Recipes

Rice and Curry:

Chicken Curry from Benjamin’s mother

Chicken- 4 breasts, washed and cut into pieces

Garlic- 4 heads, chopped

Ginger- 1 inch, chopped and 1 ½ inch pounded but in a big chunk

Cloves- 2-3

Cardamom- 2-3

Sprig of fresh curry leaves- about 10 leaves

1 small red onion

2 T oil, coconut or vegetable

Oil the pan with about 2 tablespoons. Put in the cloves and cardamom n hot oil- medium flame. Add garlic, ginger, and onions and sprig of curry leaves. Cook and stir for about 2 minutes.

Add dill seeds, about ¼ teaspoon, 2 Tablespoons chili powder, 2 T roasted curry powder to the mix.  Add chicken and stir.  Then add 1 Tablespoon soya sauce, 1 ½ tablespoon salt, 1 teaspoon roasted chili powder and 2 T coconut toddy vinegar.  Add 1 ½ cups water or until chicken is covered.  Then add goraka- fruit that grows orange and then is dried.

Cover and cook on low-medium flame until comes to a boil. Once boiled, put on lowest flame and cook until chicken is done. Serve with rice.

EGGPLANT MUJA!!!!

Oh my, so good!!! Must find smaller, purple and white eggplants for this dish. They should be firmer and a long but small- about 4-5 inches.

Eggplant- 8-9 small, thinly sliced in finger length pieces

Heat oil on medium-high heat and in batches fry all of the eggplant for about 10 minutes each. They should come out a little brown and with a slight crunch.

In another bowl, mix together 1 Tablespoon soya sauce, 1 Tablespoon coconut vinegar, 2 cloves of garlic minced, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 inch piece of ginger cut, 1 teaspoon black pepper, 1 tablespoon crushed pepper, 1 ½ tablespoon sugar, 1 ½ tablespoon mustard powder, ½ teaspoon saffron powder, 2 cloves, 2 cardamom, 2 sprigs of curry leaves (about 20-25 leaves), 4 small red onions sliced thin, 2 green chilies minced, cinnamon pieces (if desired)

This mixture should become a paste like substance.  Once the eggplant is fried and cooled slightly, add it in batches to the mixture. Mix together with hands to ensure that the mixture coats all of the pieces of eggplant.  Serve with rice but it gets better the next day so watch out with the spice because the heat will just intensify!

Banana Flower- Kehelmuel or Walapur

Banana flower- cut very, very thin and wash it with lime juice, water and salt well until brown color goes away then put water and a little salt until the banana flower is half filled with water and boil.  Boil out the water.  Add the nut and noleyfish (small dried fish)

In another pan- put oil (about 1 tablespoon) in pan- heat to medium-high flame. Add 1-2 Tablespoons mustard seeds until they crack. Then add 1 tablespoon dried chili flakes and 1 green chili chopped with about 10 fresh curry leaves. Add 4 cloves of garlic chopped and one small red onion chopped until they get brown color.

Not in the oil, scrape a coconut and mix with 1 tablespoon mustard powder and 1 tablespoon curry powder. Add juice of one small lime.

Mix that into the oil off the heat.  Add the banana flower, nut and fish mixture and mix all together.

Sometimes you can add tomatoes to it but I really liked the way it was served without tomatoes.  She also usually adds chilis to the garlic and onion mixture and chili powder to the coconut mixture to make it spicy.

COOKING CLASS AT AMARASINGHE’S GUESTHOUSE

Typical Sri Lankan spices:

Sri Lankan dry mix: Equal parts cinnamon, cardamom, curry leaves and cloves. Dry them together and then grind but not too fine.

Sri Lankan curry mix: Equal parts coriander, curry leaves, sweet cumin. Dry them together and grind into a fine powder.

Other spices:

Black pepper

Turmeric

Table salt

Mustard powder

Chili powder

Sugar

Red rice- very healthy and cook normally but without salt- only with water.  This is the typical curry rice. Add water to cover one finger digit above the rice line. Boil and then put on low heat. Rice cooker works the best. J

Note about coconut milk.  When you first scrape the coconut to get the milk, add 300 grams water and the first scrape and juice that comes out is milkier.

The second scrape, add 300 grams water.  This is not as milky and a lot of people don’t use this but it is good to use in dishes that require water. It adds more flavor than the water.

Also- coconut oil is used in all recipes but if not available, you can just use vegetable oil or sunflower oil.

Just about everything that was cooked at the guesthouse came from their organic garden. Everything was fresh and even the spices were mixed earlier in the day!

CURRIES: Most of these are for one or two portions.

Tomato Curry- by far my favorite!

200 grams tomato- remove stem and cube into big cubes

10-12 fresh curry leaves torn into pieces

Half small red onion chopped

3 tablespoons coconut oil

One teaspoon chopped garlic

¼ teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon chili powder

¼ teaspoon black pepper

¼ teaspoon saffron or turmeric

¼ teaspoon table salt

¼ teaspoon mustard powder

1 teaspoon sugar

¼ cup 1^st strain of coconut milk

1.       Heat oil to medium flame. Add garlic and ginger, cook until light brown.

2.       Then add tomato, curry leaves, and onion.

3.       Add the rest of the spices and coconut milk. Cook for 3-5 minutes or until the tomatoes are soft.

4.       Serve warm with rice.

Pumpkin Curry- OH MY! My second favorite- a very, very close second! Sweet and spicy!

*Can also use this recipe for green beans- just substitute the pumpkin for green beans.

200 grams pumpkin- remove only a little of the outside and cube

Half small red onion chopped

12 fresh curry leaves

1 tablespoon garlic

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon curry mix

¼ teaspoon saffron

¼ teaspoon dry mix

¼ teaspoon pepper

¼ teaspoon mustard powder

1 teaspoon sugar

½ cup 2^nd strain of coconut milk

Mix all of the above ingredients and cook on low flame until the pumpkin is soft. Most of the liquid should be cooked out or down.

Now add ¼ cup 1^st strain coconut milk and cook another 2-3 minutes.

Pineapple Chutney

This is a more traditional dish and because it does not have the coconut milk, it can keep for 3-4 days

200 grams pineapple, clean outside part off and cut into very small, uniform pieces

3 tablespoons coconut oil

1 teaspoon garlic

½ teaspoon ginger

12-14 curry leaves

¼ teaspoon saffron

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon chili powder

¼ teaspoon mustard powder

2 teaspoons sugar

Heat oil with garlic, ginger, and curry leaves. Fry until garlic is soft, about 1-2 minutes.

Then add pineapple with spices. Cook on high heat for 5-7 minutes or until pineapple is soft and slightly mushy. Serve with rice or roti. Really good with bread as almost a marmalade. Yum!

Cabbage Curry

200 grams roughly shredded cabbage, washed

3 tablespoons coconut oil

1 teaspoon garlic

½ small red onion, chopped

10-12 curry leaves

Half small tomato, cut into small pieces

½ teaspoon black pepper

¼ teaspoon mustard powder

½ teaspoon chili powder

¼ teaspoon saffron

½ teaspoon salt

Heat coconut oil over medium flame.  Add garlic, onion, curry leaves, and tomato and cook until mushy and brownish.  Then add the cabbage and spices. Stir and cook 2-3 minutes until cabbage wilted and cooked.

Cooking Banana Curry

Cooking banana is not sweet and comes green.  It doesn’t peel so when you go to remove skin, you must use a knife.

2 small cooking bananas, cut into slices

½ small red onion, chopped

10-12 curry leaves

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon curry mix

¼ teaspoon dry mix

¼ teaspoon saffron

¼ teaspoon mustard powder

1 teaspoon chopped garlic

½ cup 2^nd strain coconut milk

Mix all of the above ingredients and cook over medium flame until the banana is soft and the water is gone. 

Then add 2 tablespoons coconut oil and fry on a medium-high flame for two minutes.

Next, add ¼ teaspoon ginger and ½ cup of 1^st strain coconut milk.

Coconut Sambal

50 grams fresh scraped coconut

½ small red onion, finely chopped into tiny pieces

½ small tomato, also chopped into small pieces

1 teaspoon chili powder

½ teaspoon pepper

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon fresh lime juice

1 teaspoon chopped garlic

Mix all ingredients together to taste. This recipe is something you can tweak until you find your favorite mixture.

Devil Chicken- This recipe was not made in front of me but told to me.  It is very, very spicy depending on the peppers’ heat.

250 grams chicken pieces- legs and thighs work best

100 grams red onion, cut into big chunks

100 grams chili peppers- capsicum- bigger, light green- looks like overgrown green chilis

50 grams tomato, chopped into big chunks

25 grams chopped garlic

¼ teaspoon ginger

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon pepper

½ teaspoon salt

Chili sauce or ketchup

3 tablespoons coconut oil

Fry the chicken with coconut oil until the outside is brown and the inside is mostly cooked.

Then take the 3 tablespoons of coconut oil in another pan and brown the ginger and garlic.  Add the tomato, onion, chili and cooked chicken.  Then add spices and mix well until everything is coated.  Then if you want to have a little more sauce, add the chili sauce or ketchup depending on how much heat you want.  

Mix everything very well and serve. Make sure to have lots of rice!