I’ve seen my mother-in-law make coconut roti a few times, but haven’t made it myself and even, somehow, managed to not write her recipe down. Considering how much I love coconut roti, I can’t imagine why I wasn’t thinking! So when time came for me to make coconut roti, rather than going with my mother-in-law’s …
Category: recipe
Tempered Okra Curry
Okra is called ladies fingers in English in Sri Lanka or bandakka in Sinhala. I’m used to calling it okra, so that’s what I’ll go with. 🙂 One of Fahim’s cousin, knowing that I’m interested in cooking Sri Lankan food, gave me a Sri Lankan cookbook a year or so back. It’s called Ceylon Cookery …
Cabbage Mallung
A mallung (also spelled mallum) is a Sri Lankan dish made with some type of vegetable or leaf that’s cooked with freshly shredded coconut. They’re usually cooked for a fairly short period of time and are fairly quick dishes to put together. A note on cabbage. If you’re not a fan – like me …
Ala Badun, aka Sri Lankan Devilled Potato & Onions
I’m not a potato person. I grew up on boiled-until-glue potatoes six days a week and, you know, it just got old. Once I had a choice about what food was made/what groceries were bought, I swore off potatoes for a good many years. A few years ago, though, I tried out Ala Badun and …
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Gotukola Sambol
Gotukola, also called gotu kola (Centella asiatica), is an herb that grows wild in this part of the world and is commonly sold at grocery stores, vegetable shops, and off the back of vegetable seller’s bicycles. It even grows on our lawn amongst the grass and mosses. One day, for no particular reason, I started …
Fried Fish
This is a very basic, easy recipe that requires little work, and it’s good for any small fish like salaya, handella, or sprats, all of which are fish under 5″ long. If you fry it only until the flesh of the fish is cooked, then the small bones can be, ah, uncomfortable going down. Fry …
Making yoghurt without a yoghurt maker
Techniques for making yogurt if you do not have an appliance designed for it. With a thermos Almost fill a thermos bottle (preferably widemouthed) with milk heated to 100 degrees F. Add 2 tablespoons of plain yogurt and mix thoroughly. Put the lid on and wrap the thermos in two or three terry towels. Set …
Homemade Yoghurt
I want to make my own yoghurt. Yes, yoghurt is readily available here, but the only commercial yoghurt available in decent quantities (500 mL containers, for example) are thickened with gelatin, even the ones that have some amount of yoghurt culture, as it’s called here. I suppose they call it yoghurt culture because if they …
Wattalapam
Fahim and I went grocery shopping, and among the things we bought was Wattalapam, which, if I talk with my normal North American style of speech, I butcher. If I slow down, I pronounce it properly. Basically, it’s a custard. It’s only got five ingredients, or ingerdients, as the manufacturer spells it. It has jaggery, …