Burmese Shrimp Curry

I have very limited familiarity with Burmese cuisine.  It's a country I have wanted to visit, but I never felt comfortable contributing to a government that was so unabashedly oppressive to its people.  For years the military dictatorship used any and all means to crush the slightest dissent.  Recent reforms suggest that the country may be transitioning towards a more democratic government.  Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and daughter of the man who negotiated Burma's independence from Britain in 1947, was released from prison in 2010 (she had been sentenced to 3 years hard labor because an American had swum across a lake to her house where she had been under house arrest for almost ten years; her sentence was commuted from hard labor to an additional 18 months of house arrest).  In May of this year, Suu Kyi was sworn in as a member of parliament.

While this apparent willingness to allow their people a voice is undoubtedly good news for the people of Burma, I fear Starbucks, McDonald's, and Pizza Huts may also be on their way to the country.  With the end of isolation, regional and cultural differences may also be threatened.  Traditional foods and customs come to be seen as quaint, out of touch with the modern world, kampungan, and are abandoned in favor of mass processed and marketed food that connects to the world outside.  One of the worst things I have eaten in Indonesia was a slice of Pizza Hut pizza that my nieces (whose mother is an excellent cook) pleaded for.  I still remember years ago when I was traveling in Padang (a city renowned throughout Indonesia for its food) and asked some teenagers where I could find the best food in town.  They thought about it and discussed it amongst themselves for a few minutes before telling me, triumphantly, "California Fried Chicken."  What will happen in Burma in 20 years?

Fortunately, Naomi Duguid has been visiting Burma and actively exploring its foods and markets for much of the last four years.  Burma: Rivers of Flavor, is her most recent cookbook exploring an Asian cuisine.  Having first gone to the country in 1980, Duguid's interest in and affection for the people and cultures of Burma are clearly apparent in the photographs and writing.  Like her previous books which she co-authored with Jeffrey Alford, Burma is as much an exploration and celebration of the culture and people of the country as it is of the cuisine.

Duguid's books are visually rich with photographs of the lands and people of her focus.  They are not traditional cookbooks that simply present a collection of recipes.  Cooks looking for elaborately staged photographs of finished dishes or step-by-step photos of how to prepare the included recipes may be disappointed by Duguid's Burma.  However, those who are interested in getting a glimpse of this long isolated nation will likely enjoy her anecdotal, informative approach.

The recipes presented in Duguid's book are straight forward, unfussy dishes.  Most of the ingredients can easily be found in any Asian supermarket.  Shallots, tomatoes, and various herbs (cilantro, lemongrass, Vietnamese cilantro (rau ram--daun laksa) are featured in many of the recipes. I have only tried a few of the recipes so far, but the book contains many that I look forward to trying.

I first served this shrimp curry with roti jala.  I have also served it with rice.  It is similar to sambal udang, but it is milder than most and contains no coconut milk.   For anyone put off by incendiary curries, consider giving this one a try.  

Shrimp Curry,  adapted from Burma: Rivers of Flavor

printable recipe

Generous 1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined

1/4 cup minced shallots 

1 small clove of garlic, peeled and minced

3 TBS peanut oil

1/8 tsp turmeric

1 1/2 cups chopped ripe tomatoes or canned crushed tomatoes

3/4 cup water

2 tsp fish sauce

2 green cayenne chiles, seeded and minced, or to taste

1/2 tsp salt, or to taste

About 1/4 cup cilantro leaves (optional)

1 lime, cut into wedges (optional)

Rinse the shrimp and set aside.  (I boil the shells in water, strain and reserve the water and use this in place of the water called for in the recipe.) With a mortar, pound the minced shallots and garlic to a paste.

Heat the oil in a wok or a wide heavy skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the turmeric and stir, then toss in the shallot and garlic paste.  Lower the heat to medium, and cook, stirring frequently, about two minutes until softened but not browned.  Add the tomatoes and cook for several minutes at a medium boil, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes are well softened and the oil has risen to the surface.

Add the water and fish sauce, bring back to a medium boil, and add the shrimp.  Cook just until the shrimp start to turn pink, then toss in the minced chiles, stir briefly, and remove from the heat. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.  

Turn out into a bowl, top with the cilantro leaves, if using (and they certainly add to the dish), and put out lime wedges if you wish. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Sambal Serai--Lemongrass Sambal

 

Sambal is a part of just about every Indonesian meal.  Sambals can be cooked, raw, with vegetables or proteins, complex, or simple.  Some varieties can be found here.  Sambal ulek (usually seen in markets with the Dutch spelling, sambal oelek) is the most basic of sambals, simply freshly ground chilies and salt.  Sambals may be served alone as a snack, or as an accent to spark grilled fish or fried chicken.  You decide how much sambal your bowl of soto needs, but no soto is complete without it.

Sambal sereh is a cooked sambal that is a great accompaniment to grilled chicken, but also tastes great as a dip for rengginang or krupuk.  Although not for the faint-hearted, the level of heat can be adjusted by the types of chilies used.  Here in Sacramento, the Asian farmers market--a few blocks west of the official Sunday farmers market--finds the stalls overflowing with a variety of  chilies, some hot, others blistering.  Cabai rawit--bird chilies--are particularly hot and can be found throughout the year in local markets.  Cabai keriting--curly chilies--are hot, but not as hot as cabai rawit.  They are rarely found in local markets or at other farmers markets, but they do appear in late summer at the Asian farmers market. 

The Indonesian recipe that I adapted this from calls for 100 grams of cabai keriting.  I used about 80 grams and added a gypsy pepper, a mild red pepper.  This made for a very hot sambal, but one that I can still enjoy just eating with rengginang.  If you prefer a milder sambal, use fewer of the curly chilies and more of the gypsy chili or red bell pepper.  I suppose vegetarians could leave out the dried shrimp and terasi, but the sambal would be less complex.  Terasi (belacan) is an acquired taste, but once you've become accustomed to it, you will long for it.

Sambal Serai--Lemongrass Sambal

printable recipe

80 grams (a good handful) chilies  (cabai keriting, but any hot red chili may be used), seeded
1 mild red pepper
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
2 tsp ebi (dried shrimp), soaked in 2 TBS warm water for a few minutes and drained
1 tsp salt
1--2 TBS gula jawa (palm sugar)
1 TBS terasi (fermented shrimp paste)
3  tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 TBS vegetable oil
3/4 cup of water
2 stalks of lemongrass, outer leaves removed, crushed with a pestle and tied into a knot

In a blender or food processor, process the chilies and red pepper until you have a fairly smooth paste. Reserve.  Grind the garlic and salt to a smooth paste in a mortar.  Add the drained ebi, gula jawa, and terasi and grind with a pestle until smooth.  Add the tomatoes and continue to grind until all the ingredients are well mixed.
Heat a frying pan.  Add the oil and then the tomato and garlic mixture.  Fry until fragrant, then stir in water.  Add the chili paste and lemongrass. While stirring, cook over low heat until the mixture thickens.  Ideally, you want a sambal that is moist but not too liquid.  Scrape as much of the sambal as you can from the lemongrass.  Suck what remains on the stalks and count your blessings.

Serve the sambal with grilled/fried fish or chicken.  Or add to an omelet.  Or use as a dip for crackers, chips, krupuk, or rengginang.  Any way you serve it, you will enjoy.

Sambal Udang Kentang--Shrimp and Potato Sambal

Sambal udang kentang is another typical Indonesian sambal that might be one of several dishes to be served with rice. This is a particularly mild sambal, as one member in our current household has a low tolerance for spicy food despite growing up in Indonesia, but it could be enlivened with some additional chilies. It may seem surprising that potatoes would be featured in an Indonesian dish, but in fact, potatoes are quite popular in the archipelago, especially in Java and Sumatra, and are included in numerous dishes.

I used larger shrimp than the dish really calls for, simply because they were on sale and I had them on hand.  I actually think medium large (36--40 per pound) or even smaller are better in a sambal.  Whichever size you use, you want to adjust the cooking time so as not to overcook the shrimp.  I served this with sambal goreng printil  and steamed rice for an easy dinner.

Sambal Udang Kentang (adapted from The Indonesian Kitchen)

printable recipe

1 pound potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
4 shallots, peeled and minced
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 TBS minced chili, or sambal oelek if fresh chili isn't available
salt, to taste
1/2 cup tomatoes, cut into 1/2 pieces
1/4 cup peanut oil

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Fry the potatoes until softened and cooked through.  You don't want to brown them.  Remove the potatoes from the oil and set aside.  You can do this ahead of time and reserve the potatoes until you are ready to finish the dish and serve it.

Fry the shallots, garlic, chili, and salt in the oil until softened and fragrant.  Add the shrimp and fry briefly, being careful not to overcook the shrimp.  Stir in the tomatoes and potatoes and fry for two minutes more until heated through and covered with the spices.  I prefer to serve and eat this hot, but it may also be eaten at room temperature (as it usually is in Indonesia).

Sambal Goreng Printil

 

Sambal goreng printil is a nice dish to include when you are serving a variety of Indonesian dishes for a dinner, or to serve on its own with rice.  It can be made spicy or mild, a dish that can be adapted easily to different tastes.  In Indonesia it would include petai--a bean that resembles the fava bean, and is infamous for its effects when eaten--instead of snow peas, but finding petai in the United States is problematic.  The snow peas add a nice splash of color and your acquaintances won't be wondering if something has crawled inside you and died.

This is a relatively quick dish to prepare, taking about twenty minutes to make.  Once the meatballs are formed, it requires little more than ten minutes to cook the dish.  Slicing the shallots, garlic, and chilies instead of grinding them to a paste, as would normally be done in Indonesia, saves some time and provides a slightly different texture when eating this sambal.

Sambal Goreng Printil

printable recipe

1 pound ground beef
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
1--2 red chilies, seeded and thinly sliced (or add sambal oelek to taste)
2 salam leaves
2 quarter-size slices of laos
1/2 tsp petis (shrimp paste)
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 tsp sugar
1--2 TBS tamarind water
2 cups snow peas, washed and trimmed
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half (or 2 ripe plum tomatoes, seeded and diced)
4 TBS oil, divided

Mix the ground beef with the salt.  Form into marble-sized meatballs.  Heat a wok or frying pan over medium high heat.  Add three tablespoons of the oil.  When oil is hot, brown the meatballs quickly; the interiors should still be rare.  Drain and set aside.

Pour off the fat from browning the meatballs.  Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the pan and fry the shallots, garlic, and chilies until softened, about two minutes.  Add the salam leaves, laos, petis, coconut milk, sugar, and tamarind water together with the browned meatballs.  Cook for about five minutes, stirring to coat the meatballs with the liquid. 

Add the snow peas and tomatoes.  Cook another 3 to five minutes, stirring constantly just until snow peas are cooked.  Serve immediately.

Sambal Goreng Kering--Crispy Potato Sambal

When most Americans hear the word sambal, they immediately think of a chile sauce such as sambal ulek or sambal bajak.  In Indonesia there are several hundred varieties of sambal, and many of them are not sauces at all.  Instead, they are dishes which complement the "main" dish and rice.  A plate of nasi rames, for example, might contain rice, a piece of chicken, and several sambals, some with coconut milk, others dry like this one.  The result is a meal that is a balance of flavors and textures--sweet and savory, saucy and crispy. 

This particular sambal is very similar to tempeh kering.  The final steps are the same, the only difference is the ingredients.  While tempe is almost as cheap as potatoes in Indonesia, unless you make your own tempe in the US, you'll find this version is much cheaper with potatoes than with tempe.  You could also make this with kettle style potato chips; I'd suggest using the unsalted variety.  If you don't like your food looking back at you, you can eliminate the ikan teri (anchovies).  They provide an interesting crunch and flavor, but your sambal will be no less authentic without them.

Wandering Chopsticks, whose blog was one of the first to make me aware of food blogs and inspired me to start this blog, recently posted about enjoying this sambal at a food court in Southern California. In her post she mentioned she wanted to learn how to make it, so here it is as a small token of my appreciation for her assistance over the years.  While most Indonesians might enjoy this with rice, it is an excellent accompaniment to beer or cocktails.

Sambal Goreng Kering

printable recipe

6--8 potatoes (about 2 lbs.), peeled, julienned or thinly sliced with a mandoline
14 oz peanuts (if raw, fry in oil for five to six minutes until cooked)
60 -- 120 grams ikan teri, dried anchovies
oil for frying

2 TBS  oil
3--4 shallots, about 60 grams, peeled and minced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
3 fresh red chilies, stemmed, seeded, and chopped
6--9 TBS gula jawa (palm sugar)
2 TBS tamarind pulp dissolved in 3/4 cup water
3 daun salam (if you can't find them, leave them out)
4 slices fresh (or frozen) galangal
1 tsp salt

In batches, first fry the potatoes several minutes in oil around 300º F.  Drain and let cool.  Heat the oil to 375º and fry the potatoes a second time until crisp, about two minutes more.  It's important that the potatoes be very crisp before you put them in the sauce.  Drain on paper towels.

You also have to fry the ikan teri in oil.  Once you have done so, you will not want to use this oil for anything else.  So, you may want to pour off and reserve some of the oil used to fry the potatoes before frying the anchovies.  These should be fried around 350º F for just a minute or two.  Drain on paper towels.

With a food processor or mortar and pestle, process or grind the shallots, garlic, and chilies to a paste.  Stir fry the paste in the 2 TBS of oil until softened and fragrant.  Add 6 TBS of palm sugar and stir until melted.  Add in the tamarind water, daun salam, galangal, and salt.  Stir and cook over medium heat until this becomes the consistency of a thick syrup.  Taste and adjust sweetness to your preference.  Fold in the potatoes, peanuts and ikan teri until all are covered with and have absorbed the sauce.  If your potatoes were crisp, the sambal should remain crisp in an airtight container for several days. 

Sambal Lalapan

Sambal lalapan is the standard accompaniment to fried and grilled dishes in Java. The combination of a fiery sambal and raw vegetables seems to alleviate the richness of fried foods and adds another note of piquancy to grilled chicken and fish.  For someone interested in putting together an Indonesian meal, sambal lalapan is a straightforward dish that can be pulled together in minutes.  Its only requirements are an assertive sambal and some fresh, crisp raw vegetables.  The sambal is the key.

A good sambal should be hot, with a slight tang from shallots, and the funk of a good dose of toasted shrimp paste (terasi in Indonesia, belacan in Malaysia).  A little gula jawa, palm sugar, sweetens the sambal just a bit and pulls the ingredients together.  In Indonesia the ingredients would traditionally be ground together with a mortar and pestle, but a food processor makes much quicker work of it and will probably do a better job unless you are experienced with an Indonesian style mortar and pestle.  Ideally, you would serve this with some kaffir limes, but I have yet to find the fruit here in the States.  (We have a tree growing in our backyard, but it has never produced any fruit.)

Sambal Terasi

A dozen or so red chilies, seeded, roughly chopped (around 180 grams)
5 to 6 shallots, peeled, roughly chopped (around 160--180 grams)
2 to 3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 1/2 tsp (+/-) toasted shrimp paste (terasi, belacan)
2 to 4 tsp gula jawa
3 TBS peanut oil
salt, to taste

Place the chilies, shallots, garlic, shrimp paste, and sugar in a food processor.  Pulse until you have a chunky consistency, smoother than hot dog relish but with a pleasing texture.  Heat the oil in a well seasoned or non-stick frying pan over medium heat.  Add the sambal and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until the oil begins to separate from the paste.  Add salt to taste and cool before serving. 

Ayam Goreng Mbok Berek

Like most people who have had the pleasure, I fell in love with ayam goreng mbok berek the first time I tasted it. This was in 1983 on my first visit to Yogya. Not really a big fan of American fried chicken, and certainly no fan of the Colonel, I didn't expect much. Colleagues and students had recommended I try the famous chicken, so I did.

It wasn't until I had been to Vietnam and had Thit Heo Kho (Ravenous Couple have a nice recipe here) that this recipe made sense to me. When I lived in Indonesia, I had had chicken simmered in coconut milk before being fried countless times. This is a common way of preparing fried chicken in Indonesia. It also results in moist, flavorful fried chicken. Although I am fond of drinking young coconut, I didn't think simmering the chicken in the water from young coconut would be much different from simmering in plain water. Yet, if you've ever had the pleasure of having thit heo kho simmered in coconut water, you know the magic of the medium.



The water from young coconuts is subtly sweet, not in a sugary way, but with the freshness of a recent rain. It's like drinking in the day after the first rain in weeks. In Java young coconuts are a dime a dozen, but here in the States they cost a little more. The concentrated stock that one gets after simmering the chicken in the coconut water is heavenly. It would be the ideal base for a bowl of mulligatawny soup.

Although young coconuts are not commonly found in major supermarkets, most Asian supermarkets and Whole Foods carry them. You do want to make sure you use a young coconut and not the more mature ones.



I haven't been able to recreate the crispy bits you get when you buy the chicken in Yogya. Robyn Eckhardt of Eating Asia had an informative article in the Wall Street Journal in which she identifies the crisp bits as deep fried spices from the coconut water stock the chicken is first simmered in, but I've been unable to get them to taste quite like what I remember. Even without those crumbs, this chicken is better than any other fried chicken you are likely to taste any time soon.

Besides some good rice, one other accompaniment this dish really calls for is a good sambal terasi. The heat and pungency of this sambal really complements the richness of the fried chicken. At the restaurant they also serve the chicken with the sambal lalapan (sambal with raw cabbage and other vegetables) and the side is every bit as popular as the chicken. I will be posting the sambal recipe soon.



Ayam Goreng Mbok Berek
adapted from Sri Owen's Indonesian Food and Cookery

1 young chicken, preferably free range and air chilled, quartered
or chicken thighs, wings, and drumsticks
6 shallots, coarsely chopped
2 inches of ginger, peeled, sliced, and pounded
2 inches of laos (galingale), peeled, sliced, and pounded
1 tsp coriander, coarsely ground in a mortar
2 salam leaves
salt and pepper
3-4 cups of coconut water from two young coconuts

oil for frying

Mix shallots, spices and salam leaves with coconut water in wok or saucepan. Add chicken pieces and simmer briskly for 30 minutes or so, until tender. The coconut water should be reduced by about half. Remove the chicken from the liquid and allow to cool.

After the chicken has cooled and dried, deep fry it until it is golden brown. The frying does not take very long because the chicken is essentially already cooked; the frying is done to crisp up the chicken and give it some color. Once fried, the chicken can be eaten warm or cold. Serve with rice and a good sambal.

Sambal Bajak

Sambal bajak--pirate sambal--is a great sambal to serve with grilled or fried chicken or fish. It's a robust sambal that should have a nice balance of shallots and chilies. There are probably nearly as many variations as there are said to be islands in Indonesia (over 16,000), and each surely has its supporters. I prefer a sambal that is straightforward in its heat and spice, but this one I'm posting is mellowed somewhat by the inclusion of coconut milk. This is something more akin to sambal bajak Caribbean, a rather tame sambal you might find at Disney World. If I could find hotter peppers, it would be better, but now is not the time of year to find the best peppers. Still, it is a pleasant accompaniment to grilled chicken and actually tastes good as a dip for crudites.


Sambal Bajak (from Sri Owen's Indonesian Food and Cookery)

10 Red chillies
1 slice terasi
10 shallots
5 cloves garlic
3 kemiri (candlenuts)
3 TBS vegetable oil
salt, to taste
1 tsp gula jawa or brown sugar
1 cup thick santen (coconut milk)

Take the first five ingredients and process them into a fine paste. In Indonesia this would traditionally be done with a mortar and pestle, but a food processor is quicker and does an adequate job. Saute the spice paste in the vegetable oil for a few minutes, then add the salt, sugar and santen. Simmer on low for 20 minutes and finish by cooking on a high flame, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.

The sambal can be served hot or cold. Let is cool before storing it.

If you used your food processor to make it, make sure you wash the bowl and chopping blade thoroughly before using them for anything else, or you may get an unexpected kick from the chillies in the sambal.


I'm submitting this recipe to Weekend Wokking, a world-wide food blogging event created by Wandering Chopsticks to celebrate the multiple ways we can cook one ingredient. The host this month is Wandering Chopsticks. If you would like to participate or to see the secret ingredient, check who's hosting next month.