Author Archives: Ahila

Palmyrah Root Snack

One of our neighbours brought us some boiled palmyrah roots from their recent trip to Jaffna. My mother decided to make a snack that her grandmother used to make her during her childhood. So, today’s recipe is a palmyrah root snack or ‘panang kilangu urundai’. I am bringing this snack together with some music to Angie‘s Fiesta Friday #117, co-hosted by Mollie and Scarlett.
IMG_0118Today’s music feature is on the Carnatic progressive rock band, Agam, which is based in Bangalore. While the band has been around for a decade or so, I only heard their music when they played at the MTV Coke Studio. ‘Malhar Jam’ is the clip that introduced me to their music.

The second music clip is called ‘over the horizon’. I came across this Malayala song, which I liked, while listening to some of Agam’s music on their youtube channel.

Hope you enjoy both the snack and the music!
panag kilangu

Palmyrah root snack

  • Servings: 3
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

  • Palmyrah root (panang kilangu), boiled – 1 cup, chopped
  • Grated/ scraped coconut, fresh – ¼ cup
  • Green chillies – 1 or 2
  • Onion – ½
  • Pepper – pinch
  • Salt, to taste

Method

  1. Boil the palmyrah roots. Trim the edges and chop it up.
  2. Add chopped boiled palmyrah root pieces to a dry grinder together with the freshly grated coconut, chopped green chillies and onion.
  3. Grind the mix and season with salt and pepper.
  4. Form little balls of the mixture or in a mold and serve as a snack, to be eaten immediately.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Jackfruit Fritters

Earlier this week, I shared my mother’s recipe for jackfruit stir-fry. Today, I am sharing another one of her jackfruit recipes – jackfruit fritters. I am bringing a few over to Angie‘s Fiesta Friday #111, co-hosted by Naina and Julianna.
Jackfruit fritterGiven that I have been listening to mostly Sufi songs this week, I decided to share another Sufi song that I enjoyed listening to. This clip is also from MTV Coke Studio’s YouTube channel. The musicians are Ustad Raees Khan (sitar) and Abida Parveen.

Happy Fiesta Friday!

Jackfruit Fritters

  • Servings: 10
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

  • Jackfruit – ½ cup, finely chopped
  • Flour – ¼ cup
  • Onion – 2 tbsp, chopped
  • Chilli – 1 or 2
  • Breadcrumbs – 3 tbsp
  • Curry powder – 1 tsp
  • Pepper and Salt, to taste
  • Oil

Method

  1. Fry the chopped onion and chilli in a pan.
  2. Add the finely chopped jackfruit pieces to the pan and stir-fry until cooked.
  3. Mix the flour, breadcrumbs, curry powder, salt and pepper in a bowl.
  4. Add the fried jackfruit, onion and chilli mix to the flour mix.
  5. Prepare the fritter dough by adding little water to the mix.
  6. Divide the dough into 10 balls.
  7. Flatten each ball and deep fry, flipping over the fritters so that they are browned uniformly on both sides.
  8. Serve immediately with rice or on its own.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Jackfruit stir-fry

I have always liked jackfruit. There was even a tree at my grandmother’s house so we were treated to the fruit on our rare visits there during my childhood. The tree is no longer there now but when I come across jackfruit, it takes me back to my grandmother’s home. Due to the sugar-free eating that my parents follow at home, we no longer buy the ripe fruit. However, on rare occasions, my mother buys the unripe fruit to cook polos. Recently, she made a tasty stir-fry and some fritters so I am sharing the jackfruit stir-fry recipe today.
Jackfruit stir fryI’d like to share a song that I came across on the Coke studio youtube channel and which I enjoyed very much. This song is an adaptation of a poem by the 13th century mystic poet, Amir Khusrow, who is also regarded as the father of qawwali. Here, it is sung by two contemporary famous qawwali musicians – Abida Parveen and Rahet Fateh Ali Khan.

Have a lovely week and hope you enjoy the song and the recipe!

Jackfruit stir-fry

  • Servings: 3
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

  • Jackfruit – ½ cup, finely chopped
  • Onion – 2 tbsp, chopped
  • Chilli – 1, red
  • Curry leaves – 1 sprig
  • Fennel seeds –
  • Turmeric – pinch
  • Coconut – 2 or 3 tbsp, freshly scraped
  • Curry powder – 1 or 2 tsp
  • Salt, to taste
  • Oil

Method

  1. Boil the chopped jackfruit, with a pinch of turmeric and salt, for around 10 – 15 mins. Drain and keep aside.
  2. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and lightly fry the chopped onion, chilli, curry leaves and fennel seeds for a couple of minutes before adding the cooked jackfruit pieces. Stir fry for a few minutes.
  3. Add the freshly scraped/ grated coconut to the pan together with the curry powder. Mix well.
  4. Serve warm with rice.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Around the World #3: Carrot Sambol and a Round up!

Check out Indu @Indu’s International Kitchen tour of Sri Lankan cuisine.

Indu's avatarIndu's International Kitchen

DSC_1214Its time for a round up of all the Sri Lankan recipes that I have made. I have been ogling at and drooling over countless recipes and I did end up making 7 different ones and have more lined up on my pinterest page that I hope to make soon!  My virtual journey has made me even more determined to visit Sri Lanka some day.  The cuisine just resonates with me so much because of the similarities between Kerala and Sri Lankan way of cooking. The liberal use of coconut and the abundance of seafood and spices! Gosh the recipes are so varied – There are simple salads like this carrot sambal that are made using fresh ingredients and serve as a side/ accompaniment to spicy rich dishes.  Then there are stuffed breads,  spicy chicken appetizers like spring rolls/cutlets and delicious curries using coconut milk.  The desserts are amazing too and mostly use rice…

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Aggala

Today’s recipe is a snack from the south of Sri Lanka. One of my mother’s friends brought her some aggala. So of course, I had to get the recipe, for this rice flour snack from her, to share on this blog.
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Instead of the usual routine of a song(s) that captured my attention accompanying my food post, I decided to share the trailer of a movie I watched today. It has been a long time since I last enjoyed watching a Tamil movie so I was really pleased when I came across this little gem. Kaakka Muttai (Crow’s egg, 2014) won two Indian national film awards in the children’s film category and has been screened at film festivals worldwide. The story revolves around two siblings, living in a slum area, who become obsessed with the idea of eating pizza after a pizza shop is opened in their neighbourhood and seeing a celebrity enjoying a slice at the opening of the store. The whole movie is a humorous, touching story about their attempts at fulfilling this desire. Written, directed and filmed by M.Manikandan, I found the movie flawless and beautifully done and was amazed that this is the directing debut of the director.

Hope you enjoy the short trailer of this movie, which has subtitles in English, as you check out the recipe for aggala.

Aggala

  • Servings: 6
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

  • Rice flour – 1 cup, roasted
  • Pani/ treacle or honey – ½ cup
  • Coconut – ¼ cup, desiccated or fresh
  • Pepper – ½ tsp (optional)
  • Salt, to taste

Method

  1. Mix the roasted rice flour, shredded coconut, salt and pepper in a bowl.
  2. Lightly heat the treacle in a pan and stir in the rice flour mix.
  3. When it thickens, remove from heat. If the mix is too dry, add a little hot water.
  4. Make around 6 balls out of the mix and let it cool, before serving.

Recipe source: Lalitha Senadheera.

Coconut pancakes

While I was an undergraduate at Peradeniya university a couple of decades ago, I disliked most of the under-cooked meals served at the university canteens. The only stuff I did like were some of the snacks which were delicious and new to me. One such snack was the coconut pancake. I realized afterwards that while it had been quite new to me, it is quite a staple on roadside tea stalls across the country so I refer to it as the Sri Lankan pancake as it is a little different from the regular pancake my mother usually makes at home. I recently mentioned this to my mother and my mother decided to recreate this coconut pancake, the recipe of which I am sharing here. As the coconut pancakes are really yummy, I decided to bring some over to Angie‘s Fiesta Friday #105, co-hosted by Lily and Julianna.

IMG_0088Given that I watched a few Bollywood movies this january, my song choice for this weekend is one from Imtiaz Ali’s movie Tamasha, starring Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone. The lyrics of the song was written by Irshad Kamil and music composed by A.R.Rahman and sung by Mohit Chauhan.

Hope you enjoy the song this weekend as you try out the coconut pancakes for brunch!

Coconut pancakes

  • Servings: 2
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

  • Coconut milk – 1 cup
  • Flour – ½ cup
  • Saffron or kesar powder – pinch
  • Salt – pinch
  • Coconut – ½ cup, grated
  • Sugar – 1 tbsp
  • Vanilla – 1 tsp

Method

  1. Mix the flour, saffron, salt with the coconut milk to make pancake batter. Add  a little water to adjust consistency, if required.
  2. Lightly fry the grated coconut with sugar in a pan until it caramelizes slightly. Remove from heat.
  3. Add vanilla essence to either batter or caramelized coconut.
  4. Scoop the batter onto the pan and make a thin layer. Cover for two minutes and cook over low heat. Flip the pancake and cook for another minute before removing from pan.
  5. After removing the pancake from pan, fill it immediately with the caramelized coconut and roll it.
  6. Serve the coconut pancakes with a hot cup of tea.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Pol Sambol

I was going through my pending recipe folder and came across something that a friend had sent two years back and which I had not got around to posting so decided to share it today.

Mass Silva, a friend from my undergrad years, sent me a photo-story of one of his favourite recipes that he enjoys making with his family. So, hope you enjoy his photo-story on making pol sambol in Germany.

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While Mass did not send me the measurements of the ingredients he used in making his pol sambol recipe, for those who are interested, please check my mother’s recipe for making pol sambol which I have shared earlier.

To wrap up this post, I’d like to share a cute song that I came across recently – Wassa Wahinawa.

Have a good week!

Breadfruit Fries

As I mentioned in my earlier breadfruit post, my mother tried out a couple of breadfruit dishes recently. I enjoyed the breadfruit curry but I enjoyed more the breadfruit fries she made. So, this weekend, I’d like to share my mother’s recipe for breadfruit fries and bring it to Angie‘s Fiesta Friday #101, co-hosted by Jhuls and Mr.Fitz.
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I was listening to some Sri Lankan music this week and the song I am sharing today is from the recently released movie Ho Gaana Pokuna (translation: The Singing Pond), directed by Indika Ferdinando and lyrics by Kusumsiri Liyanaarachchi. The film won the Teacher’s Choice Prize in the Chicago international children’s film festival.

Have a lovely weekend!

Breadfruit Fries

  • Servings: 4
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

  • Breadfruit – 1 cup, chopped
  • Onion – 1, chopped
  • Curry powder – 1 tsp
  • Ginger, garlic, to taste
  • Curry leaves
  • Salt and pepper, to taste

Method

  1. Mix the chopped breadfruit with salt and pepper.
  2. Deep fry the pieces and keep aside.
  3. Chop 1 onion and lightly fry the onion with chopped ginger, garlic and curry leaves in a pan. Add curry powder and salt to taste.
  4. Stir in the deep-fried breadfruit pieces and mix well.
  5. Remove from heat and serve with rice.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Breadfruit Curry

I hope 2016 has started out well for all of you.. Wishing you a peaceful year!

My recipe for today is a curry that my mother rarely cooks at home. However, it is quite popular in the south and west of Sri Lanka. Breadfruit is said to have been introduced to Sri Lanka from south-east Asia by the Dutch. Since a friend of my mother’s brought her a breadfruit from their garden, my mother has made a few breadfruit dishes which I have enjoyed.
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So, for today, I am sharing my mother’s recipe for breadfruit curry.
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Breadfruit Curry

  • Servings: 2
  • Difficulty: moderate
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Ingredients:

  • Breadfruit – 1 cup, chopped
  • Fennel seeds – 1 tsp
  • Fenugreek seeds – ½ tsp
  • Onion – 2 tsp, chopped
  • Curry leaves
  • Coconut milk – 1 cup
  • Curry powder – 1 tsp
  • Salt, to taste

Method

  1. Boil the chopped and cleaned breadfruit pieces for around 10 mins. Drain and keep aside.
  2. Lightly fry the fennel seeds, fenugreek seeds, chopped onion and curry leaves in 1 tsp oil in a pan.
  3. Add the boiled breadfruit pieces to the pan and stir for about 2-3 mins.
  4. Add the milk, curry powder and salt. Mix well before covering the pan.
  5. Cook for around 10 mins over medium heat.
  6. Serve with rice.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

 

Chocolate Biscuit Pudding

This month, I’d like to share my mother’s recipe for chocolate biscuit pudding. A very popular dessert in Sri Lanka, chocolate biscuit pudding is an easy-to-make, delicious dessert that can handle different variations to its layers.

As I enjoy my slice of the pudding today, I wish you all a merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Biscuit pudding

Chocolate Biscuit Pudding

  • Servings: 5-6
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

  • Gold Marie biscuits (or other appropriate biscuit of your choice) – 3 packets (180 g)
  • Milk flavoured with cocoa powder or melted chocolate – 1 cup
  • Plain milk – ¼ cup
  • Margarine – 100g
  • Icing sugar – 250g
  • Vanilla
  • Cashew nuts – 100g

Method

  1. Mix icing sugar and butter. Add the chocolate milk slowly until the mix becomes creamy.
  2. Soak the biscuits in plain milk and line the pyrex dish or dessert pan with a thickness of two biscuits.
  3. Spread the cream over the base layer and sprinkle some of the chopped nuts. Add another layer of biscuits soaked in the plain milk and repeat the process of adding the cream and nuts. The biscuit pudding can have as many layers as you want but 2-3 layers are good.
  4. Spread the remaining cream on top of the dessert. Decorate with strawberries.
  5. Refrigerate for a minimum 30 minutes before serving.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.