Category Archives: Northern province

Comprises of the five northernmost districts of Sri Lanka: Jaffna, Killinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Vavuniya

Cassava Thuvaiyal

Today’s guest post is by Krishanthy Kamalraj, who has previously shared her recipe for murukku on this blog. We have another of her lovely snack recipes, with a short intro about the dish from her, today.

Cassava Thuvaiyal

This is somewhat different from Cassava curry. Those days, people in Jaffna usually had cassava plants in their home garden for their own consumption. My grandmother used to make this dish, when we wanted a spicy and filling snack. She dug out immature cassava yam from the garden and made very delicious cassava thuvaiyal for us.

Ingredients

  • 1 medium size immature cassava yam
  • 2-4 dry red chilies
  • ¼ cup small onions
  • ¼ cup grated coconut
  • Mortar and pestle or Mixer or grinding stone
  • Salt to taste

Recipe

1. Thoroughly wash cassava yam and peel the skin.

Cassava2. Cut the yam into small cubes.

Cassava 23. Put the cut cassava pieces in a cooking pan.

4. Add ¼ cup of water into the pan and cook well over medium heat.

5. When cassava has been cooked well (able to slightly smash cassava pieces with spatula), remove from heat.

6. In a mortar, add salt and red chilies. Pound well until it becomes a paste.

chilli paste7. Add cooked cassava and pound well with pestle until it mixes well with chili paste.

8. Add cleaned small onions into the mixture and pound well.

9. When the mixture has reached the consistency to make small balls, take out  from mortar.

10. Using hand, make small balls of the mixture.

11. Now cassava thuvaiyal is ready to serve.

Cassava thuvaiyal

Recipe source: Krishanthy Kamalraj.

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.

Murukku

Today’s guest blogger is Krishanthy Kamalraj. An agriculture graduate and a former staff member of UNDP Sri Lanka’s Transition Recovery Programme, Krishanthy sent me a couple of recipes this week. As one of the recipes is for Pongal, I am happy to share her murukku recipe today. 

Kadalaima Murukku- Channa Dhal flour murukku

This snack has a prominent place in all Tamil celebrations. There are several types of murukku available and they differ based on ingredients. Today I have chosen Channa Dhal flour and Atta flour murukku.

Time taken: 1 hour

Serves 10 to 15 persons

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup roasted channa dhal flour
  • ½ cup steamed wheat flour
  • 1 teaspoon of cumin
  • 2-4 dried red chili
  • 1 teaspoon of Omam (Carom seeds/ Ajwain) powder
  • 2 teaspoon margarine or olive oil
  • ½ cup water
  • Salt as needed
  • Oil to fry
  • Murukku ural/ mould

Method:

  1. Soak the Omam powder in 1/8 cup of water for 30 minutes.
  2. In a mixing bowl, take 1 cup of roasted Channa Dhal flour and ½ of steamed Atta flour and add together.
  3. Take cumin and dry chili and grind it well until it becomes a fine powder. Add this to the flour mixture in the bowl and mix well.
  4. Filter the Omam water and gradually add to flour mixture.
  5. Then add salt and margarine to the flour mixture.
  6. Gradually add water to the mixture and make very soft, non sticky dough (same as the consistency level for string hopper dough)

murukku dough2

murukku in the mould

7. Insert clove shape disc into bottom of murukku ural and add small portion of dough into the murukku ural and press softly to make coil shaped murukku. Note: If the dough is not soft enough (due to not enough water), it will feel hard to press the ural. Add little bit of water and make the dough soft. This will result in very soft murukku.

squeezing the murukku

murukku dough

8. In a pan take required amount of oil and heat it over medium heat.
9. Once the oil is hot enough, transfer the pressed murukku into the oil.

frying murukku10. Once the murukku is cooked well on both side and has turned light golden brown in colour, take it out from the pan and drain the grease using paper towel.

Murukku

11. Keep them in an air tight container and serve whenever you feel like eating crispy, spicy snack.

Recipe source: Krishanthy Kamalraj.

Kurakkan Pittu

Kurakkan, also known as ragi, is a type of millet that is gluten-free and diabetic friendly. At home, the most common and popular form of pittu is the rice flour pittu. Occasionally, my mother makes the atta flour pittu or the kurakkan flour pittu.

Below is the simple recipe for making kurakkan flour pittu. The rice flour pittu and atta flour pittu easily blend with any curries and is a convenient meal to prepare. Kurakkan, however, has a distinctive taste that I find does not easily merge with just any curry. As such, I prefer to eat kurakkan pittu simply sprinkled with coconut and jaggery.

Kurakkan Pittu

Time taken: 25 mins

Serves 2

Kurakkan pittuIngredients:

  • Kurakkan flour/ ragi – 1 cup
  • Coconut – ¼ cup, freshly scraped
  • Jaggery – 2 or 3 tbsp, finely chopped
  • Salt – pinch

Method:

  1. Add a pinch or two of salt to the kurakkan flour.
  2. Stir in boiled and slightly cooled water until the flour mixtures becomes coarse and grainy.
  3. Steam the kurakkan pittu for 10 mins.
  4. Mix the freshly scraped coconut and chopped jaggery into the steamed pittu and serve hot.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Thuvaram Paruppu Koottu

Re-posting recipe: Today’s recipe is from my great-grandmother, as remembered and occasionally replicated by my mother.

Thuvaram Paruppu Koottu

Time taken: 1 hour, plus soaking time of dal about 3 – 4 hours

Serves 4

Thuvaram Paruppu Koottu

Ingredients:

  • Toor dal/ Thuvaram paruppu – ½ cup
  • Onion – ¼ + ½
  • Garlic – 2 + 2
  • Cumin powder – ½ tsp + ½ tbsp
  • Fennel powder – ½ tsp
  • Asafoetida – pinch + pinch
  • Salt – ½ tsp + more, to taste
  • Oil – 1 tsp + for deep-fry+ 1 ½ tbsp
  • Fenugreek – 1 tsp
  • Tomato – 1 big or 2 small
  • Dried red chillies – 3
  • Coriander powder – 1 tbsp
  • Grated coconut – 3 tbsp
  • Turmeric powder – ½  tsp
  • Pepper – 1 tsp
  • Tamarind extract – ½ cup (thin)
  • Water – ½ cup + ½ cup (optional)

Method:

  1. Soak the toor dal for 3 – 4 hours.
  2. Chop up ¼ onion and 2 garlic cloves and fry them in 1 tsp oil in a pan.
  3. Add ½ tsp cumin powder, ½ tsp fennel powder and a pinch of asafoetida to the pan. When the spices combine and their aroma starts coming out, add ½ tsp salt.
  4. Add the toor dal to the pan and mix well and quickly remove from heat.
  5. Grind the toor dal mixture, without water or just a little so that it can be made into a slab.
  6. Steam the slab of spiced toor dal.
  7. Cut the steamed block of toor dal into pieces and deep fry.
  8. Make a spice paste by grinding the scraped coconut and chopped chillies with 1 tbsp coriander powder, ½ tbsp cumin powder, ½ tsp turmeric powder, 1 tsp pepper powder and a pinch of asafoetida.
  9. Heat 1 to 1 ½ tbsp oil in a pan and fry the chopped onion (½ onion), 2 garlic cloves and the fenugreek seeds.
  10. When you get the aroma of the fried onion and garlic, add the spice paste, mix well and fry.
  11. Add the chopped tomatoes and ½ cup of water and let the tomatoes cook.
  12. Once the tomatoes are cooked, add the fried pieces of toor dal chunks and ½ cup of thin tamarind extract.
  13. Cook for about 10 – 15 minutes on low heat. If you prefer more gravy in your curry, add ½ cup of water.
  14. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Murungaikai Curry

Re-posting recipe: This is my grandmother’s recipe, as remembered and replicated by my mother. For my mother’s recipe, check out this post.

Drumstick curry

Cooking time – 25 minutes

Serves 3

DSC09686

Ingredients:

  • Drumstick/ Murungai – 1
  • Potato – 1 large
  • Onion – ½ medium sized
  • ¼ fresh Coconut ~ ½ cup of scraped fresh coconut
  • Curry powder – 1 tbsp, can add another 1/2 tbsp for more spiciness
  • Salt to taste

 Method:

  1. Cut the drumstick into 2’’ pieces and chop up the potato and onion.
  2. To the scraped fresh coconut, add some water and squeeze out the first coconut milk and keep aside. Reuse the coconut flakes and squeeze out the second milk by adding some water. If you don’t like to squeeze out the coconut milk by hand, simply use a blender and strain out the first and second milk. An alternative is to use ready-made coconut milk but the different consistencies expected in this dish will not be there. The first milk is richer in consistency and fats while the second milk is thinner in consistency.
  3. In a sauce pan, add four cups of water to coconut milk obtained the second time – the second coconut milk.
  4. Add the cut vegetables (drumstick, potato and onion) to the pan as well as the chilli powder and cook the vegetables.
  5. Once the potato and drumstick pieces are cooked, add the reserved first coconut milk and salt and let it simmer for five minutes before taking off the heat.
  6. Serve hot with rice or pittu or stringhoppers.

A slight variation in my great grandmother’s drumstick curry recipe is that she did not add potatoes  to the drumsticks. Just before taking the curry off the heat, she lightly fried some chopped onion, dried red chillies and fennel seeds in a separate pan and added the tempered seasonings to the curry. This gives a nice aroma and flavour to the dish.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

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:

  1. Grind the odiyal into flour or use the ready-made odiyal flour.
  2. Dry grind the cumin seeds, red chillies and pepper and keep aside.
  3. Boil the vegetables in a pot with half litre water.
  4. Boil the seafood in a separate pot with half litre water.
  5. Then, mix the boiled vegetables and seafood and add another litre of water, along with the tamarind extract.
  6. As the water comes to a boil, slowly stir in the odiyal flour, avoiding lumps.
  7. Add the boiled rice to the pot.
  8. Add the ground spice mixture and the turmeric powder to the pot and salt to taste. Let it come to a boil.
  9. 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.
  10. 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

Ash plantain peel salad

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:

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

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

Beetroot varaiIngredients:

  • 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:

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

VendikkaiIngredients:

  • 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:

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

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.