Sweet Yoghurt Rice

It is nice to have something sweet to welcome the weekend. So, today’s recipe is sweet yoghurt rice, a very easy and yummy dish to make. It has been a long time since I participated in one of Angie’s Fiesta Fridays so I am sharing this post in Fiesta Friday #15.

Today’s featured music is of a special percussion group called Elephant Foot.

The first piece that I am sharing here, Rainforest, is what caught my attention some years ago. Since then, I have kept my ears open for more of their music. So far, they have released three albums.

The second is from their most recent album – Elephant Foot.

Enjoy the drum beats of Elephant Foot/ Hikkaduwa drummers as you tuck into this delicious treat!

Sweet Yoghurt Rice

Time taken: 25 mins

Serves 3

Ingredients:

White raw rice or Basmathi rice – 1 cup
Yoghurt – ½ cup
Raisins – 2 tsp
Nuts (any) – 2 tsp
Banana – ½ or 1, sliced
Honey or coconut treacle, as required

Method:

Boil the rice and let it cool.
Whisk the yoghurt well to make it creamy. Fold in the raisins and chopped nuts.
Little by little, add the rice to the creamy mix.
Chill for at least 5 mins.
Serve with banana slices and drizzled with honey or coconut treacle.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Lime Rice

The rice dish for today is lime rice.

The featured musician today is Ravibandhu Vidyapathi, who is one of Sri Lanka’s leading percussionists as well as a classical Kandyan dancer and choreographer. He founded the dance school ‘Ravibandhu-Samanthi Narthanayanathaya’ with his wife.

I like his drum ensemble and have selected a clip from his album ‘Bahu Ranga‘ to share here.

Lime Rice

Time taken: 20 mins

Serves 2 – 3

Ingredients:

Rice – 1 cup
Turmeric – ½ tsp
Lime or lemon juice – 1 or 2 tbsp
Onion – ½, chopped
Dried red chillies – 1 or 2, as per taste
Fenugreek seeds – 1 tsp
Green peas – 2 tbsp, boiled
Salt, to taste
Sesame/ Gingelly oil – 1 tbsp

Method:

Boil the rice after adding turmeric and salt.
Once the rice is boiled and slightly cooled, add the lime juice and mix well. Keep aside to let the rice absorb the lime juice.
Heat a tablespoon of sesame oil in a pan and lightly fry the chopped onion, chillies and fenugreek seeds.
Add the lime marinated rice to the pan and stir fry for 5 mins. Add boiled green peas, if required.
Serve warm.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Sambhar Rice

The rice dish for today is Sambhar Rice.

As sambhar refers to a mixed vegetable stew like dish, I thought of mimicking the dish in my featured music groups today.

Starting with Thriloka, a fusion band formed in 2005 blending traditional Sri Lankan folk music and progressive rock.

The second clip features Paranoid Earthling, whose music is a blend of experimental and psychedelic rock. The song shared here was first performed by them on the international peace day in 2008.

The last clip features Chitral Somapala and Civilization One, a power metal band, which is not a Sri Lankan band but I decided to feature them by extending the definition to include the Sri Lankan who launched the band.

Enjoy the Sri Lankan rock music scene as you try out the recipe!

Sambhar Rice

Time taken: 45 mins

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Par-boiled red rice – 1 cup
Carrots – ½ cup, chopped
Beans – ½ cup, chopped
Brinjal – ½ cup, chopped
Mysore dhal – ¼ cup
Onion – ½, chopped
Chilli – 1, chopped
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Tamarind juice – ½ cup
Curry powder – 1 tsp
Pepper – ½ tsp
Garlic cloves – 4 or 5, crushed
Salt, to taste

Method:

Boil the rice and keep aside.
Separately, cook the vegetables (carrots, beans and brinjal) and dhal together with the chopped onion, chilli and curry leaves in a cup of water.
When the water dries up, add the tamarind juice add the curry powder, pepper powder, crushed garlic cloves and salt to the vegetables.
Once the sambhar starts to thicken, add the rice, mix well and let it simmer for 5 to 10 mins.
Serve the sambhar rice with pappadum.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Spicy Curd Rice

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

While 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

Ingredients:

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:

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

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Kanji

Today’s dish is Kanji or rice porridge, a favourite of my father.

The featured musician today is Pradeep Ratnayake. Given that one of my favourite musicians is Ravi Shankar, it follows that I also appreciate the music of the two best contemporary sitar players in Sri Lanka – Pradeep Ratnayake and Sarangan Sriranganathan (whom I featured in yesterday’s post). Pradeep Ratnayake’s sitar training started at the age of five and he eventually chose a degree in sitar at Santiniketan over a degree in mathematics. Among other concert performances, he initiated his Pradeepanjalee concerts in 1997 which has become an annual concert performed usually at a different location around the world.

The first piece of Pradeep Ratnayake shared here is an original composition titled ‘Kuweni Concerto for sitar, cello and orchestra: Movement 1.’

The second piece is Wine-coloured moon (Melbourne version) with Joe Chindamo (piano), Alston Joachim (bass) and Daniel Farrugio (drums).

Enjoy the instrumental music clips while trying out the rice porridge (Kanji).

Kanji

Time taken: 20 mins

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Red raw rice – 2 tbsp
Milk (Coconut or non-fat) – 1 cup
Water – 1 cup
Salt, to taste
Pepper – ¼ tsp (optional)
Garlic – 2 or 3 cloves, chopped (optional)
Sugar – 1 tsp (optional)

Method

Cook 2 tbsp of red raw rice in 1 cup of water for about 10 – 15 mins.
Once the water dries up, add the milk to the cooked rice along with a pinch of salt. The optional ingredients such as pepper and garlic can be added now, if required. Cook for about 5 mins.
Transfer to the serving bowls. Add a dash of sugar, if you like. Serve warm.

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.

With 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

Ingredients:

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:

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

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Mung Kavum

Mung Kavum is another New Year delicacy. I find it similar to payatham paniyaram, a north Sri Lankan festival snack that is usually prepared at my home. The difference is that in the north, it is made a little more spicy by the addition of cumin and pepper.

As I am writing this, I am listening to a new song of Bathiya & Santhush, a popular Sri Lankan band. Sharing it with you as well.

Mung Kavum

Time taken: 1 hour

Makes 25 – 30

Ingredients:

Rice flour – 500g + 250g
Green gram flour – 1 Kg
Pol pani/ Coconut treacle – 3 cups (~700ml)
Margarine – 3 tsp
Cardamom powder – 1 or 2 tsp
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Salt, to taste
Oil, for deep-frying

Method:

Warm up the pol pani. Remove from heat.
Add 500g rice flour, green gram flour, cardamom powder and margarine to the warmed up pol pani.
Mix together to form a dough and roll it out. Cut into diamond shapes and keep aside.
Prepare the batter by gradually adding water to 250g rice flour mixed with ½ tsp of turmeric powder and a pinch of salt.
Heat the oil in a pan.
Dip the diamond shapes in the batter to coat it on all sides and then deep-fry.

Recipe source: Lalitha Senadheera.

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 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.

Recipe source: Asoka Handagama.

Rasavalli Kilangu Kool

Today is a very special day at my home. It is my mother’s birthday.

After quite some time away from the kitchen, I decided to bake something today and as my mother is a snacker, made a vegan date and walnut loaf and some granola bars.

The recipe I am sharing today is a special treat from Jaffna that my mother made earlier this week. This dish is a special breakfast or dessert dish from north Sri Lanka and made from rasavalli kilangu or purple yam (dioscorea alata).

purple yam

Rasavalli Kilangu Kool/ Purple Yam Porridge

Time taken: 20 mins

Serves 3

Ingredients:

Rasavalli kilanku/ purple yam – 1 small
Thin coconut milk – 1 cup
Sugar – 2 or 3 tbsp
Salt, a pinch

Method:

Clean and peel the yam and then chop it up roughly.
Cook the yam with 3 cups of water. Once the water dries up, lightly mash the boiled yam.
Add 1 cup of thin coconut milk.
Add 2-3 tbsp of sugar and a pinch of salt to the porridge.
Let the porridge simmer till the liquid thickens.
Serve warm.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

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.

Vengaya Poo Varai

Time taken: 25 mins

Serves 2

Ingredients:

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:

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

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.