leaves in food. The umpteen fresh delectable salads that they boast of. They even start the day with a toss-up. 

Truly, who wants to have cereals instead?

So here is my version of a Let Thoke, a verbal hand-me-down from Ishani's friend Runia post one of their weekend night in Kolkata. 

Runia suggested that one uses beef mince. Take half a kg of mince, wash well and set aside. Finely chop 2 large red onions and 8 pods of garlic. In about 3 tbsp of warm oil, lightly fry the onions and after a minute throw in the chopped garlic. Once the mix is light golden, add the mince. Stir fry for 2 mins, add salt to taste, 4 tbsp soya sauce and 2 tsps full pepper powder. Once you have blended everything, cover with a lid for the next 7-8 mins or so. Take off the lid, taste for perfect cooking of the meat and flavours and keep the cooked mince aside.

Next my favourite - peanuts. In a small wok, warm 1 tsp oil, add 1/4 tsp salt and chilly powder respectively. Throw in a handful of lightly toasted skinned peanuts. Toss for another min. While it is warm and crisp, crush it in a pestle and mortar. The final texture should be kind of coarse.

Now; time to chop chop chop. 

Finely wash, dry and chop about 6 stems of green spring onions. Set aside.

Again finely chop the white bulbls of the same spring onions. In a small warm wok, toss them for a min. Set aside.

Length-wise cut about 10 pods of garlic. Once again in a warm small wok, add 1/2 tsp oil, when warm lightly fry the garlic till light brown. Keep aside.

Boil eggs, chop and set aside. This step is optional.

Chop raw mangoes with the skin.

Finally just before serving steam raw noodles and drain well. While the noodles are steaming, pour on them the cooked mince. Top with all of the chopped and fried garnishes you have prepared. Lastly sprinkle lime juice and some red chilly flakes. 

Attack. Enjoy. That's guaranteed.

Red Cabbage Salad

Always curious about the reason for the colour of the red cabbage, I recently learnt that the nature of the soil as in its ph value gives the cole vegetable its colour.

While we do know that many consider cabbage with vinegar as a good hangover remedy, there is a cabbage lore which probably precedes this remedial tactic. So the lore goes as that Egyptian pharaohs would eat large quantities of cabbage before a  night of drinking as they believed that cabbage consumption would allow them to drink more alcoholic beverages without feeling too much after effects.

A weekend coming up, you can be a pharaoh and get cracking on some cabbage. Crisp, delicious, nutritious and useful this salad recipe is a winner in every way.

Take half a red cabbage, wash it well, dry it well. Now chop in thin long strips. Keep aside. Next halve grapes, black or green, longitudinally. Cut tomatoes into cubes. If you wish to use cherry tomatoes do the same to the tomatoes as you have done to grapes. I used about 15 grape pearls and 2 medium sized fresh tight tomatoes. Toast a handful of pine nuts, they are expensive, be alert and do not burnt them while toasting like yours truly did. Take about 50 grams of flavoured paneer. Mix everything but use only half the paneer. This is important to note because when you dress the salad the paneer crumbles a bit much. So it is a good idea to allow only half the portion of paneer to blend well into the leaves. I also like to save aside a few of the pine nuts for topping.

For the dressing, in a bowl, take 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar, salt to taste, a dash of oregano, a dash of sugar and some cracked pepper. Mix well with a spoon until the sugar dissolves. 

About half an hour before serving, dress the salad well. Top with the balance paneer roughly cubed and the kept-aside pine nuts. 

Fresh Orange Cake

I remember reading somewhere that in Queen Victoria's days they would give oranges as Christmas gifts. In fact the colour 'orange' came later, earlier on the colour of the fruit would be tagged as 'yellow-red'. Maybe because of the 'red' the fruit found the place in Christmas hampers. Interesting.

In January in Mumbai, orange carts are everywhere. The gorgeous shining roundels are so tempting, that I felt like doing more than just eating them. Try this fresh orange cake. Trust me the freshness of the warm cake is refreshing beyond expectation. Also trust me, it takes only a few minutes to stack into an oven.

Cream 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup of salted butter with an electric whisk. Once soft and creamy, add 3 eggs and beat well. I usually whisk for a good 5 minutes. Separately sieve 2 cups of flour and 2 tsp baking powder. Also separately squeeze out 1 cup of fresh orange juice and grate orange rind to get a tsp full. Now gently add the flour to to egg-butter-sugar mix and fold in. The cake mix will be like a dough now. Pour in the juice and blend well with a spatula. The  batter will now be smooth, soft and it will acquire a dropping consistency. Once the mixing is smooth and without any lumps spoon in the orange rind. One more gentle mix and your batter is set to go into the pre heated oven. Pour it into a ready baking dish laced with butter paper. Bake at 180 degrees for 35 mins. 

Enjoy the cake slightly warm. Chocolate goes well with orange, especially dark chocolate. A drizzle with a dark chocolate syrup might romance it up though I love it minus embellishments. 

Maldivian Mushroom Roast/Curry

Friends and I landed into Malay airport at the wee hours of a cool morning. This was quite a few years ago. The husband came to pick us up on a boat wearing a white linen shirt and a hat looking quite like the iconic Hindi cinema villain 'Ajit' from a distance.Then started this amazing four days of tranquility and magic.

The most magical part of this travel experience was that on our island the mandate was 'no shoes'. So all the guests and the hosts would walk around the island bare-feet. I remember being dressed for dinner in a skirt and being barefoot in the evenings. As one treads onto different well rounded stones and pebbles, the feelings were absolutely sublime.

I picked up a cook book from the hotel boutique and since then I've been dabbling with some of their awesome recipes. This was originally a squid based recipe; well, Maldivian cuisine is based on three main items or their derivatives -  coconut, fish and starches. This mushroom recipe borrows from the squid roast recipe with a twist. 

Firstly we need to make a marinade. Take one about 2 inch piece of ginger, 4 whole green chillies, 2 slit thin 'cocum' pieces, 2 sprigs of curry leaves, 1 tsp turmeric powder and salt to taste. In a small blender jar, make a coarse paste. The recipe is for about 3 packets, about 40 odd buttons, of white mushroom. Clean the mushroom well and pluck the stem out. Now gently rub the marinade all over the buttons and set aside for at least a half hour. 

In a warm wok, pour in 2-3 tbsp oil. Once the oil is warm, allow half a tsp of mustard seeds to sputter. Next add finely chopped onions, I used 2 big ones, 2 chopped green chillies, finely chopped 1 inch ginger and 4-5 pods of garlic and also finely chopped curry leaves. Saute well until the onions are transparent. Add 1/2 tsp chilli powder and 1 and a 1/2 tsp coriander powder. Fry well. Now added the marinated mushrooms. Mix well and cover the wok. In about 5 minutes, add 3 tbsp grated coconut, a dash of pepper powder, 1 level tsp garam masala and salt to taste. Transfer to a serving dish.

I have made this a few times, the first few times I did not cover the mushroom with a lid and this left the dish dry, quite like a roast. I must say, both variations are pretty delectable. 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge Cake

Fudge was first made in America. One story goes that a bungled up batch of caramels resulted in the exclamation 'Oh Fudge' and hence the birth of the Fudge. 

The trick to make a good fudge is following three things ;

a. Be precise in your measurements

b. Be accurate with your cooking time

c. Stir constantly and always with a wooden spoon

I attempted a chocolate fudge cake this Christmas. While it did not look dressed-to-kill, it tasted absolutely delicious. And the best part, it was really a very simple task. Here goes.

In a mixing bowl mix and set aside 2 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 tsp of baking soda. On the side beat 2 eggs. Now in a heavy saucepan, add half a cup of butter. Melt it and add 1/2 cup cocoa. Now add 1/3rd cup butter milk and the beaten eggs. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon.All this time your mix is simmering in low heat. Now add this hot wet ingredient mix to the dry flour mix and blend well. Add 1 tsp of vanilla extract. Fold in well. Pour the batter into a cake tin. Bake at 180 degrees C for about 30 to 35 mins. To test for appropriate baking use the same old needle technique. Set the fudge cake aside on a wire rack for 8-10 mins or so.

While the fudge cake is warm, spread peanut butter all over the surface. This is the most indulgent part of this recipe, just enjoy yourself, a lick or two is also allowed. 

Now we have to make the frosting, this frosting is gorgeous and shiny. Take 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup butter milk and 1/2 cup cocoa. Lovingly mix all of them together and bring to a gentle boil. Now pour this into 4 level cups of icing sugar. With a flexi spatula blend well, and add 1 tsp of vanilla extract. Because this was Christmas I also add half a cup of dark rum to this mix.  Of course, it is time to taste the frosting before lathering it onto the peanut butter topping. 

That's it, dive in. The loveliest part of this recipe is that you can save the fudge cake for a good week or so.