Pumpkin Khao Soi with sweet sticky Pork and Egg noodles – (soup)

Hello my dear wonderful readers!!

How are you all doing today? I cannot believe its already November and the year is coming to an end. The air is a little chilly and I pulled out my baby’s jackets and I realized I have to buy him new ones 🙂 . How time flies.

Anyways, so this time I am back with a lovely creamy, bold soup. Now traditionally it is made without the pumpkin and usually it goes with chicken. But this time I decided to make the soup creamy and thick and give it a new dimension.  Hence the pumpkin.Trust me this soup is a meal in itself. You can make it completely vegan my omitting the pork but I wanted that little extra protein and so the addition of pork.

We absolutely love noodles at home. May it be rice, buckwheat, whole wheat, egg any sort, is always welcome. So the recipe calls of egg noddles but if you cannot get a hold of them then go ahead and use any noodle that you like. Just make sure that you add them just before you serve them in a bowl, or else they tend to absorb all the moisture from the soup and then just turn mushy. No one wants a mushy bowl of noodle soup right? This is not your typical noodle in a broth.

 

Preparing the Pork :-
Ingredients

1. Pork – 400 gms ( lean fillet)
2. Oil – 1 tsp
3. Garlic – 1 tbsp ( choppped)
4. Oyster Sauce – 1 tbsp
5. Soya Sauce – 1 tsp 
6. Brown Sugar / Palm Sugar – 3 tsp 
7. Salt – to taste ( 1.2 tsp)
8.  Pepper – 1.2 tsp 

Instructions :-

1.  In a non stick pan, add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and cook till soft
2. Then add the rest of the ingredients and cook on high for 2 min
3. Then cover and cook for 5 min on medium heat
4. Finally open the lid and cook till all the moisture is out 
5. Remove the cooked pork from the pan and toss out any excess fat on the pan

To Prepare the Pumpkin

 

Ingredients :-

1. Pumpkin – 4 cups (skin peeled, innards removed and chopped)
2. Potato – 1 cup ( chopped)
3. Ginger – 1 tbsp ( choppped)
4. Salt – 1 tsp
5. Water – 4 cups

Instructions :-

 

1. In a large pot, combine all the ingredients and place on medium heat
2. Cook till the pumpkin and potatoes are soft
3. Once they are soft, spoon them out, into a blender
4. Make a fine paste and set aside

To make the Khao Soi Paste :-

1.  Dried Red chilies – 25
2. Water – 1/2 cup
3.  Garlic – 20
4. Ginger – 2 tbp ( chopped fine)
5. Cilantro leaves and steam – 1 cup ( packed)
6. Shallots – 13 
7. Turmeric Powder – 1 tsp
8.  Coriander Powder – 1 tsp
9. Garam Masala Powder – 1/2 tsp 

Instructions :-

1.  Heat water till boiling point
2.  Place all the dried chillies into the boiling hot water and let them soak for 30 mins
3. Later in the bowl of a blender add all the ingredients along with the soaked red chillies and the water and blend to make a fine thick paste
4. Set aside ( you can use as much as you want for this recipe and freeze the rest for later use)

Making and Assembling the soup 

Ingredients for the soup :-

1.  Egg noodles – 250 gms 
2. Oil – 2 tbsp
3. Yellow Bell Pepper – 1/2 cup ( finely sliced)
4. Red Bell Pepper – 1/2 cup ( finely sliced)
5. Chicken Broth – 2 cups
6. Basil Leaves – hand full 
7. Lime Juice – 3 tbs
8. Coconut Milk – 1 can 
9. Coriander and lime for the final garnish 

 Instructions :-

1.  In a large pot, heat oil 
2.  Then add Khao Soi Paste and cook till the oil separates from the mixture
3. Then add the pumpkin and potato mixture
4.  Cook and combine for 2 mins .Then Bell Pepper and chicken broth
5. As the mixture begin to simmer add the coconut milk. Again mix well 
6. Mix well and bring to a boil again ( on medium heat)
7. Once the mixture boils, add the basil leaves, lime juice and salt according to taste
8. Cover and cook for another 5 mins and you are ready!
9. While serving, first add the soup into a bowl, then add the noodles, the pork and finally garnish with some fresh corinader , lime and basil leaves! Yummm!!   

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Burnt Garlic Noodles

Some times when you make a very spicy chicken curry or soup, the best thing to go with it is a nice flavorful noodle. The first time I had this dish was at a restaurant many years ago and it went very well with Lee Fu Prawn (Curry). My husband likes this noodle with any chinese / indo chinese dish. So I made it to accompany the chilly chicken. We love eating out and we make it a point to try new places every week. With the little one getting restless and wanting to crawl around, it really isn’t that easy to try new places. I think this time we will try an Asian place. Alright, what you should remember about this noodle is that is a very very flavorful and you can decide how pungent you want it to be. So do not be hesitant, make a whole batch of the burnt garlic powder ahead of time and store it in you fridge. You can use it whenever you want.

You don necessarily need to make the garlic powder ahead of time. This recipe is a quick version of it. I will put up a post later as to how you can make the powder and store it  too.

 Ingredients:-

• Garlic – 3 tbsp (cleaned, peeled and chopped into fine pieces)
• Noodles – half packet
• Salt – 1tsp + 1tsp
• Oil – 2 + 2 + 2 tbsp
• Vinegar – 2 tbsp
• Soya Sauce- 2 tsp
• Dry Red Chilly –3
• Star Anise –2
• Spring Onion – 4 stems (cut into small pieces)
• Onion – ½ small cubes

 Instructions :-

• Heat oil in a pan and once the oil is hot, add chopped garlic. Let the garlic fry well, it will turn from white, to pale yellow, to golden brown to a coffee brown
• Scoop the garlic out of the pan and place in a plate to cool. Then use a mortar and pestle to grind the garlic to a fine powder ( If you want a more pungent flavor just let the garlic fry for a little longer but don let it burn, cause then its just going to be bitter and burnt!)
• Then just as you would for any other noodle, boil water in a pot and once it begins to boil, add salt, oil (1tbsp) and the noodle. Cook till they are soft and have gained their full shape. Then using a colander grain the water out and let the noodle remain in the colander. Use 1 tbsp of oil and mix into the noodle. This will ensure that the noodles don stick to each other once cold
• Now the easy part. Heat oil (2tbsp) in a wok and once hot add red chilly and star anise. Add onions at this stage
• After that add the burnt garlic powder and toss in the noodles.
• Add the vinegar + soya sauce + chilly sauce to the noodle and stir well. Make sure all the garlic powder and sauce coats the noodles well. Cook for around 10 mins till you can smell the pungent garlic.
• Add spring onions and close the wok. Switch off the flame and transfer to your serving dish. This noodle is best serve best off the wok with any spicy chicken or duck gravy.
• Enjoy  🙂