Today is Sunday so I suppose I could have made the trip to Chinatown for fish cakes and made a completely authentic Burmese (or actually Myanmar-ese) dish. However, the whole point of Sunday being my "fridge raid meal" day is to use up items that I have on hand or leftover from the week's cooking (or find lurking in the back of the fridge) and to cook only from pantry, fridge and freezer.
This was de-licious and I am hopeful that the inclusion of vegetables and the substitution of juicy chicken and cabbage meatballs for the chicken and fish cakes in the original crossed any cultural lines. I completely forgot to add the chickpea flour so can't speak to what it added to the dish but my final sauce was to my palate's liking and the most beautiful golden autumnal leaf color.
1 lb ground chicken
4 portions frozen ramen noodles (or 4 portions flat egg noodles)
4 cups chicken stock
1/3 cup coconut milk
2 lemons
1 cup very finely chopped cabbage
1 cup finely shredded carrots
1 cup bean sprouts
thumb sized knob of ginger
1 stalk lemongrass, tough outer leaves removed and the remaining central core crushed with the blade of a knife to release the flavors
2 shallots, peeled, halved and cut in thin half moons
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or 2 garlic scapes, finely sliced
2 Thai chilis
1 tsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp saffron threads
2 tsps honey
2 tsps olive oil
Salt
Measure the oil into a deep skillet. Heat over medium heat until sizzling. Add the ginger, lemongrass, shallots, garlic or garlic scapes, chilis, turmeric, paprika and saffron and stir well to combine. Cook for a minute or so until the spices are fragrant.
Pour in the chicken stock and reduce heat to low. While the stock heats up, prepare the chicken meatballs.
Mix the chicken, cabbage and fish sauce together in a bowl. Add some salt. Mix very gently as you want a light texture to these. Working loosely, without compacting the meat together, form into golf ball shaped meatballs. Set aside on a plate.
Place a large pot of water on the stove and bring to a boil. Ramen noodles do not need salted water.
By this time, the sauce should be burbling away happily. Add the coconut milk, the juice from one lemon and the other lemon, quartered. Taste and add salt if needed.
Add the carrots to the pan. Stir to incorporate into the sauce.
Gently lower the meatballs into the sauce and cook for 2 minutes. flip and cook for an additional 6 minutes, turning from time to time so that the meatballs absorb the flavors of the sauce on all sides.
Remove the meatballs to a plate and set aside. Discard the ginger, chilis and lemon quarters. I used mine to decorate because the vegetables all fall to the bottom of the dish but this was not strictly necessary.
Cook the ramen noodles according to the directions on the package. Mine took 2 minutes. (If using egg noodles which will have a longer cooking time, you will probably want to get them in the boiling water during the chicken cooking time).
Add the bean sprouts to the pan and stir to incorporate into the sauce. Bring back to a boil and check for seasoning.
Drain the noodles and place a quarter in the bottom of 4 deep soup bowls.Pour over 1/4 of the sauce, making sure that you get vegetables in each portion. Top with meatballs.
So, so good.
Inspiration recipe, here.