Preparation info

Difficulty
Easy
Makes About
1½
Loosely Packed Cups

Appears in

Burma

By Naomi Duguid

Published 2012

Dried shrimp are an important source of flavor as well as protein through most of Southeast Asia. In Burma they are often used powdered. The soft powder gives a subtle depth of flavor and also thickens sauces.

Look for largish dried shrimp, more than ½ inch long if possible, and the darker-colored (more red than pale pink or beige), the better. Try to get shrimp that are a little soft rather than completely hard. The easiest way to grind them is in a food processor (traditionally, they are pounded in a mortar).

1 cup or more good-quality dried shrimp (see the headnote)

Method

Place the shrimp in a bowl with water to just cover and set aside to soak for 10 minutes (20 minutes if the shrimp are very hard and dry). Drain and pat dry.

Transfer to a food processor and process until reduced to a slightly uneven, fluffy powder, from 1 to 3 minutes, depending on the toughness of the shrimp. Pause and wipe down the sides of the bowl occasionally if necessary. Store in a glass jar.

Umami

The Japanese word umami refers to a category of flavor, a fifth taste, after salt, sweet, sour, and bitter. It’s the taste that is “meatiness,” which we associate with ripe tomatoes, deep-flavored mushrooms, soup stocks, grilled meats, and more. English speakers have adopted the word, since there is no exact English-language equivalent.

In the cooking of Burma there are a lot of “umami ingredients,” whose major role is giving a dish meaty depth of flavor. They include fish sauce, shrimp paste, fermented soybeans and soybean disks, fermented fish, dried shrimp, soy sauce, and oyster sauce (all these ingredients are described in the Glossary), as well as meat and fish. Burmese cooks also use MSG for meatiness, especially in soups; I usually substitute fish sauce for MSG. When I ask cooks in Burma what they or their mothers did before the arrival of MSG, they tell me that there was more use of fish stocks, and sometimes broths from meat bones, to give depth of flavor.

Substitution of one umami ingredient for another is always possible: If you have a recipe that calls for fermented soybeans, for example, and you don’t have them available, or a recipe that calls for shrimp paste and you don’t like the taste of it, you can substitute another umami ingredient, keeping in mind that the seasoning may have to be adjusted.

The issue of substitution also comes up if you are adapting recipes for vegetarians or vegans. Instead of fish sauce, use salt (1 teaspoon salt is approximately equal in saltiness to 1 tablespoon fish sauce); instead of Dried Shrimp Powder (opposite), use Toasted Chickpea Flour for its thickening effect and agreeable taste, and add a little soy sauce or miso paste. Adding dried mushrooms to a dish also increases depth of flavor just as shrimp paste and fish sauce do. Best of all, follow the Shan approach to umami and use fermented soybeans in place of shrimp paste and other fermented or preserved fish ingredients. The Shan use tua nao—soybean disks—but in North America, brown miso paste is more readily available. If you want to make your own Soybean Disks.

Preparation info

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Makes About

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Ingredients

Method