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.

Given 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
Time: 20 minutes
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

Mix the flour, saffron, salt with the coconut milk to make pancake batter. Add a little water to adjust consistency, if required.
Lightly fry the grated coconut with sugar in a pan until it caramelizes slightly. Remove from heat.
Add vanilla essence to either batter or caramelized coconut.
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.
After removing the pancake from pan, fill it immediately with the caramelized coconut and roll it.
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.

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.

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
Time: 45 mins
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

Mix the chopped breadfruit with salt and pepper.
Deep fry the pieces and keep aside.
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.
Stir in the deep-fried breadfruit pieces and mix well.
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.

So, for today, I am sharing my mother’s recipe for breadfruit curry.

Breadfruit Curry

Servings: 2
Time: 30 mins
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

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

Chocolate Biscuit Pudding

Servings: 5-6
Time: 1 hour
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

Mix icing sugar and butter. Add the chocolate milk slowly until the mix becomes creamy.
Soak the biscuits in plain milk and line the pyrex dish or dessert pan with a thickness of two biscuits.
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.
Spread the remaining cream on top of the dessert. Decorate with strawberries.
Refrigerate for a minimum 30 minutes before serving.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Samaposha Curry

My mother prefers breakfast food so even when she cooks delicious meals for the rest of the family, she often has cereals for her main meals. Her favourite cereal changes from time to time and for some time last year, it was samaposha. It is a local cereal brand that is pre-cooked and made from corn, soya, green gram and rice. Samaposha is often eaten as breakfast food or sometimes as a mid-day or evening snack when they are made into little samaposha balls by adding a little water and optional grated coconut and sugar.

During my mother’s samaposha phase, she tried out a couple of dishes using samaposha as the key ingredient. The dish I am sharing today, Samaposha curry, is one such experimental dish and it turned out tasty. I had the recipe in my draft folder for so long that I almost forgot about it until today.

Samaposha Curry

Servings: 3
Time: 30 mins
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

Samaposha – ½ cup
Rice flour or wheat flour – 1 tbsp
Curry powder – 1 tsp
Chopped onion – 1
Salt, to taste
Coconut milk – ½ cup
Fenugreek seeds – 1 tsp
Cinnamon powder – ½ tsp
Curry leaves
Oil

Method:

Mix the samaposha, rice or wheat flour, curry powder, some of the chopped onion and salt to taste in a large bowl. Add a little water to make them into balls. Fry them.
Heat 1tbsp oil in a pan and lightly fry the fenugreek seeds and curry leaves.
Add the fried samaposha balls to the pan and mix before adding the coconut milk and cinnamon powder.
Cover and simmer over low heat for 5 – 10 mins.
Remove from heat and serve warm with roti or rice.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan

Green Beans Curry

I have not been as active on this blog during the past year in comparison to my first year. That was bound to happen at some point. It follows that after a year of much activity on this blog, I was relatively quieter in the last twelve months especially as I was away from home. It did not mean I stopped cooking. On the contrary, I did a lot of cooking much more than I do when I am at home but they were less focused on Sri Lankan recipes and when I did cook something Sri Lankan, I would choose one of my mother’s recipes already posted on this blog. I have been doing a lot of baking and I am delighted that I am now able to make delicious scones and pretty decent rye bread.

Having returned home last month, I look forward to resuming posting on this blog.

Today’s recipe is a simple green beans curry which I really like.

Green Beans Curry

Servings: 3
Time: 30 mins
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

Green beans – 1 cup, chopped into 1” pieces
Onion – ½, chopped
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Fennel seeds – 1 tsp
Curry powder – 1 tsp
Salt, to taste
Water – 1 cup
Coconut milk – ¼ cup

Method:

Fry the chopped green beans, onion, curry leaves and fennel seeds lightly in a little oil for about 2 mins.
Add the water, chilli powder and salt to taste.
Cover and simmer over low heat for about 15 – 20 mins, until cooked.
Add coconut milk and a little chilli powder, if the spice level is not sufficient.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan

Winged Bean and Dhal Curry

For this month, I am sharing a simple and delicious curry together with some 70s – 90s music from Sweden. The following music clips takes me back to the early 90s when I listened quite a lot to these three Swedish music groups. How could I not start the music feature on music from Sweden without a song from ABBA? Actually, I was never a fan of their music but I listened to a lot of their music back then because some of my friends were huge fans and kept playing them a lot that some of the songs kind of seeped into my song lists. This very popular song is one such. There was a time in the early 90s when MTV played a huge part in introducing me to a lot of popular music. The next two song clips are from that time. The second song is ‘Don’t turn around’ by Ace of Base. The final song for this month is Roxette’s ‘It must have been love’.
Hope you enjoy trying out the curry and that you enjoyed going on a nostalgic trip back to the 90s!

Winged Bean and Dhal Curry

Servings: 4
Time: 30mins
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

Winged beans – ¼ cup
Mysore dhal – ½ cup
Green chillies – 2
Onion – ½
Fennel seeds – 1 tsp
Curry leaves – a sprig
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Pepper – ½ or 1 tsp
Crushed chillies – ¼ tsp
Salt, to taste
Vegetable oil – 1 tbsp
Coconut or non-fat milk – 2 or 3 tbsp (optional)

Method

Wash and chop the winged beans, green chillies and onion.
Heat a tbsp of oil in a pan and fry the fennel seeds. Add the chopped onion, chillies and curry leaves and continue frying for 2 – 3 mins.
Add the chopped winged beans to the pan and stir.
Wash the dhal and add the dhal to the pan together with a cup of water and ½ tsp turmeric powder. Cook for 15 mins
Add the pepper, salt and crushed chillies towards the end of the cooking. Stir well
While the curry is good as it is, if you like to add milk, you can add 2-3 tbsp coconut or non-fat milk and cook for a few mins more.
Remove from heat and serve warm with rice.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Odiyal Pittu

This month, I have been sharing some recipes using palmyrah root which is an ingredient used in traditional North Sri Lankan cooking.

Odiyal (palmyrah root) flour

Odiyal flour ground from palmyrah root has a high calcium content and is very nutritious. To wrap the palmyrah feature, I would like to share my mother’s recipe for ‘odiyal pittu’.

And to wrap up a special month, I would like to share a couple of songs from my all-time favourite rock band – Queen. The first song is from the 14th Queen studio album.

This clip is from the 15th album, Made in Heaven, released in 1995.

Have a lovely weekend!

Odiyal Pittu

Servings: 2-3
Time: 30mins
Difficulty: medium
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Ingredients:

Odiyal flour – 1/2 cup
Ash plantain – 1, boiled and peeled
Jackfruit seeds – a handful, chopped & boiled
pasali keerai or spinach
Small onions – 2 or 3
Green chillies – 1 or 2
Carrot – small piece
Yardlong beans – 1 or 2
Mango – 1 or 2 tbsp, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste

Method:

Mix the odiyal flour with a little water and make the raw pittu.
Add a little salt and all the chopped vegetables to the flour and mix well. Steam the pittu.
Once the steaming is finished, just sprinkle with pepper when you remove the pittu from heat.
Serve warm.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Pulukodiyal Candy

Wishing you all a happy New Year! (the Sri Lankan New Year, or more precisely the Sri Lankan Buddhist and Hindu New Year)

For today’s recipe, I decided to share a non-traditional New Year recipe. Something simple and tasty to make. My mother sometimes makes this candy when she receives too much of ‘pulukodiyal’ (sun-dried palmyrah root) from visiting relatives from the north. I would like to share this with you today. Palmyrah root is full of calcium and therefore considered nutritious in the north of Sri Lanka where it is harvested regularly.

Sliced sun-dried palmyrah root

Today, I would like to feature songs from two music groups that I have enjoyed listening to occasionally during the past decade. I was introduced to Il Divo’s music in a surreal setting in early December 2004. I was travelling on work to the north of the country and as the vehicle sped across dusty, remote roads, the radio belted out pop songs of the year. Suddenly, the powerful operatic voice of the four broke through the stifling heat surrounding the landscape we passed through. It was a special experience. The first song that I share here is the song that I listened to that hot afternoon over a decade ago.

The second is by Celtic Woman. Not sure how I came across their music but I did somewhere along the past decade. I liked their songs to the extent that I went for their concert when they performed at Theatre Royal Drury Lane in November last year. It was a fun experience.

Hope you enjoy the two songs and do try out the candy, if you happen upon some dried palmyrah root!

Wish you the best for the New Year!