It’s fascinating studying the migration and what takes certain populations of one nation to another. In this post, and through this dish, we learn about the memon community (population of Muslims known from modern-day Pakistan) who migrated to Burma (modern-day Myanmar) in Southeast Asia.
I married a memon, and the memons have a strong level of pride in their rich history of business savviness, close-knit community, dedication to serving the needy, and preserving the wealth for their families and wider memon initiatives. The memon population traveled to build mercantile businesses and trade since late 1800s until today, and in doing so visited lands as far as South Africa and as close as Burma and Sri Lanka, and eventually US and UK.
Of course, I had to bring together a dish that I thought could speak to that migration story and one of my favorites in the last decade was tasting my mother-in-law’s version of chicken Kausay which was motivated from the days spent in Burma. I had it then with coconut curry at my sister-in-law’s home, and then was on a journey to really make it my own to pass to my half memon kids.
For me the star is the condiments: sliced lemons, boiled eggs, fried noodles, chili garlic oil, green chili, and more.
I hope you really enjoy this!
Burmese Memon Coconut Curry Noodle Dish
Ingredients
- MEAT CURRY
- 2 pounds, beef rib eye, cut into 1 inch pieces (you can make this with chicken also)
- 2 large onions, sliced thinly
- 1.5 tbsn minced garlic
- 1 tbsn minced ginger
- 1/4 tspn turmeric
- 2 tbsn cumin powder
- 2 tbsn coriander powder
- 2 tspn kosher salt (add as needed)
- 1 tspn red chili powder
- 2 tbsn tomato paste
- 2.5 tbsn yoghurt
- 2-3 tspn garam masala (add as you go)
- 4 green cardamom
- 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
- 1 1/2 cup water
- 2 curry leaves (optional)
- COCONUT CURRY INGREDIENTS
- 2 cans unsweetened coconut milk
- 1/2 cup yoghurt
- 1 1/2 cup water
- 2-3 tbsn gram (chickpea) flour (the more you add the thicker it is)
- 1 tspn red chili powder
- 1 green chili or jalapeno
- juice of half a lemon
- 1 tspn salt
- 1 tbsn garlic
Directions
- Fry onions until golden brown, and remove the onions (takes about 20 minutes, be patient, but worth it). Reserve 1/2 cup of the onion oil from frying the onions and add that to a pan, add the ginger and garlic on medium high heat until fragrant and golden (1-2 min). Add the spices mentioned above for 1-2 minutes until the oil has spiced up further (you can add the optional curry leaves here at this time).
- Add beef and fry for 5 minutes on medium high. Add tomato paste and continue to fry for 5 minutes, then add green cardamom for 1-2 minutes, followed by yoghurt. Cook together on medium uncovered for 5 minutes. Add water and cover on low for 45 minutes-1 hour until beef is tender. After it is tender, add coconut milk, a little lemon juice, and sprinkle of garam masala, and cook uncovered for 5 minutes and serve warm. Add more coconut milk if you want more.
- For coconut curry: add all the ingredients mentioned above in a blender and bring to boil, then cook on low for 20 min-30 min or until ready to serve. Taste for salt and level of coconut milk for your family’s liking.
- Prepare hakka-style or spaghetti noodles to your style in salted water for the base of the dish.
- Prepare condiments: chili garlic oil (1/2 cup of onion oil on medium heat, add 6 cloves of sliced garlic to fry for 1-2 min until golden brown. Add the hot oil to a bowl with 1 Tbsn red chili flakes).
- Crunchy Noodles Condiments: Boil noodles, and fry in small nests to add to the bowl for crunch. Modern-day Memons and expats in the U.S. use good old Lay’s Potato Chips 🙂 (see list of other condiments below)
- LAYER: Soft noodles, beef, curry, fried onions, and the condiments above and/or below listed below to follow. I say the more the merrier in my bowl!!
Note: you can absolutely do the beef in the instant pot. It should take only 1 cup of water for the cooking, and about 20 minutes.
Other popular condiments include:
- Cilantro
- Scallions
- Lemon wedges
- Sweet tamarind chutney
- Sliced green chili
- Sliced boiled eggs
I hope you very much enjoy this recipe. It’s one I have been proud of because my husband left Pakistan when he was 12, and has always craved certain meals that gave him a sense of reconnection. This did that for him. But, more than that, it gave me a sense of connection to some of his roots and the rich history of the memon community that has so graciously offered this loud Punjabi (American as can be) foodie lover to come and make this dish something I now can pass on to all of you, and my sons (and their wives, God-willing).
Please do let me know if you try this! Connect with me in the comments below, or on Instagram with a picture of your creation and tag me. I’d love to share and collect your stories too.
I’d me remiss if I did not mention that currently there are issues happening towards the muslim minority of Myanmar that are more native to the lands but because of the faith they choose to practice are persecuted. I hope to do a post on that separately, but wanted to bring it to your attention for awareness.
