Khausway

Khausway ( khaoo-sway) is a street food from Burma. I first had this at a friend's place in India. Khausway is a curry noodle dish. It is basically noodles with a coconut-milk based curry with garnishes/ toppings of choice. of the toppings/garnishes. This dish is an explosion of taste and textures, each distinct, but still blend and come together beautifully in the end.


Ingredients:                                                serves 4, prep time 30-45 mins, total time 30 min


For the Khausway ( Chicken curry)
1. Boneless chicken, cut in strips - about 700gms/1.5 lbs
2. Roughly chopped onions - 1 large
3. Ginger, roughly chopped - 2" ( about 20gms/ 3/4 oz)
4. Garlic cloves - 6 to 7 ( about 20gms/ 3/4 oz)
5. Serrano pepper, deseeded for less heat - 1
6. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
7. Curry Powder - 2-3 tsp - SECRET INGREDIENT
8. Coconut milk - 2 cans of 14 oz
9. Oil - 1 tbsp


10. Noodles, uncooked - 500gms/1lb (FOR GLUTEN-FREE OPTION - use rice noodles for Pad-Thai)

For the Toppings/Garnishes
1. Garlic - 1 pod
2. Dried red chillies - 3
3. Oil - 3 Tbsp
4. Green chillies/ serrano peppers/ Thai chilli peppers - 4
5. Cilantro, chopped - 1 cup
6. Cabbage, shredded - 1 cup
7. Spring onion/green onion, chopped - 1 cup
8. Eggs, boiled - 4,quatered 
9. Peanuts, roasted and coarsely chopped - 1 cup
10. Potato chips/wafers/kettle cooked, crushed - 1 cup
11. Lime, quatered - 4
12. Bean Sprouts - 1 cup (optional)
13. Fried shrimp or fried dry shrimp - 1/4 cup (optional)
14. White vinegar - 1/4 cup


METHOD:


Khausway- 
1. Mix together 1/2 tsp curry powder, 1tsp of ginger and garlic paste , 1/2 tsp salt and chicken. Keep aside for 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, grind together in a rough paste, onion, ginger, garlic and chilli pepper. Keep aside.
3. Heat oil in a wok or large saucepan. Add in the onion paste and saute till the raw smell of onion goes away ( about 7- 8 minutes).
4. Add in the turmeric.
5. Add in the chicken along with it's marinade. Saute till the chicken turns a little brown.
6. Add in the coconut milk, cover and cook till the chicken is 3/4th done.
7. Add in the curry powder if using, cover and cook till chicken is cooked through. 
8. Khausway is ready.
9. Cook noodles as per manufacturer's instructions.


Garnishes-
1. Chop the garlic in small pieces. Fry in oil the garlic till it is golden brown. Remove from oil and strain on a paper towel. Place in bowl.
2. Break the dry red chillies in about 1/2 inch pieces in a small bowl. Add in all of the hot oil from frying garlic ,should be about 3 to 4 tbsps of oil. 
3. Chop the green chilli peppers into rings. Add in about 1/4 cup of white vinegar.
4. Prepare the rest of the ingredients and keep aside.


Assembly-


Take a small bowl. To this add some noodles, spoon over the curry ( depending on whether  you'd want less or more), top with the garnishes as per personal preference. Give it a good squeeze of lime. Mix and it is ready to eat.




Instead of chicken, you could use shrimp/prawns, cauliflower with carrots, mushrooms, bamboo shoots etc. Some recipes call for thickening with Bengal gram flour. I do not like to the curry very thick so usually I don't add the Bengal gram flour.


There is a Thai version of this dish. It is called Khao soi. It is popular in the northern part of Thailand. The Thai version calls for using Red curry paste as well as the Curry powder in the chicken curry along with Fish sauce. The number of garnishes in the Thai version are greatly reduced to finely chopped shallots, fried noodles, fried and crushed dried chillies, cilantro, pickled mustard greens and lime.