Chaaza – Burmese Curry:
Serves: 4
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 40 mins
1 cup (200g) dried chickpeas
1 lemongrass stems, white part only, chopped
3cm piece ginger, peeled, chopped
8 cloves garlic, chopped
6 shallots, peeled, thinly sliced
2½ tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp sweet paprika
½ tsp chilli powder
½ tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
Black pepper
2 tsp shrimp paste in oil
2 tbsp fish sauce
400ml coconut milk
500g raw peeled prawns
250g Vermicelli noodles
1 lime, cut into wedges
Coriander leaves and pickled mustard greens, to serve
Method
Preheat oven to 180°C fan forced (356°F).
Place chickpeas on an oven tray and roast for 20-25 minutes, until dark and well toasted.
Set aside to cool briefly, then process to a powder in a food processor.
Sieve powder through a fine sieve and measure out ½ cup (75g).
Pound lemongrass stems in a mortar and pestle.
Add ginger and garlic, continue to pound.
Add 4 of the shallots and pound until mixture becomes a coarse paste.
Heat oil in a large, deep frying pan over high heat.
Add turmeric, fry for 30 seconds.
Add paste, season with salt and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring, until aromatic.
Stir in remaining spices, pepper and shrimp paste, and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.
Add fish sauce and continue to cook until the mixture “cracks.”
Stir in the coconut milk and 2 cups (500ml) water. Bring to a simmer.
Simmer for 5–10 minutes, allowing the flavours to develop.
Mix the ½ cup chickpea flour with ⅔ cup (160ml) water in a small bowl to make a slurry.
Add into curry and stir until well incorporated.
Simmer until starting to thicken.
Add the prawns and continue cooking for 2-3 minutes until they are just cooked through.
Soak noodles in boiling water for 2 minutes, until soft.
Drain and divide between serving bowls.
Ladle over the curry, and garnish with thinly sliced shallots, lime wedges, mustard greens and coriander.
23 Comments
Myanmar
My mate's wife is Burmese and she made us something very similar to this and it was brilliant!
*Just don’t Fax them recipes
Great idea crowdsourcing, Chef Andy!
If you are interested in their food, maybe do not use the british colonial name for their country. They call it Myanmar.
FYI Burma is the old English name for Myanmar
Please check out
@SaengsKitchen
I really think you guys need to connect.
He would and will make money from them too, but not interested in buying them off you huh
"Owning fax machine can land you in prison for 15 years"
Buddhists are peaceful peo-ACK
I lived with four Burmese guys in Mae Sot for three months. The food they made was amazing. They made an eggplant curry that was particularly good. I've tried to replicate it so many times, but I can't even get close.
“Corey’s half Burmese and runs a small Burmese takeaway shop on the side of a skate park that’s only open a few hours a night in the Margaret River region which is in Western Australia.” My mind is entirely boggled at just how previously unsaid this sentence was. I’m enchanted.
You had me at "Dahl Daddy."
Don't worry about your pronunciation Andy, you pronounce everything terribly! 😊
Got a Burmese restaurant where I live and I love the fermented tea leaf salad and the mohinga (fish soup)
That looks super similar to Thai Kao Soy (many different spellings out there). I had some in Nimman area in Chiang Mai and its like the best thing I've ever had. I think the little spot is in the Michelin guide as well. Kao Soy Nimman.
"the most interesting meal"
It's just a bunch of onion. Onions, leeks, and garlic are all just onion, onion in a trench coat, and onion with a mustache. You probably put chives on when it's done. You're incapable of liking anything that's not just a bunch of onions. And the worst thing? Nearly everyone in the world is broken in the exact same way.
There is, or used to be, a really decent Burmese restaurant in Boronia VIC that rocked.
Look for refuge resettlement agencies like those in Buffalo lots of Burmese refugees take their cultures with them!
There is a small Burmese restaurant in a large city near us, it is one of the best restaurants in the entire area.
That looks delish.
Crunchy tea salad has to be my favorite salad every hands down
Burmese food is So Good.
Laphet thoke is a wonderful Burmese dish – pickled tea leaf salad with tomatoes and shrimp paste. An absolute must try