Category Archives: Lunch

Spicy Curd Rice

The rice dish for today is a tasty spicy, curd rice.

Spicy curd riceWhile not a fan of hip hop, I felt like featuring three musicians who are primarily considered hip hop artists though several of their songs cross over to other genres.

The first is Iraj Weeraratne. His songs like  J town story, Gemak Deela caught my ears and eye over the years. In more recent years, he seems to be more engaged in composing or singing in Indian movies and multi-country collaborative song productions. The song that I am sharing here is from his debut album a decade ago – ‘J town Story’ with Krishan featuring Yawuwanan and Infaas.

The second featured musician is Ranidu Lankage. A R&B and hip hop musician and an economics graduate of Yale university, his first solo album released a decade ago was a huge success. Here, I am sharing the song that made him famous – Ahankara Nagare (the remix version with Iraj). While I haven’t listened to many other songs of his, I did like a recent song that he dedicated to all mothers – Amma mathakai nam.

The third featured musician of the day is Ashanthi de Alwis. She has released four music albums and featured in several songs of Bathiya and Santhush (I shared a recent production of the popular music duo in last week’s post). The song of Ashanthi’s shared here is an upbeat, catchy song ‘Papare’ featuring Krishan.

Spicy Curd Rice

Time taken: 30 persons

Serves 3

Curd RiceIngredients:

  • Rice – 1 cup
  • Curd – ½ cup
  • Crushed chillies – 1 tsp (optional)
  • Chickpeas – 1 tbsp, fried
  • Dried red chillies – 2, chopped (adjust according to taste)
  • Onion – ½ , chopped
  • Fenugreek – 1 tsp
  • Curry leaves – 2 sprigs
  • Sesame/ Gingelly oil – 1 tbsp

Method:

  1. Lightly fry the chopped onion, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves and chopped dried chillies in a tablespoon of sesame oil.
  2. Add the crushed chillies and fried chickpeas to the pan.
  3. Next, add the yoghurt and mix well before adding the boiled rice.
  4. Stir well before removing from heat and serve immediately.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Tomato Rice

My mother wanted to have a rice series so I will be sharing some of her rice recipes starting today with tomato rice.

Tomato riceWith each of the rice dish recipe, I will also be sharing a song or two by an interesting, contemporary Sri Lankan musician whose music I have enjoyed. Today’s featured musician is Sarangan Sriranganathan. Coming from a musical family, he has been on the Sri Lankan music scene for at least fifteen years.  For today, I chose two video clips that I was able to find online. The first is an original composition by Sarangan – அவள் ஒரு மெல்லிய பூங்காற்று (literal translation: She is a light, fragrant breeze) featuring famous Indian musician Hariharan.

I like that he is well able to shift between classical and popular music and I particularly like the classical music concerts. So, my second video clip is Sarangan’s performance in Sydney of one of his mother‘s original compositions ‘Bhava Raaga Thaala – Thillana.’

Enjoy the delicious tomato rice as you listen to the music clips! 🙂

Tomato Rice

Time taken: 30 mins

Serves 3

tomato rice 2Ingredients:

  • Rice – 1 cup, boiled
  • Tomatoes – 2
  • Onion – ½ , large
  • Curry leaves – 1 sprig
  • Fenugreek – 1 tsp
  • Chilli powder – ½ tsp
  • Chickpea – 2 tbsp, fried
  • Oil – 1 tbsp

Method:

  1. Heat the oil and lightly fry the onion, curry leaves and fenugreek.
  2. Add chopped tomatoes and chilli powder and continue frying for a few minutes before removing from heat.
  3. Blend the cooled tomato mixture into a puree.
  4. Re-heat the puree in the pan adding some water, if required.
  5. Add the boiled rice and the fried chickpea to the pan and mix well.
  6. Serve with sliced onion or onion salad.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Hathmalu

Today’s guest blogger is renowned independent film-maker Asoka Handagama. His movies have garnered much critical acclaim and have been screened at numerous major international film festivals (Toronto, Edinburgh, Tokyo etc.) around the world. His most recent movie ‘Ini, Avan’ had its world premiere at the ACID programme in the Cannes festival in 2012. Asoka is currently working on his newest film project which he plans to partially fund through crowd-funding. If you would like to participate in Sri Lanka’s first partially crowd-funded movie production, do check out the film’s Crimso page. 

Today, Asoka shares his favourite dish, Hathmalu – a specialty dish made during the Sri Lankan New Year/ Avurudhu/ Puthaandu.

Hath Malu ( A curry made of Seven vegetable/ingredients )

This traditional curry dish is prepared for an auspicious AVURUDU meal; popular in Sabaragamuva province in Sri Lanka. Uniqueness in this dish is that it is not prepared for any other occasion than AVURUDU.  It is so yummy that you can swallow a whole load of milk-rice in a few seconds!

Hathmalu

Hathmalu Recipe

Ingredients

  • Cashew Nuts (raw un roasted)

And any six (or seven) of the following:

  • Egg plant/ aubergines
  • Jackfruit Seeds
  • Snake beans
  • Sweet potato
  • Sweet potato baby leaves or pumpkin leaves
  • Desha-ala (indigenous potato)
  • Desha-ala leaf stems
  • ‘Ambul’ banana (unripe bananas)

For the curry: 

  • Turmeric
  • Chili powder (un roasted)
  • ‘Thuna paha’ local spice mix such as cinnamon, cardamom, cloves (un roasted)
  • Salt
  • Red onions
  • Green chili
  • Curry leaves
  • Coconut milk: thick cream (first squeeze) and diluted (second squeeze)

Method:
Chop aubergines and other vegetables and potatoes into 1cm x 1cm x 1cm cubes. Add the seven main ingredients along with salt, spice mix, curry leaves, chili powder, red onions, green chili, turmeric and diluted coconut milk to a (preferably) clay pot. Place on stove and allow to cook slowly on low heat until all ingredients have cooked and softened (15-20 minutes). Then add thick coconut milk and (on medium heat) allow to simmer until the curry thickens and take it off the heat.

Serve curry with milk rice.

hathmalu2Recipe source: Asoka Handagama.

 

Vengayapoo Varai

Today’s recipe is one of my mother’s quick and easy to prepare, delicious stir-fried dishes made with onion stalks and flowers/ vengaya poo.

Stalk

Vengaya Poo Varai

Time taken: 25 mins

Serves 2

vengaya poo varaiIngredients:

  • Spring onion stalk and flower/ Vengaya poo – 1 cup, chopped
  • Carrot – ½ cup, chopped
  • Onion – 1 tbsp, chopped
  • Green chilli – 1, chopped
  • Fennel – ½ tsp
  • Crushed red chillies – 1 tsp
  • Gingelly/ Sesame oil – 2 tbsp

Method:

  1. Clean the onion stalks and carrot and chop them into small pieces. Add some salt and keep aside.
  2. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan. Add the fennel seeds, chopped onion and green chilli. Fry for 2 mins.
  3. Add the chopped and salted onion stalks + flowers and carrots to the pan. Add 1 tsp crushed chilli and mix well.
  4. Cook for around 10 mins over low heat.
  5. Remove from heat and serve warm.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Prawn, Avocado and Egg salad

Today’s guest blogger is Rushda (lìng yīgè tóngxué). She told me she prefers salads when it came to cooking. So, I asked her to share one of her successful salad recipes.

Prawn, Avocado and Egg salad

I like experimenting with cooking and love to take up the challenge in making a dish out of whatever ingredients are available in my fridge when I decide to cook. I would also rather that someone else does the cooking and feeds me than do the cooking myself.

Rushda saladTime taken: 20 to 30 mins

Serves 2 or 3

Ingredients:

  • Boiled eggs –  2 or 3, sliced
  • Avocado – 1, cubed
  • Prawns or baby shrimps – handful
  • Tomatoes – 2 or 3
  • Bell peppers – 1 or 2 (different colours are better)
  • Lime juice – 1 or 2 tbsp
  • Mixed herbs – oregano and rosemary – ½ tsp (optional)
  • Black pepper – ½ to 1 tsp, crushed
  • Garlic – 2 or 3 cloves, crushed
  • Salt, to taste
  • Sugar, pinch
  • Vinegar – 1 tsp
  • Olive oil, as required

Method:

  1. Make the salad dressing by mixing olive oil, vinegar, pinch of sugar, mixed herbs and finely crushed garlic. Keep aside.
  2. Heat the cleaned and de-shelled prawns in a non-stick pan on low heat till it is cooked enough. Just sprinkle a bit of lime juice over it while cooking – don’t add water or oil while cooking. After the prawns are cooked and cooled, drizzle a bit of olive oil over it and sprinkle some pepper and salt over them. If salt is used here, it is not required to be used again in the recipe.
  3. Toast the roughly cut tomatoes in a wok or pan over low heat.
  4. Meanwhile, slice the boiled eggs, bell peppers and cube the avocado.
  5. Assemble the ingredients on the salad plate, in an eye-catching way.
  6. Drizzle the salad dressing over the salad.

Recipe source: Rushda.

Papaya Curry

Today’s recipe is that of a papaya curry recipe. While papaya is used in pickles or acharu here, a curry is not so common but my mother likes experimenting with her curries and this turned out delicious. This is also the dish I am sharing for Angie’s Fiesta Friday #2.

Papaya Curry

Time taken: 20 mins

Serves 3

Papaya curryIngredients:

  • Papaya, half-ripe – 1 cup, chopped
  • Onion – ½
  • Capsicum/ Malu miris – 1
  • Fennel seeds – 1 tsp
  • Cloves and Cinnamon – 1 tsp, crushed powder
  • Crushed chillies – 1 tsp
  • Lime – 1 ½
  • Sugar – 1 tbsp
  • Low fat oil – 1 tbsp

Method:

  1. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and lightly fry the chopped onion, malu miris and fennel seeds for 2 minutes.
  2. Then, add the chopped papaya, crushed chillies and the crushed cloves and cinnamon powder to the pan, together with ¼ cup of water.  Cover and cook for about 5 minutes.
  3.  Squeeze and add the juice from 1 ½ limes and the sugar to the pan. Mix well and cook for another 5 minutes. Add a little water if the liquid dries up before that.
  4. Serve with rice.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Garlic and Shallot Curry

Another garlic curry recipe of my mother, this time with shallots. For another version of a garlic curry, do check out the earlier post of the beetroot and garlic curry recipe.

Garlic and Shallot Curry

Time taken: 20 mins

Serves 3

Garlic and Shallot CurryIngredients:

  • Garlic – ¼ cup
  • Shallots – ½ cup
  • Fenugreek seeds – 1 tbsp
  • Tamarind extract – ½ cup
  • Curry powder – 1 tsp
  • Salt, to taste
  • Coconut milk – ¼ cup
  • Sugar – 2 tsp
  • Low fat oil – 1 tbsp

Method:

  1. Clean the garlic and shallots.
  2. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and add the fenugreek seeds. Then, add the shallots and fry for a couple of minutes, before adding the garlic and frying further for a few minutes.
  3. Add the tamarind juice, curry powder and salt to taste to the pan. Mix well and cook for about 5 minutes.
  4. Add the coconut milk and sugar to the pan and cook for another 5 minutes, until gravy thickens and a nice aroma wafts about.
  5. Serve warm with rice or pittu or stringhoppers.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

FFF

Pudalangai Kulambu

Today’s curry recipe is one of the dishes that I like a lot – pudalangai kulambu or snake gourd curry.

Pudalangai Kulambu

Time taken: 30 mins

Serves 2 or 3

Pudalangai KulambuIngredients:

  • Snake gourd – 1 cup, chopped
  • Onion – ½ , chopped
  • Fenugreek seeds – 2 tsp
  • Curry leaves – 1 sprig
  • Tamarind – ½ cup
  • Coconut milk – ½ cup
  • Curry powder – 1 tsp
  • Salt, to taste
  • Low fat oil – 2 tbsp

Method:

  1. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and fry the onion and fenugreek seeds for a couple of minutes.
  2. Then, add another tbsp oil to the pan and add the chopped snake gourd and curry leaves. Continue frying for a few minutes.
  3. Add the tamarind and milk to the pan, together with the curry powder and salt to taste. Let the curry cook for about 10 – 15 mins over medium heat.
  4. Remove pan from stove when the gravy thickens.
  5. Serve warm with rice or pittu.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Cabbage Fritters

Today’s recipe is that of cabbage fritters.

In addition to checking out the recipe below, I would like to invite you to visit this post on one of my other blogs – Perspectives Quilt for a brief introduction about one of my books that can be freely downloaded today on Amazon Kindle.

Cabbage fritters

Time taken: 25 mins

Serves 4 or 5

Cabbage frittersIngredients:

  • Cabbage – ½ cup, shredded
  • Onion – ½, chopped
  • Green chillies – 1 or 2, chopped
  • Crushed red chillies – 1 tsp
  • Chickpea flour – ¼ cup
  • Wheat flour – ¼ cup
  • Ginger – ½ tsp, crushed
  • Garlic – ½ tsp, crushed
  • Salt, to taste
  • Oil, for deep-frying

Method:

  1. Mix all the ingredients, except the oil, together adding a little water to make the fritter dough.
  2. Divide the fritter dough into 4 or 5 portions.
  3. Deep-fry until golden brown.
  4. Serve with rice or as it is.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Tomato and Potato Curry

Today’s recipe is a lovely tomato and potato curry, which my mother calls her tomatish potato dish. It is a simple and easy to prepare dish that you will certainly like.

Tomato and Potato Curry

Time taken: 30 mins

Serves 2

Tomatish potatoIngredients:

  • Potato – 1
  • Tomato – 1
  • Onion – ½
  • Green chilli – 1
  • Crushed red chillies – 1 tsp
  • Ginger – ½ tsp, crushed
  • Garlic – ½ tsp, crushed
  • Salt, to taste
  • Low fat oil, for frying

Method:

  1. Boil the potato and then, peel and chop it into smaller pieces.
  2. Lightly fry the potato pieces and keep aside.
  3. Heat a little oil in a pan and lightly fry the chopped green chilli, ginger and garlic. Add the chopped tomato pieces and crushed red chillies to the pan and continue frying for a few minutes.
  4. Remove the pan from the stove and transfer its contents to a blender to grind it to a paste.
  5. Transfer the tomato paste back to the pan and heat it over a low heat.
  6. Add the fried potato pieces to the pan and salt, to taste. Stir well.
  7. Serve the tomato and potato curry with rice or pittu.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.