Call me the experimental chef as I attempted to prepare Burmese curry base for the first time in years. I had a rough idea about the amount of ingredients I needed to make a batch but it seems I was a bit off. You see, I started with 8 pounds of red onions, 3 bunches of cilantro, and 3/4 cup of paprika, and well, that made 3 quarts or nearly 3 liters of this essential ingredient. It is enough curry base for us to make more than 12 Burmese dishes over the coming months, not that that’s a bad thing.

There are four main dishes for which I’ll be using this: jack fruit curry, pork belly curry, oxtail curry, and mango coconut squash shrimp curry. These dishes were taught to me a dozen years ago by Elizabeth Chan at the Little Rangoon restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona, before they closed shop. It continues to be a tragedy to this day that the people of Arizona will never know her amazing recipes and the variety of foods she brought to the dining table.

To make the curry base I’d recommend you start with maybe 3 pounds of red onions peeled (instead of 8), cut them in half, and slice them into about 6 large slices. Use only 1 bunch of roughly chopped cilantro and about 1/3 cup of paprika. Cook these ingredients over medium heat for about 90 minutes in 1/2 cup of oil; I prefer corn oil but use what you want. After everything has softened and quite liquidy, either use a wand and puree this mixture or place it in a blender to puree it. You can now freeze it in one-cup portions; I use Ziploc freezer bags.