Papaya | A Taste of Sri Lankan cuisine

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

Ingredients:

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:

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and lightly fry the chopped onion, malu miris and fennel seeds for 2 minutes.
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.
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.
Serve with rice.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

My mother has always been fascinated by the health benefits of different fruits and she has always tried to encourage my siblings and I to drink fresh fruit juices since we were kids. Based on her request, I will be sharing a few fruit juices, not for the recipe as they are very much straightforward blending, but because they are considered exceptionally healthy by her.

Today’s fruit juice is papaya and orange juice. My mother has always been fond of papaya while I could not be persuaded to eat papaya for a very long time. The only way I would have papaya was when it was mixed with something else that I liked. A papaya and orange mixed fruit juice was perfect. Papayas are supposedly good for people with diabetes as well as those with colon cancer, besides being a great fruit for the digestive system.

Papaya and Orange juice

Time taken: 5 mins

Serves 1