Burmese Ingredients Guide: What to Buy in the UK

You don’t need a specialist shop to cook Burmese food. Most of what Aamna uses is sold in South Asian grocers, Asian supermarkets or the world food aisle of a big supermarket. Here’s what to buy, what each ingredient does and which of her recipes use it.

Store cupboard

Gram flour (besan)

Flour made from ground chickpeas, and the ingredient Aamna reaches for most. Toasted, it thickens mohinga and gives ohn no khao swe its soft, nutty body. Roasted, it goes over thami letto and mont di. As a batter, it makes buu thee kyaw crunchy.

Fish sauce

Many Burmese cooks call it fish gravy. It seasons mohinga and thami letto. Any good Thai or Vietnamese fish sauce works.

Tamarind

Adds the sour note to thami letto and mont di. Buy it as a paste or concentrate, or soak a block in hot water and strain it.

Rice flour

Toasted with gram flour to thicken mohinga, and cooked with coconut milk and jaggery for kaala halwa.

Turmeric, paprika and chilli powder

The colour and warmth in most of Aamna’s Burmese savoury dishes, from mohinga to mont di. Kashmiri chilli powder, which she uses in several recipes, gives a bright red colour without too much heat.

Soy sauce

Light and dark soy sauce season mont di.

MSG

A little goes into mohinga, lahpet, ohn no khao swe, mont di and thami letto for extra savouriness. Look for MSG or monosodium glutamate in Asian supermarkets.

Fresh ingredients

Lemongrass

Made into a paste with chilli for mohinga. Most big supermarkets sell it.

Shallots and onions

Mohinga uses a big bowl of peeled shallots. Blended onions make the base of ohn no khao swe, and sliced raw onion goes on top of most noodle dishes.

Garlic and ginger

In almost every savoury recipe, either as a paste or sliced thinly and fried until golden for a topping.

Lemons and limes

Squeezed over mohinga, lahpet, thami letto and noodle dishes at the table.

Herbs and salad

Coriander, spring onions, sliced cabbage and bean sprouts go on top of thami letto and noodle dishes.

Marrow

In Burma, buu thee kyaw are made with bottle gourd. Marrow is an easy swap in the UK.

Crunchy toppings

Crispy fried onions and fried garlic

Fry them yourself or buy them ready fried. Shop bought is fine for thami letto.

Peanuts and sesame seeds

Roasted peanuts and toasted sesame seeds add crunch to mont di, lahpet and thami letto.

Beans and dal for lahpet

Lima beans, broad beans, chana dal and green chana, each fried separately until crisp. Aamna makes a big jar that keeps for months.

Chilli oil

Hot oil poured over chilli flakes and chilli powder. Aamna makes it fresh for mont di, ohn no khao swe and thami letto.

Noodles, rice and tea leaves

Rice noodles

Thin rice noodles, sometimes sold as vermicelli, for mohinga and ohn no khao swe.

Spaghetti

Aamna mixes spaghetti with rice noodles in ohn no khao swe and with rice and glass noodles in thami letto.

Tea leaves

Lahpet uses green tea leaves that Aamna pickles herself with garlic, ginger, chilli, lemon and oil. They rest for three days before they are ready.

Dried banana stem

Gives mohinga its proper Burmese flavour. Look in South East Asian grocers or online.

Sweet things

Coconut milk and coconut cream

A coconut cream block makes ohn no khao swe rich and creamy, coconut cream sets coconut jelly, and coconut milk goes into kaala halwa.

Jaggery

Unrefined cane sugar with a caramel flavour, used in kaala halwa and Aamna’s pumpkin curry. Brown sugar works too. See where else it turns up in the Burmese desserts guide.

Agar agar

A plant based setting agent made from seaweed. It gives coconut jelly a firmer, cleaner bite than gelatine.

Semolina and poppy seeds

Fine semolina is the base of sanwin makin, the Burmese semolina cake. Try Aamna’s pumpkin semolina cake, topped with white poppy seeds.

Easy swaps for UK kitchens

• Tinned sardines and mackerel instead of fresh fish in mohinga
• Marrow instead of bottle gourd in buu thee kyaw
• Brown sugar instead of jaggery in kaala halwa
• Shop bought crispy onions and fried garlic instead of frying your own
• Any Thai or Vietnamese fish sauce
• Lamb chops instead of mutton chops in mutton fried chops, simmered for about 30 minutes instead of 2 hours

Where to shop in the UK

• South Asian grocers for gram flour, rice flour, turmeric, Kashmiri chilli, tamarind, jaggery, chana dal and dried beans.
• Chinese and South East Asian supermarkets for fish sauce, rice noodles, soy sauce, MSG, agar agar and coconut cream.
• Big supermarkets for fish sauce, lemongrass, rice noodles, coconut milk and gram flour, usually in the world food aisle.
• Online for harder to find things like dried banana stem.

Skip the prep with Thami Letto

Frying onions, roasting peanuts and cooking gram flour for a thami letto topping takes time. Aamna’s Thami Letto jar has that savoury crunch ready to spoon over rice or noodles. Read what Thami Letto is.

Put your ingredients to work

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