Khow suey

 I've grown up being told that this was a burmese dish that somehow got wildly popular in India in the 70s/80s. I'm not sure there is anyone in Burma that would recognize this dish but I love it. I recently came across another recipe called Khow soi that purports to being a coconut curry/noodle soup from Burma by way of Thailand, so the truth, as they say, is out there.

Ingredients

Soup: 

• 1 kg chicken (I used chicken thighs, bone-in or boneless, cut into smaller pieces)
• 2 chopped onions
• 2 Tbsp Ginger-Garlic paste
• 6 Tbsp Chickpea flour/ besan
• 5 bowls water
• 1/2 - 1 cup desiccated or fresh/ frozen shredded coconut

Toppings:

• 6 eggs
• Limes
• Fried onions
• Fried Garlic
• Cashewnuts
• Salli/ Laccha

Carbs:

• Egg noodles
• Rice Noodles
• Rice

Method

1. Boil Eggs to hard, cool peel. Slice and fry onions and garlic separately to brown. Drain on paper towels. Quarter limes. 
2. Heat a table spoon of oil until shimmering hot, then add the onions and fry for about 5 minutes
3. Lower the heat to medium-low, add ginger-garlic paste and fry until fragrant.
4. Throw in salt, red chilli powder and saute for maybe 10 seconds, then add in the chicken and fry until the chicken has a bit of surface.
5. Add in the besan and then fry until fragrant (the smell changes, thats what you're looking for)
6. Add in the water and then boil until the chicken is cooked
7. Add in the coconut and boil for another 5 minutes. At this point, when we've used frozen fresh coconut before, we noticed the shreds were really long and would have been hard to eat, so we pulled out the chicken and used an immersion blender to make the soup smooth.
8. Boil the noodles/cook rice etc as needed
9. Assemble bowls: put noodles/rice in the bottom of a bowl and ladle on lots and lots of soup. Add on toppings, halved boiled egg and lots of lime (this is v. important, v. v. It really needs lime)

Notes

1. This recipe scales really well. Mum's rule of thumb is that you add a Tbsp of besan for every bowl of khow suey you want and about a bowl of water. At this volume as written, since the chicken and other ingredients increase the volume by around a bowl, I only used 5 bowls of water.

Japanese Chinese-style fried chicken

This recipe is from Buzzfeed Japan's video, on youtube here. It is fantastically good and unlike a lot of their other yummy recipes does not involve deep frying. I've written it down so that I don't have to go to their video and play and pause it repeatedly every single time I want to make this! I only have access to bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs so I learned how to debone them from here.

Ingredients

Chicken Marinade:

• 8 Skin-on, boneless chicken thighs
• 4 tsp Minced ginger
• 4 tsp Minced Garlic
• 3 tsp salt
• 8 tbsp rice wine vinegar or Sake

Sauce:

• 8 tbsp light soy sauce
• 8 tbsp vinegar (I've used everything from rice wine to apple cider)
• 4 tbsp sesame oil
• 4 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp minced ginger
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 4-5 scallions, finely diced
• 2-3 red peppers finely sliced

Potato flour
Frying oil

Method

1. Debone the chicken and cut off excess skin and fat. Cut small gashes through the skin and meat.
2. Marinate the chicken with the other ingredients under marinade for ~30 minutes. I marinate covered in the fridge if its going to be longer
3. Mix the ingredients under sauce together to make the sauce
4. Coat the chicken thighs in potato flour. 
5. Add a couple of table spoons oil to a frying pan and heat.
6.  Fry the thighs on medium heat, first skin side down for 5-7 minutes and then flip for 5-7 minutes.
7. Cut into slices and serve on rice with the sauce on the side or on top.

Tamarind and Tuna curry

I made this because I did not want to go and buy groceries. I had canned tuna and wanted curry. Google presented me with this perfect recipe which I altered to suit my ingredients. The recipe is redolent of laksa and I've already made it twice because the sour-sweetness of the tamarind perfectly complements the strong tuna flavors. It pairs perfectly with rice.

Ingredients

• 2 Cans Tuna (160g each, in water)
• 3 Onions, sliced
• 4 cloves of Garlic, sliced
• 1Tbsp Ginger, chopped
• 1 tsp Red chilly powder 
• 1 tsp Coriander powder
• 1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
• 1/2 tsp Fenugreek seeds
• 1" square of Tamarind(Kudampuli), soaked in boiling water
• Salt to taste
• oil
• 1 tsp Mustard seeds
• Curry leaves

Method

1. Soak Kudampuli and keep it aside for 10 minutes
2. Heat 2tbsp oil in a pan and add mustard seeds
3. When the mustard seeds start to splutter add ginger and then turn off or turn down the heat. Add the garlic and curry leaves and after they are cooked, add the fenugreek seeds very briefly, max 30s.
4. Saute it till they are soft. I add salt at this stage to make the onion cook faster.
5. Add the chilli powder, coriander powder and turmeric powder to the pan and fry on a low heat for a minute or two till it smells less raw. 
6. Add the soaked Kudampuli and water. Bring it to boil.
7. Add the drained canned Tuna and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes and then leave covered with no heat for ~10minutes.
8. Serve with rice. 

Nutrition

This recipe makes 3 big servings of 293 kcal each. Of which 11g carbs, 15g fat and 29g protein. 

Asian marinated baked chicken

This was super simple and absolutely delicious. It is probably getting added to our regular rotation. I used boneless skinless chicken thighs but the recipe says that bone in, skin on chicken would work better. We only marinated it for an hour (maybe) but the recipe calls for 12-24. If it was this good after an hour of marination, I can only imagine how good it would taste after 12! I found this recipe on Yummly after googling around looking for a good chicken recipe that would use up my scallions as well. I think the original recipe is from Chow.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup soy sauce (I used half dark soy, and half malaysian sweet soy)
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 3 tbsps fresh ginger (peeled and finely chopped, from 1, 3- to 4-inch piece)
• 1 tbsp chopped garlic (finely, from about 5 medium cloves)
• 2 tsps toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp ground black pepper (freshly)
• 3 lbs bone in skin on chicken thigh (drumsticks, or breasts, or a combination of all three, I used boneless skinless chicken thighs)
• Scallions (bunch, I had 6) chopped 

Instructions

1. Place everything except the chicken in a 13-by-9-inch broiler-proof baking dish and whisk to combine. If I was actually going to marinate this recipe overnight I would probably do this entire marination in a big ziplock. I also added a drizzle of some hot and sour dipping sauce I had because some of the original comments suggested it needed some chili flakes.
2. Lay the chicken in a single layer in the marinade and turn to coat. Add half the scallions as well. Cover, refrigerate, and marinate at least 12 hours and up to 24 hours, turning the chicken at least once during the marinating time. (The one hour, room temp marination also yielded mind-blowingly yummy chicken. I suspect longer marination would be better for bone-in, skin-on chicken.)
3. Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes. (This step is not necessary if using a ziplock bag for the marination.)Meanwhile, heat the oven to 475°F (250C) and arrange a rack in the middle.
4. Turn all the chicken pieces skin-side up in the dish (if you’re using drumsticks, just turn to recoat them in the marinade). Bake until the chicken is starting to turn a dark brown color, about 40 minutes. (We started with the dish covered and then removed the foil 20 minutes in and also turned the pieces over once while baking since mine were skinless.)
5. Set the oven to broil and broil until the chicken skin is crisped, about 3 to 5 minutes more. Skipped this step. Added remaining scallions over the top and ate with boiled white rice with the sauce drizzled over the top.

Delish.

Calories: As written, this marinade contains 577 calories (excluding the ginger, garlic and scallions as minimal.) As written, the entire dish contains 1617 calories (0.9 kg boneless skinless chicken thighs at 1000 calories) and probably yields about 4-5 servings (big eater servings :blush:) at 400 calories each. Add rice calories separately. Keep in  mind that you probably won't eat the entire marinade. We had most of it left over after drizzling some onto the rice. So I think a more accurate per serving calories count would be somewhere in the 300-350 range. 

Momofuku Bo Ssam

We got this from the New York Times, here, and from Working Class Foodie on Youtube, here.

Pork Butt

• 1 whole bone-in pork butt or picnic ham (8 to 10 pounds)
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 7 tablespoons brown sugar

Chili-Garlic Sauce

• 2 jalapeños
• 2 garlic cloves
• salt
• pepper
• dash of soy sauce
• dash of vinegar
• neutral oil

Ginger-Scallion Sauce

• 2½ cups thinly sliced scallions, both green and white parts
• ½ cup peeled, minced fresh ginger
• ¼ cup neutral oil (like grapeseed)
• 1½ teaspoons light soy sauce
• 1 scant teaspoon sherry vinegar
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste

Ssam Sauce

• 2 tablespoons fermented bean-and- chili paste (ssamjang, available in many Asian markets, and online)
• 1 tablespoon chili paste (kochujang, available in many Asian markets, and online)
• ½ cup sherry vinegar
• ½ cup neutral oil (like grapeseed)

Accompaniments

• 2 cups plain white rice, cooked
• 3 heads bibb lettuce, leaves separated, washed and dried
• 1 dozen or more fresh oysters (optional)
• Kimchi (available in many Asian markets, and online).

Method

1. Place the pork in a large, shallow bowl. Mix the white sugar and 1 cup of the salt together in another bowl, then rub the mixture all over the meat. Cover it with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours, or overnight.
2. When you’re ready to cook, heat oven to 300. Remove pork from refrigerator and discard any juices. Place the pork in a roasting pan and set in the oven and cook for approximately 6 hours, or until it collapses, yielding easily to the tines of a fork. (After the first hour, baste hourly with pan juices.) At this point, you may remove the meat from the oven and allow it to rest for up to an hour.
3. Meanwhile, make the ginger-scallion sauce. In a large bowl, combine the scallions with the rest of the ingredients. Mix well and taste, adding salt if needed.
4. Make chili-garlic sauce. Chop chilies and garlic, put in blender. Add salt and pepper, and a dash of soy and vinegar. Blend. Drizzle in neutral oil until it looks pretty. Try making multiple sauces using different chili mixes - they come out very different depending on which chilies you use.
5. Make the ssam sauce. In a medium bowl, combine the chili pastes with the vinegar and oil, and mix well.
6. Prepare rice, wash lettuce and, if using, shuck the oysters. Put kimchi and sauces into serving bowls.
7. When your accompaniments are prepared and you are ready to serve the food, turn oven to 500. In a small bowl, stir together the remaining tablespoon of salt with the brown sugar. Rub this mixture all over the cooked pork. Place in oven for approximately 10 to 15 minutes, or until a dark caramel crust has developed on the meat. Serve hot, with the accompaniments.

Serves 6 to 10. Adapted from “Momofuku,” by David Chang and Peter Meehan.