Burmese Shrimp Curry: Bazun Hin

This Burmese dish is also known as "Pazoon Hin," and there are variations in recipes. It is not an especially spicy hot dish, although it does have a little bit of a kick, but if you like your dishes fiery, you can easily adjust the amount of fresh chilies and/or the amount of ground red pepper or the type of ground red pepper. I used Kashmiri chili powder (ground red chili peppers), which is much milder than standard Indian chili powder, which is hot, much like cayenne pepper. 

 

Burma is also known as Myanmar (1989), and the official language is Burmese, one of the Sino-Tibetan languages, which includes Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, Tibetan and between 300 and 400 other languages and dialects. The nation has a population in excess of 55 million. The country became a colony of Britain in the 1880s, and during World War II Burma faced much destruction as the Japanese invaded Burma in 1942, with fighting continuing there until mid 1945. "Likely" the best known city in Burma/Myanmar is Rangoon, which is now known as Yangon, and it was the former capital until late 2005, but the current capital is Naypyidaw (seemingly pronounced as if "nay-pyee-dah"). By the way, a well known dish, usually an appetizer served in Chinese restaurants in the U.S. and perhaps elsewhere, is "Crab Rangoon," but it is not from the city in Burma, although the dish name is likely a big reason why so many Americans know the name Rangoon. (Note: By the way, Crab Rangoon is thought to have developed in San Francisco in the United States in the mid 1950s.)

Ingredients 4 servings):

1 pound raw shrimp, peeled and de-veined

3 tablespoons vegetable oil + 1 teaspoon sesame oil

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 teaspoons grated ginger

1 large clove garlic, minced

1 small chili pepper, chopped

3 tomatoes, chopped (tennis ball size)

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon ground red pepper (like cayenne)

1 good pinch ground cloves

6 or 7 fennel seeds, ground (you can use a spice grinder or a mortar and pestle, as I do)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 can coconut milk

1 or 2 tablespoons chopped coriander (for garnish)

(optional for fans of chilies) 1 to 3 teaspoons chopped chilies for garnish

 

In a skillet (or wok), add the vegetable oil/sesame oil over medium heat. Add the onion and saute for 2 minutes, stirring the onion around as it cooks. Add the garlic, ginger and chili pepper; saute one minute, while stirring. Now add the chopped tomatoes, ground turmeric, ground red pepper, ground fennel and salt; stir to mix in, saute 1 to 2 minutes, then stir in the fish sauce and mix it in well to distribute all of the flavors. Add the shrimp and saute with the other ingredients for 2 minutes, then add the coconut milk, stir well, and let the sauce come up to temperature and let the dish simmer until the shrimp are completely cooked, then remove the skillet from the heat. Garnish with some chopped cilantro (also known as fresh coriander) and, optionally, some chopped chilies. Serve with rice.

 

WORD HISTORY:

Nest-This word goes back to Indo European "nizdo," which "seems" to be a combination formation of "ni," which meant "down, below" ("ni" being the ancient ancestor of English "nether") and "sed," which meant "to sit" (indeed the ancient ancestor of English "sit"). This gave its Old Germanic offspring "nistaz," a noun which meant "(a) nest." The verb form is from Old Germanic "nistijanan," which meant "to nest, to make a nest." The Germanic form gave Old English the noun "nest," a form which has lasted to this day, and which meant "nest, brood of young birds." The Old English verb form "nistan," meant "to build a nest/nests." Other Germanic noun forms survived only in the West Germanic branch of Germanic (English is West Germanic), but see the Swedish entry: German, Low German and Dutch all have "nest," and Frisian once had a form, now no longer used. Swedish (from the North Germanic branch) has "näste," but it was borrowed from Low German.