Balachong

Name: Balachong
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Burmese
Ingredients: 4 cloves garlic, sliced; 1 tbsp tamarind water, or ½ tbsp lemon juice and ½ tbsp water; 2 tbsp crushed dried red chilli; 50 g dried shrimp; 4 shallots, finely sliced; 4 tbsp peanut oil

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Food and Travels

By Alastair Hendy

Published 2004

About

Balachong is the raunchiest ‘salt and pepper’ I’ve had the pleasure of. Hot, tangy and shrimpily pungent. And it’s the life blood of the Burmese table. If you want it to sing higher, add a little shrimp paste when you wok.

Ingredients

50 g dried shrimp
4 shallots, finely sliced
4 tbsp p

Asia
Myanmar (Burma)
Condiment
Pescatarian
Gluten-free
South East Asia

Method

Briefly process the shrimp until they’re coarsely crushed, or pulverize in a mortar. Slow-fry the shallots in the oil until they start to go brown and crisp, then scoop out excess oil and chuck in the dried chilli, shrimp and garlic and stir-fry until it all picks up some colour. Add the tamarind water or diluted lemon juice, then stir-fry for about 2 minutes, or until the mixture dries up - bu