Friends, Burma is a country that has plenty of water;
ocean, river & rain water. If you have lived over
there, or if you have visited the deep-inner part of
the country, you must have found number of small ponds
at every village. Thus availability of seafood is very
easy. And as it is natural, that what is easily found,
it is adopted in one's daily life. Thus fish and
prawns have played an important role in
"Burmese Cuisine" for many centuries. Many of my
friends who have lived in Burma at one time or other,
will agree with me that dried fish and boiled rice,
with hot-chili-pickle is the staple food of Burmese
people, especially of lower and poor working class.
Today I have selected : ..........Shabudin (Batunimurid)

F I S H C U R Y IN DRY SAUCE

INGREDIENTS:

2&1/2 pounds firm white fish fillets, cut into 1-inch cubes
2-2&1/2 tbsp fish sauce
10 oz roughly chopped onion
5 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
2 tsp fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp haldi powder
1-2 red chili, seeded and thinly sliced, or to taste
salt, chatmasala to taste
3 tbsp sesame oil, or peanut or any cooking oil
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander leaves
lemon wedges to garnish

Method

Place fish cubes in a shallow dish; pour over the fish sauce. Let aside.
Place all the ingredients, from onion to salt & chatmasala
into a food processor or into a blender and proceed
until a paste is formed. If need be, you can add a
spoon or two of water.
Heat the oil in a deep-sided frying pan. Pour over the spicy paste (be careful, as
at this stage it will splatter) and cook gently over
low-medium heat for 3-5 minutes, or until paste change
color to slightly brown. If during the process, need
arises, add a few spoonful of water. But caution
should be taken as not to burn the paste.
Add the fish cubes to the paste, mix well that cube of fish is
thoroughly coated with the paste.
Raise the heat to medium-high, cook for 4-5 minutes, or until fish is
thoroughly cooked, (fish doesn't need much time to
cook, so be very careful not to over cook it, else
fish flakes will start getting separated.) During the
cooking of fish, turn the fish - very gently once so
that fish get cooked evenly on both side.