BURMA BASICS
IF YOU HAVE A FEW PANTRY BASICS ON HAND, almost all the recipes in this book will be very easy, even the first time you make them. To get comfortable with Burmese food, start by going shopping. Most of the ingredients will be familiar: you can find all of them in Southeast Asian groceries and most in large supermarkets too.
The pantry list is not long. There are bottled or preserved ingredients—peanut oil, dried red chiles, turmeric powder, dried shrimp, fish sauce, shrimp paste, and tamarind pulp—and long-keeping perishables such as limes, shallots, garlic, and ginger.
Apart from the pantry staples, there are a few prepared ingredients that I make ahead and keep in glass jars, handy for whenever they’re needed. They are used in all kinds of Burmese dishes, but I also rely on them when cooking foods from other places.
(The one recipe in this chapter that is more complicated is for Soybean Disks, for which miso paste is a good substitute.)
Recipes for all the Burma Basics follow. Please don’t be intimidated:
you can put together your basic cook’s pantry in an hour—that’s right, you can make all these recipes that quickly. Then leap right into the Salads chapter, or whatever else catches your eye, and cook with ease.
I also like to keep a jar of Tart-Sweet Chile-Garlic Sauce on hand. It’s my favorite everyday condiment, so it’s here too. You’ll find recipes for many more condiments in Condiments and Sauces.
THE BUILDING BLOCKS
Turmeric
Cooks in Burma use ground turmeric, a bright yellow-orange powder, in many dishes. They add it in small quantities to the oil at the start of cooking. It fizzes a little as the oil heats, and then once it’s dissolved, in go the shallots and other ingredients.
Turmeric is an ancient ingredient from India, one long believed to have powerful medicinal qualities. It’s antibacterial (so it’s often rubbed on meat or fish before cooking), antiflatulent (it’s usually added to legumes in South Asian cooking), and anti-inflammatory. Now the West is discovering the truth of those beliefs: turmeric is being talked of as an “anti-aging” food because of its anti-inflammatory properties.
Thus adding a pinch of it to cooking oil not only makes culinary sense but is also a healthy practice. This isn’t surprising, for like cooks from India to China, cooks in Burma are very aware of health when they cook. It’s instinctive wisdom. And it starts with a pinch of turmeric.
Shallots
Shallots are fundamental to Burmese cooking. They’re thinly sliced and added to salads, and they form part of the flavor base in curries. Fried, they give sweetness and crisp texture to dishes of all kinds, from salads and condiments to street snacks. (Fried shallots are also an irresistible snack on their own.) Shallot oil—peanut oil that is flavored by the frying shallots—is a wonderful kitchen staple.
Asian shallots are smaller than European ones, with warm reddish brown skin. Beneath the skin, they’re pale purple (see photograph, this page). Preparing them is easy: Cut off both ends and discard, then slice lengthwise in half. It’s easier to pull off the outer skin once they are halved. To slice them, lay the flat side on the cutting board and slice crosswise very thin to give you attractive half-moon-shaped slices.
Peanut Oil and Sesame Oil
Peanuts, or groundnuts as they are called by most English-speaking Burmese, thrive in hot, dry climates, which makes them an ideal crop in the central area around Mandalay and Bagan. Sesame is the other major oil crop grown in Burma. The oil is pressed out of the seeds, but there’s no roasting involved; it is raw sesame oil, pale yellow, not dark like the roasted sesame oil used as a flavoring in some Japanese and Chinese cooking. Both peanut oil and sesame oil are stable at high temperatures and so are good for frying. In this book I call for peanut oil because it is more widely available but if you prefer, substitute unroasted sesame oil. Store peanut oil and sesame oil in a cool, dark place.
After using oil for deep-frying, I strain it and refrigerate it in a clearly labeled jar. If the oil was used to fry neutral ingredients (vegetables, for example), it can be reused for stir-frying. Once the oil darkens or if it has a strong odor, discard it.
Having jars of Burma basics made and ready to be used in recipes gives me a rich, “my cupboard is full” feeling and makes cooking food from Burma very easy. From left: Fried Shallots, Shallot Oil, Toasted Chickpea Flour, and two versions of Red Chile Oil—one strained and, behind it, one with the chile residue still in the oil.
You can use a similar technique to make garlic oil, but slice the garlic thicker (a scant ¼ inch), rather than into thin slices, since it cooks much more quickly than shallots. Heat ½ cup peanut oil over medium-high heat, add ⅓ cup or so sliced garlic, and fry over medium heat until just golden, about 5 minutes. Lift out the garlic and set aside to crisp up. Store the oil as above. Fried garlic does not keep as well as fried shallots; refrigerate and use within 5 days.