Burmese · Main · Served at I Still Call It Burma (#2 and #3)
Shan khao swè
Shan noodles
Shan khao swè is rice noodles in a tomato sauce with pork or chicken, topped with pickled mustard greens, crispy garlic, peanuts, and chili oil, with a small bowl of clear, peppery broth on the side. I started from Khin's Kitchen's Shan noodles, which use chicken. I make it with pork or chicken, and the broth from bones or from a carton of stock.
Cook the noodles right before you serve, or they go gummy.
Adapted from Khin's Kitchen's Shan noodles (opens in a new tab), with pork as an option, pickled mustard greens added, and a broth on the side.
- Yield
- Serves 4
Ingredients
Serves
Broth, from scratch or a carton
- 2 lb (900 g)pork neck bones, or chicken backs and wings, for broth from scratch
- 8 cupswater, for broth from scratch
- 6 cupschicken stock (low-sodium if you can, about 1½ cartons), instead of the bones and water
- 2 clovesgarlic, smashed
- 10black peppercorns
- salt
Garlic oil
- 10–12 clovesgarlic (~1 head), finely chopped
- ½ cupneutral oil
- 1 tbspsesame seeds
Chili oil
- 2 tbspchili flakes (gochugaru or Chinese)
- ½ cupneutral oil
Pickled vegetables
- 2 mediumcarrots, julienned
- 2–3green chiles, thinly sliced
- ½ tspsalt
- 1 tspsugar
- 1 tbsprice vinegar
- 1 tbspwater
Other toppings
- 1/3 cuppickled mustard greens, rinsed and chopped
- 3–4spring onions, thinly sliced
- ¼ cuproasted peanuts, coarsely crushed
- sweet soy (kecap manis)
- extra fish sauce
- lime wedges
Tomato sauce, with pork or chicken
- 1 tbspoil
- 2–3 clovesgarlic, minced
- 2shallots, finely chopped
- 1 tsppaprika or chili powder
- 2/3 lb (300 g)ground pork or chicken
- 2vine tomatoes, finely chopped (or ½ can diced, drained)
- 2 tsplight soy sauce
- 1 tspdark soy sauce
- ¼ tspsalt, then more to taste
- ¼ tspChinese five spice
- 1 cupbroth (from above)
Noodles
- 7 oz (200 g)dried rice noodles (about 2/3 pack Three Ladies rice stick, S or M)
Method
- Make the broth from scratch: put the bones, water, garlic, and peppercorns in a pot and bring to a boil. Skim, then simmer gently for 1½ to 2 hours, skimming now and then. Strain, and season with salt until it's nice to sip on its own. You'll have about 6 cups.
- Or from a carton: bring the stock, garlic, and peppercorns to a simmer and keep it gently simmering, covered, for 20 to 30 minutes, until the pepper comes through. Strain. Taste before you add any salt, since carton stock is already salted.
- Make the garlic oil: heat the ½ cup neutral oil over medium, add the chopped garlic, and stir until evenly light golden, 5–7 minutes. Off the heat, stir in the sesame seeds. Keep the garlic and oil together.
- Make the chili oil: put the chili flakes in a heatproof bowl. Heat the ½ cup neutral oil to about 350°F and pour it over. Cool.
- Make the pickles: toss the carrots and green chiles with the salt, sugar, rice vinegar, and water. Set aside; they're ready in 30 minutes.
- Rinse and chop the mustard greens, slice the spring onions, and crush the peanuts.
- For the sauce, soften the garlic and shallots in the 1 tbsp oil over medium until just golden, about 4 minutes. Stir in the paprika for 30 seconds, then add the pork or chicken and break it up, cooking until there's no pink left, 5 to 7 minutes for pork or about 5 for chicken. Chicken is leaner, so add a splash more oil if it sticks.
- Add the tomatoes and let them collapse into the meat, about 5 minutes. Season with both soy sauces, the salt, and the five spice, pour in the 1 cup broth, cover, and simmer 5 to 10 minutes. It should stay loose and spoonable, not dry. Taste it.
- Boil the rice noodles per the package until slightly chewy. Drain, rinse briefly under cold water, and toss immediately with a couple of tablespoons of garlic oil. Do not let them sit; they go gummy.
- Build each bowl from the bottom: noodles, about 3 tbsp of sauce, then the oils (1 to 2 tbsp garlic oil with plenty of the garlic, and 1 tsp chili oil). Finish with the pickled carrot and chile, mustard greens, peanuts, spring onion, and a drizzle of sweet soy.
- Reheat the broth to a simmer and serve each bowl with about 1 cup of it in a small bowl on the side, with a little spring onion. Sip it between bites, or pour some over the noodles to make it a soup.
- Serve with chili oil, garlic oil, fish sauce, lime, and sweet soy on the side.
Notes
- The broth, sauce, both oils, and the pickles can be made 1 to 3 days ahead. The oils keep at room temperature; the broth keeps 3 days and the pickles 5 days in the fridge.
What I use
- Noodle soup bowls: Dyware 38 oz, set of 4 (opens in a new tab)
- Little bowls for dips and condiments: Blue and white 4", set of 6 (opens in a new tab) (for the condiments)
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