Odiyal Kool

Decided to take a break this week and re-post a few recipes from the initial days of this blog.

This is a traditional recipe from the North of Sri Lanka made from a palmyrah product. My mother tells me her grandmother used to make this for them on special occasions. While this is typically a spicy sea-food dish, it can be a vegan dish if one omits the seafood.

So, I am sharing my great-grandmother’s odiyal kool recipe, as remembered by my mother.

The base for this kool is ‘Odiyal’, a healthy and nutritious root that is dried before making into a flour. One can purchase the ‘odiyal flour’ from Katpaham marketing outlets around Sri Lanka, run by the Palmyrah Development Board, and might be found at Sri Lankan stores outside of Sri Lanka. However, if ‘odiyal flour’ cannot be obtained, corn flour can be tried out as a substitute.

Odiyal Kool

Cooking time – 45 minutes

Serves: 8 – 10

Ingredients

Odiyal or Odiyal Flour – 1 cup
Chopped mixed vegetables (brinjal/ katharikkai, jackfruit seeds/ palakottai, yardlong beans/ paithangai, small green leaves/ pasali keerai or murungai ilai, manioc, ash plantain) – 100g each
Chopped mixed seafood (prawns, crab meat, squids etc.) – 100g each, omit if vegetarian
Boiled rice – ½ cup
Dried red chillies – 5- 10, depending on your desired level of hot spicy
Cumin seeds – 1 tbsp, can add another tablespoon if you like it really spicy
Pepper powder – 1tbsp, can add another tablespoon if you like it really spicy
Tamarind extract – ½ cup
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Salt to taste
Water – 2 litres

Method:

Grind the odiyal into flour or use the ready-made odiyal flour.
Dry grind the cumin seeds, red chillies and pepper and keep aside.
Boil the vegetables in a pot with half litre water.
Boil the seafood in a separate pot with half litre water.
Then, mix the boiled vegetables and seafood and add another litre of water, along with the tamarind extract.
As the water comes to a boil, slowly stir in the odiyal flour, avoiding lumps.
Add the boiled rice to the pot.
Add the ground spice mixture and the turmeric powder to the pot and salt to taste. Let it come to a boil.
You can add a little water to adjust the consistency to your liking, e.g. if the water has dried up or you prefer a watery Kool.
Serve hot in medium-sized bowls.

Recipe Source: Raji Thillainathan.

Ash plantain peel salad

Re-posting this salad recipe today. It is a recipe of my great-grandmother, as remembered and quite often replicated by my mother at home.

Ash plantain peel salad

Preparation time: 10 mins

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Skin of ash plantains – 2, boiled
Grated coconut – 1 tbsp
Onion – 1, small and chopped
Chilli or red capsicum -1, chopped
Pepper and Salt, to taste
Lime juice – 1 tbsp

Method:

Finely chop the boiled ash plantain skin. Mix with salt.
Add the grated coconut, chopped onion and chilli to the ash plantain skin and mix well.
Season with pepper and lime juice and salt, to taste.
Serve with rice.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Beetroot Roti

Roti with sambal has always been one of my comfort foods. Today’s recipe is one of my mother’s new versions of vegetable roti – this time, with beetroot.

Beetroot Roti

Time taken: 40 mins

Makes 4

Ingredients:

Beetroot – ½ cup, grated
All-purpose flour -1 cup
Onion – ½ , chopped
Green chillies – 1 or 2, chopped
Coconut – 1 tbsp, scraped
Salt – as required
Low fat oil – 2 tbsp

Method:

Heat the grated beetroot with ¼ cup of water and a pinch of salt in a saucepan. Cook the beetroot till the water dries up.
After the cooked beetroot has cooled, add the flour, chopped onion, chillies, scraped coconut, salt and oil to the grated beetroot.
Mix well and stir in water to make the roti dough. Divide the roti dough into 4 balls.
Let the balls of dough rest for about 15 mins before rolling out the dough balls to make a flattened roti disk.
Cook each of the roti on a griddle, with 3-4 mins on each side.
Serve the beetroot roti with red chilli sambal.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Caramelized Eggplant Curry

During my online search for blogs with a focus on Sri Lankan recipes, I came across Rice and Curry. I invited the author to share one of his recipes on this blog and he kindly agreed. So today’s guest blogger is Skiz Fernando and he will be sharing one of his favourite vegan recipes.

As a second-generation Sri Lankan-American, one of my main connections to the Motherland has been food. My mother used to make us rice & curry a couple of times a week, and we also used to get it at the various dinner parties thrown by the small community of Sri Lankans living in Baltimore, Maryland, where I grew up. Aside from cutlets and patties, which are any Sri Lankan kids’ favorites, I also developed a special affinity for brinjal curry. Since these dinner parties were usually ‘pot-luck,’ with everyone contributing a dish, I came to discover that the same lady was always responsible for bringing the brinjals, and that lady was none other than Aunty Manel.

Eggplant curry

All the Sri Lankan ladies living in Baltimore were great cooks, so it just goes to show how special Aunty Manel’s brinjal curry was by the fact that it returned by popular demand to table after table, and dinner party after dinner party. I was not even really into vegetables at the time, but these brinjals were too sublime and tasty to be vegetables. It probably helped that they were deep-fried–as anything deep-fried tastes good–but it wasn’t obvious to me at the time. Only years later when I bugged Aunty Manel for the recipe, did I realize how labor-intensive this dish actually was, as you had to deep fry the eggplant before sautéing it with spices and coconut milk. Today, even though I have the recipe, the dish is challenging, but still worth the time and effort. Speaking as one who never liked eggplant, I always tell people that this is going to be their favorite way to eat the vegetable from now on.

Pan Asian: Aunty Manel’s Special Eggplant Curry

1 lb. (500 g) eggplant

1/4 tsp. turmeric

oil for deep-frying

2 tbsp. oil

1 onion, sliced

2-3 green chilies, sliced

1 sprig curry leaves

2 inch (5 cm) stick cinnamon

3 cloves

1 tbsp. raw curry powder

1-2 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 tsp. brown mustard seeds, ground

1/2 cup (125 ml) coconut milk

salt to taste

3 cloves garlic (A)

2 inch (5 cm) piece ginger (A)

1 tsp. sugar (A)

1 tsp. salt (A)

1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar (A)

1/2 cup (125 ml) water (A)

1.) Wash and cut eggplant into 2 in (5 cm) strips. Rub with salt and a dash of turmeric.

2.) Deep fry eggplant until golden brown. Drain on newspaper.

3.) Blend (A) list ingredients in a food processor.

4.) Heat oil in pan. Sauté onions, green chilies, and curry leaves until onions are translucent. Add cinnamon, cloves, and dry spices.

5.) Add (A) and bring to a boil.

6.) Reduce heat and add eggplant, coconut milk and salt. Toss well and simmer for 3-5 minutes.

Recipe Source: Skiz Fernando.

Short bio of Skiz Fernando:

Journalist, musician, and filmmaker, Skiz Fernando is the author of Rice and Curry: Sri Lankan Home Cooking (Hippocrene Books, 2011), a New York Times notable cookbook. He guided TV host Anthony Bourdain on a culinary tour of Sri Lanka for an episode of the popular Travel Channel series, No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain.

Fernando blogs about spicy food at: www.riceandcurry.wordpress.com. He also markets his own home-made spice blends, Skiz’s Original Sri Lankan Raw & Roasted Curry Powders. Fernando is the host and producer of a popular YouTube cooking show, Pan Asian.

Beans with Carrot Sauce

Today’s recipe is one of my mother’s sauce recipes. For another of my mother’s similarly interesting sauce recipes, check out ash plantain and carrot with beetroot sauce.

Beans with Carrot Sauce

Time taken: 30 mins

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Beans – 1 cup, chopped
Carrot – 1
Onion – ½
Ginger – 1 tsp, finely chopped
Garlic – 1 tsp, finely chopped
Green chilli – 1
Low fat oil – 1 tbsp

Method:

Clean and chop the beans and carrots. Boil the beans and carrots in water, adding a little salt, for about 10 mins.
Separate the cooked carrots from the beans. Drain the beans, keeping the water aside for re-use. Transfer the cooked beans to the serving dish.
Heat a tbsp oil in a pan and fry the chopped onion, ginger, garlic and chilli for a couple of mins before adding the cooked carrots and continuing to stir-fry for an extra minute or two.
After cooling slightly, blend the carrot mixture from the pan.
In a sauce pan, heat the previously cooked water, together with the ground carrot mixture, that was kept aside. Adjust salt, as per taste.
Pour the carrot sauce over the beans and serve warm.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Beetroot Varai

Today’s recipe is that of a quick to prepare and delicious beetroot dish.

Beetroot Varai

Time taken: 15 mins

Serves 3

Ingredients:

Beetroot – 1 cup, grated
Onion – 1
Green chillies – 2
Fennel seeds – 1 tsp
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Coconut – 1 tbsp, freshly scraped
Pepper – ½ tsp
Salt – ½ tsp
Sesame/ Gingelly oil – 2 tbsp

Method:

Mix ½ tsp salt with 1 cup of grated beetroot and keep aside.
Heat 2 tbsp sesame oil in a pan and fry the fennel seeds, chopped onion, green chillies and curry leaves for a minute.
Add the grated beetroot to the pan and stir-fry for 5 – 10 mins over low heat.
Add 1 tbsp coconut and ½ tsp pepper to the beetroot mix and cook for another 2 mins.
Serve the beetroot varai with rice.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Vendikkai Varai

Today’s recipe is a simple and tasty okra dish. For a slightly different version, try okra stir fry.

Vendikkai Varai/ Okra fry

Cooking time: 15 mins

Serves 3 – 4

Ingredients:

Okra/ Vendikkai – 1 cup
Onion – 1
Malu miris/ banana pepper – 1
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Lime juice – 1 tbsp
Crushed chillies – 1 tsp
Salt and pepper, to taste
Sesame oil – 1 tbsp

Method:

Clean the okra and finely chop them. Add some lime juice and salt to the okra and keep aside.
Finely chop the onion, malu miris and curry leaves and fry them for about 5 mins in a tbsp of sesame oil.
Add the finely chopped and seasoned okra slices to the frying pan and continue frying for about 10 mins over medium heat.
Towards the end, add salt and pepper and optionally crushed chillies.
Serve with rice.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Ash plantain and Onion Fritters

Today’s recipe is a lovely snack – fritters. I like the ash plantain fritters more than the onion ones.

Ash plantain and Onion fritters

Time taken: 40 mins

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Ash plantain – 1
Onion – 1
Wheat flour – ½ cup
Salt – ½ tsp
Chilli powder – ½ tsp
Turmeric powder – ½ sp
Pepper – ½ tsp
Low fat oil, for deep-frying

Method:

Boil the ash plantain and then peel. Slice the cooked plantain lengthwise into 4.
Peel the onion and slice them, such that the rings in each slice do not fall apart.
Make the batter by mixing the wheat flour, chilli powder, turmeric, salt and pepper with ½ cup of water.
Dip the ash plantain and onion slices into the batter, coating them well.
Deep-fry the batter coated ash plantain and onion slices until golden brown on both sides.
Serve warm with tea or as a side-dish at lunch lunch.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Vadaham

My mother made a few dishes that she really likes, and which are specialties of Jaffna cuisine, this weekend so I will be sharing the recipes of those this week.

Today’s recipe is that of vadaham, a sun-dried and fried side dish made of some special ingredients. Vadaham is usually made in bulk during sunny days and preserved to be eaten over a long period. There are a few varieties of vadaham, the more popular ones made of neem flowers (vepampoo) or banana flower (valaipoo). The neem tree is considered one of the most medicinal trees and the flowers particularly good for diabetics.

My mother tells me that she learnt how to make vadaham by observing her aunt (my grand-aunt) making them. My grand-aunt was fond of the neem flower vadaham and she had mats placed around the neem tree at my grandmother’s house to collect the tiny flowers that fell off the tree. The flowers were then rinsed and dried before being used to make the vadaham.

The recipe I am sharing below is my grand-aunt’s recipe that my mother occasionally uses when she feels like making vadaham.

Vadaham

Time taken: 30 mins + the soaking time for the urad dhal + sun-drying of the vadaham

Makes 12 – 15

Ingredients:

Banana flower – ½ cup, finely chopped
Urad dhal/ black gram – ½ cup
Crushed chillies – 1 tsp
Crushed onion – 1 tbsp
Cumin powder – 1 tsp
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Pepper – ½ tsp
Salt, to taste
Oil, for deep-frying

Method:

Soak the urad dhal for about 3 hours and then drain and grind the dhal.
Mix the finely chopped banana flowers with the ground urad dhal in a mixing bowl.
Add to the mixing bowl the crushed chillies, onion, cumin powder, turmeric as well as pepper and salt to taste.
Mix well and then make small, circular disks of ‘vadaham’.
Sun-dry the ‘vadaham’ for 2 or 3 days and then bottle them in an air-tight jar. If you do not plan to make in bulk and are preparing the side dish for a meal within that day, you can omit the sun-drying part and directly make instant vadaham by moving on to the next step as my mother did this weekend. Some also prefer to simply use the sun-dried version directly without frying them.
When you wish to serve them, simply deep-fry the required number and serve warm with rice and some curd and pickle.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Soya bean and Kangkung Stir-fry

Of the four soya bean dishes my mother prepared last week, I like this easy-to-prepare soya bean and kangkung stir fry dish the most.

Soya bean and Kangkung stir-fry

Time taken: 15 mins (with pre-cooked soya beans)

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Soya beans – ¼ cup, boiled
Kangkung – ½ cup, chopped
Onion – ½
Green chilli – 1
Dried red chilli – 1
Fennel seeds – 1 tsp
Coconut – 1 tbsp
Curry powder – 1 tsp
Salt, to taste
Low fat oil – 1 tbsp

Method:

Clean and finely chop the kangkung.
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and sauté the fennel seeds, chopped green and dried red chillies and onion for 1-2 mins.
Add the soya beans to the pan. Stir fry for another 2 mins.
Mix in the kangkung and cook for 2- 3 mins over low heat.
Add the freshly scraped coconut and continue stir frying for a few minutes before adding the curry powder. Continue cooking for another couple of minutes before removing pan from stove.
Serve warm with rice.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.