My Burmese Cookbook: Part 1

By MyintMyint Soe

This is a book about the wonderfully rich and vibrant cuisine of Myanmar. Myanmar has recently opened up to the world but very little is known about its cuisine. Although the country is situated between China, Bangladesh, India and Thailand, its cuisine is subtly different but yet has influences from all those countries.
The recipes in my book are written for both beginners and experienced cooks alike with clear instructions. The book provides measurements in metric system and recipes are easy to follow.
My Cookbook Part 1 and 2 are one of those rare books with recipes on much-loved Myanmar cuisine. They will give you great happiness and enjoyment among families and friends for years to come.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Nov 20, 2014
• ISBN: 9781496993465

MyintMyint Soe

Myint Myint Soe was born in Myanmar formerly known as Burma and immigrated to England in 1977. She settled down with her family ever since. She is currently living in London after retiring from her job as a doctor. She is a passionate and acclaimed cook and can produced sensational thought provoking dishes to give you a lasting impression on Myanmar cuisine.

Book preview

MY Burmese

COOKBOOK

PART 1

MYINTMYINT SOE

AuthorHouse™ UK

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403 USA

www.authorhouse.co.uk

Phone: [phone]

© 2014 MyintMyint Soe. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 11/20/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4969-9345-8 (sc)

           978-1-4969-9346-5 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

12516.png

This book is dedicated to my beloved

late mother Daw Khin Than

Foreword

To cook well, one needs to be passionate about it. Myint Myint Soe has always been an aficionado of cooking and has it down to an art. I can vouch for that, having tasted many of the dishes in her cookbook.

She has included recipes for many dishes which are well-loved by the native Myanmar people. In doing so, she has made it easy for readers to follow the recipes and taste these dishes for themselves. Her recipes are simple and will make cooking be effortless, as she has provided step-by-step instructions for the readers. For these mouth-watering recipes, color photographs are provided throughout the book, so that you will be able to see how the dishes look like.

This is a dream collection for all those who love Myanmar food and I hope it will give you many hours of enjoyment cooking these flavorful foods!

Contents

The Story of Bamar Cooking

Required Kitchen Ingredients

The Story of Taingyinthar Cooking

Shan & Kachin Food

Mon Food

Rhakhine Food

Soups

Salads (A-Thoke)

Poultry dishes

Pork, Lamb And Beef Meat dishes

Fish & Seafood

Vegetables and Pickles

Weights and Measures

The Story of Bamar Cooking

Bamar Hin (Burmese food) varies from region to region and from one home to the other. There is a saying that Women in Mandalay (Upper Myanmar) are good for words; women in Yangon are good for gloating; and women in Mawlamyine are good for food. Women in Upper Myanmar usually are good at business and they are very good with their words to make good business. Yangon is the former capital city of Myanmar, women with money or no money usually gloat about their status, what she has and can afford. But in Mawlamyine, Taninthayi region women folk are good cooks and men are usually hen pecked and very fussy with their food. In some families men are spoilt to an extent where they would not eat cooked food left over from lunchtime in their evening meals. The main dish would be eaten only when the cook presents another dish that goes well with the main dish. For example, a pork and mango curry dish goes well with one bitter cassia leaves soup. Both have to be present in one mealtime. As I have said earlier, even though the pork is available fresh in the market that morning, if you cannot find the bitter leaves to make a soup, it would be better not to cook the pork and mango curry. My father’s family was from Mawlamyine and they were so particular with their food. My dear uncle married a lady from Mandalay, the upper Myanmar area and she had to learn how to cook the food the right way as well as to look for fresh ingredients every morning from the market.

Before I embarked on writing recipes of Burmese food there are particular vocabularies that we used to certain type of cooking which I would like to present it here.

Si Pyan Hin: This is a main dish cooked until meat is tender and all the water has evaporated with meat cooked in oil. This particular way of cooking, enhances the flavor of the dish, and adds sweetness to the gravy from the caramelization of onions and meat.

Si kyan yay kyan Hin: This is a main dish where there is still a certain amount of liquid is left together with the oil. Here you can use a small amount of oil and the addition of pulses or vegetables could be made.

A syat Hin: This is a dish with a chilly hot flavor.

A Cho Hin: This is a dish with a sweet taste.

Ah Pu Shar Pu Hin: This is a dish where the heat from chilly and pepper hit the throat and the tongue. This dish is good for people who love hot peppery taste.

Hin Cho: This is a soup dish with a sweet taste and the flavor comes from the meat you use. Usually they are soya-based soup with sugar and white pepper added.

Hin Khar: This is a soup dish with a taste of hot pepper. The soup is made from Shrimp paste or fish sauce with lots of pepper.

Oh kat Hin; It is a dish allowing the liquid to evaporate completely, but the oil is left to cook the food as fried. But you must prevent food from sticking to the saucepan to give the right flavor. It would also be good to use the seasoned metal saucepan or non-stick saucepan for this type of cooking.

Cho Chin Hin; It is a dish with the sweet and sour taste just like sweet and sour meat dish.

Chin yay Hin; It is usually a soup dish with the sour taste. Some may be hot and some may be sweet. The sour taste is taken from the tamarind, lemon or lime, pickled leaves fresh or dried.

Kala Hin. Usually referred to the dish cooked with a lot of spices.

Pyoke Kyaw. Usually you add some liquid to the dish from the beginning to let the meat cooked to tenderness. Once the liquid has evaporated, the oil starts to show and the meat is fried and caramelization occur. It is usually a sweet dish. It is similar to Si Pyan Hin.

A Kyaw Hin. The terminology is used where frying takes place. Burmese people love anything fried. Chinese stir fried food is also known as A Kyaw Hin. In this case vegetables with small cuts of meat are fried in high heat and should take only a few minutes. You must ensure that the vegetables are not water logged, but fresh and clean. Some vegetables produced liquid in the process of cooking. To take away the liquid a small amount of corn flour dissolve in a little water is added to thicken it.

Due to many reasons, people eat out in restaurants or in any food shops in local markets to save the hassle of cooking food at home. There are teahouses where the thick sweet Burmese tea sweetened with condensed milk are sold. It is also a meeting place where gossips are told and businesses are carried out. You can also get basic food like fried rice or any savory food to go with the sweet tea. It leaves the majority of Burmese people ignorant from the knowledge of how to make curry dishes, savory food and sweet Burmese desserts. Added to this problem, there are very few meaningful Burmese cookbooks available. Recipes are handed down from one generation to the other, or learned from what your elders are doing in the kitchen. They would use the terminology of ‘a handful’ of this, ‘one measure of condensed milk tin’, ‘a measure of teacup’, ‘ a proportion of this to that’, and so on. Usually cooking in Burma is an art where you roughly guess the amount to use minimally, taste the food and readjust accordingly.

This is the difficulty I faced when I started to cook Burmese food in England many years ago. I bought some Burmese cookbooks and the only useful information from the book is the ingredients contain in dishes. The measurements are hopeless when in Western countries either imperial or metric system is used. In Burma the monetary and weighing system used is in Kyats. One kyat (tical) in weight is equivalent to fourteen grams. After many years in England I have mastered the art of cooking Bamar food from the ingredients available to us from Asian stores. At the beginning I made mistakes. But I learned from my mistakes by thinking it through with the method used in western countries and applied to cooking our food. When I was young, I saw my mother and her helper cooked with charcoal or wood fire. There is also the kerosene cooker that gives fire quickly and saves time. There was no oven or range cooker like we have in England today. But times have changed and in Myanmar as we called it now has modern cookers in houses. There are also supermarkets where one can buy ingredients just like in Western countries. I hope this book would also be useful to the Burmese women audience living in Myanmar.

Required Kitchen Ingredients

Burmese ladies have the habit of stocking up their larder for a month supply of basic ingredients. Some ingredients would be bought only when required on the day. Some maybe fresh and some may be a tinned product. I am writing this book from a Western country where the availability and markets are totally different from Burma. Here I have to stock up ingredients from a supermarket, and also from the ethnic minority stores as and when I find the right ingredients to make Burmese dishes.

Basic Ingredients

Basmati Rice. It is easily obtainable in supermarkets and Asian stores. Burma used to be the rice bowl of Asia, and Paw-san-hmwe is similar to Basmati rice. It has a lovely perfumed aroma when cooking and it will enhance your Biryani dish very well. Some may prefer Jasmine rice from Thailand. It is sticky and helps a lot when one is eating rice with chopsticks or by hand. American long grain rice is cheaper and helps a lot financially