How to Make Burmese Coconut Chicken Noodles on the MiMi Cookery Show [VIDEO]

It's the MiMi Cookery Show! Ha, not really.

So you know Vouchercodes - those guys that email you handy discount codes for shops like Clark's and Dorothy Perkins?

Turns out that they also have an online magazine called Most Wanted which is oddly hidden away in the top right of their website.

Most Wanted is full of rather good articles and handy money-saving tips - eg how to stream music for free or how to achieve Jennifer Lawrence's smokey eye makeup.

"Now add the chicken to the stockpot"

It also has a Food and Drink section, which is currently running a series called "Afford Autumn Food". It even has its own hashtag on Twitter - #AffordAutumnFood.

Vouchercodes asked me to take part in the series, so I went along to the beautiful cookery school Food at 52 to spend a couple of hours filming this How-To video.

"It should be starting to smell fragrant"

Anyway, here is the result - watch the video below to see me do a Nigella and show you how to make Ohn-No Khao Swè aka Burmese Coconut Chicken Noodles.

Note that you could substitute tofu as the protein in the dish - you could even use butternut squash for the proper autumnal feel. The main thing is the sauce.

You can find the full recipe for Burmese Coconut Chicken Noodles on Most Wanted here.

As a bit of background, ohn-no khao swè is a relative newcomer to Burma, despite its current popularity within Burma and even renown as a precursor to Thailand's khao soi.

It came from lower Burma, and was first found in Moulmein - it's similar to laksa, so I suspect it must have come from laksa country, eg Malaysia or Singapore.

My parents say the dish was first available in Yangon, post-war, but didn't reach Mandalay till the 1960s, and it got to the Shan State even later than that.

At any rate, coconuts are only grown on the coast in Burma. They're traditionally feared as being a bit of an unknown ingredient and a contributor to hypertension - in fact, evaporated and/or condensed milk is often used as a "healthy" substitute for coconut milk in this dish as I discussed previously ...

As a result, coconuts are only used in Burmese desserts, ohn-no khao swè, and ohn htamin (coconut rice, which again probably came from elsewhere).

Because they're relatively uncommon and considered a treat, fresh green coconuts are prized as offerings to Nats (our Animist spirits), monasteries and pagodas, and they're essential for shinbyu ceremonies. Shinbyu is, I guess, the Burmese Buddhist equivalent of the Jewish Bar Mitzvah, where boys spend a short while as novice monks.