Kolkata’s Burma Burma, a restaurant chain specialising in Burmese cuisine since 2014, recently launched a new line of retail products featuring pastes, sauces and snacks. Head sous chef Vikrant Sablok from Burma Burma, Mumbai, held a live cooking session at their Park Street address to demonstrate how to use these offerings, like the spicy-nutty Balachaung, to make your favourite Burmese dishes at home.
"Burma Burma is not just a restaurant but a celebration of the spirit of Burmese culture and life and with our retail offering of ready-to-cook pastes, spice mixes, crunchy nuts and toppings, and essential sauces to level up your stir-fries, rice, and noodle dishes, we hope to bring the taste of Burma from our family kitchen to yours,” said Ankit Gupta, co-founder, Burma Burma.
Burma Burma’s new range of Asian staples
Among the offerings in their latest retail line are Maung’s Chilli Garlic Paste (Rs 390 for 170g), Chilli Garlic Oil Drizzle (Rs 360 for 150g), and the popular Burmese snack, lotus stem chips in, in a new Raw Mango flavour (Rs 360 for 160g).
At the demo session, Sablok tossed up three delicious vegetarian dishes, including the popular khowsuey, and shared the recipes.
Here’s how you can make these at home:
Vikrant Sablok at the demo session
‘Wa’ Potato
The session began with a wok-tossed potato dish known as ‘WA’ Potato. This fried potato offering is made with Burmese Balachaung — a dry and spicy condiment or topping that is traditionally made with dried shrimp, but Burma Burma’s vegetarian version has a mix of fried onion, peanuts, red chilli, and garlic. If you like crisp-soft potatoes with a spicy kick, then this one’s for you. The prep time for this meal is 10 minutes and cooking takes five minutes.
Ingredients
- Fresh oil for frying: 2 Cups
- Potatoes (cut into thick strips): 2.5 Cups
- Garlic (chopped): 2tsp
- Burma Burma’s Balachaung: 4 tbsp
- Chilli paste or Red chilli sauce: 3 tbsp
- Kaffir lime leaves: 2
- Tamarind juice: 2 tbsp
- Salt and sugar to taste
- Turmeric water (water with a pinch of turmeric): To blanch
- Cornflour: 1tbsp (for dusting)
- Spring onions (chopped): 3 tbsp
- Spring onion juliennes for garnish
Method
- Wash, peel and cut potatoes into finger-sized pieces, before blanching them in turmeric water. Drain to allow them to cool
- Add the blanched potatoes in a mixing bowl, add oil and dust the potatoes with cornflour coating them evenly
- Heat oil in a pan and fry the dusted potato fingers until they’re golden and crispy before removing and setting them aside
- Heat some oil in a wok and add kaffir lime leaves, chilli paste/chilli sauce, and stir well
- Add tamarind juice, and seasonings to the sauce
- Add the fried potatoes and toss until the potatoes are well coated with the sauce
- Add chopped spring onions, Burma Burma’s Balachaung and give it a good toss to mix it all together
- Garnish it with julienne spring onions and serve
“These buns are our take on the sweet, sticky malar stir fry, and have asparagus, broccoli in steamed buns,” explained Sablok. With the use of the malar paste — which is an all-purpose spicy-sweet Burmese sauce — these soft, delicious buns are a delight to binge on.
It has a prep time of 10 minutes, and cooking duration of 5-6 minutes. The Malar Stir Fry Sauce from Burma Burma costs Rs 390.
Ingredients
- Burma Burma’s Malar Stir Fry Sauce: 2 tbsp
- Chopped garlic: 2 tsp
- Chopped ginger: 2 tbsp
- Chopped onion: 2 tbsp
- Asparagus cubed: 1/2 cup
- Broccoli florets: 1/2 cup
- Salt to taste
- Butter: 2 tbsp
- Baos: 4
Method
- Heat oil in a wok and add chopped garlic, ginger and onions. Saute until fragrant
- Add broccoli florets, asparagus cubes, chilli paste, the Malar Stir Fry Sauce and toss well before seasoning with salt and sugar
- Let the sauce thicken to desired consistency
- Prep buns separately by cutting them in half and applying a thin layer of butter on each half
- Fill the baos with the asparagus-broccoli stir fry and steam for 5-6 minutes
- Garnish with some black sesame seeds and serve hot
Burma Burma’s Oh No Khowsuey
The Oh No Khowsuey is the restaurant’s signature dish — a “fragrant, creamy coconut-based curry infused lemongrass, tamarind, topped with diced veggies and served with noodles of your liking,” said the sous chef. You can personalise your khowsuey with ingredients like tofu and bean sprouts. The prep time for this dish is 10 minutes, and cooking takes 20 minutes.
Sablok preparing the ‘khowsuey’
Ingredients
- Burma Burma’s Khow Suey Curry Paste: 3½ tbsp
- Coconut milk: 1 cup
- Water: 3/4 cup
- Carrot (diced cubes): 1 tbsp
- French beans (chopped): 1 tbsp
- Baby corn (medium dices): 1 tbsp
- Green zucchini (medium dices): 1 tbsp
- Yellow zucchini (medium dices): 1 tbsp
- Broccoli (diced): 1 tbsp
- Onion (small shallot, chopped): 1/2 tbsp
- Noodles: 100 gm
Method
- Heat oil in pan, add chopped onions and saute once oil is hot
- Stir in the Khow Suey curry paste, let it cook for 1-2 minutes before adding coconut milk and water.
- Stir it all together to combine and add the prepared vegetables
- Allow mixture to come to a gentle boil and simmer until vegetables are tender (usual time is 10-15 minutes)
- Cook noodles separately as per package instructions, drain and set them aside
To serve
- Add noodles in a serving bowl, ladle the curry over it
- Garnish with chopped spring onions, fried onions, touch of chilli oil, even crushed peanuts, coriander leaves and fried garlic if you wish