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.