A cool (or not so cool) cucumber salad

You know us South Asians.  We can’t resist putting in a little flavor into everything – a little spice, a little heat.  This cool cucumber salad, can be made mild, or pack a wallop.  Its better for it to taste a little sweet, a little sour, a little hint of heat that just tickles the tongue, and a little soothing, creamy and cold. Its meant to be a counterpoint to the highly flavorful and often spicy other dishes in a Sri Lankan meal.

Or you can make it like my Uncle Stanley and put in enough green chilies to burn a hole in your mouth.  I remember once my Dad was eating Uncle Stanley’s curries, and they were all so spicy, that he decided to eat a huge bite of the cucumber salad, thinking it would cool his tongue, only to find that it was as hot as the rest of them!

PS – this post is an ode to the few visitors other than my family and close friends who have visited this site and the couple who have left comments.  I thank you, and this post (and other more frequent posts) are for you

Sri Lankan Cucumber Salad

4 kirby cucumbers, or 1 or 2 regular or hothouse cucumbers – enough for approximately 2-3 cups cut.

1 large shallot

1 lime

1 green chili (I used the tiny thin ones I find at my Indian grocery, but any chili that packs heat will do)

salt and pepper

1/4 cup coconut milk or 2 -3 tablespoons dried coconut powder

1/2 tsp of sugar

Thinly slice the cucumber.  Leave the skins on for added color and texture, or peel them beforehand, depending on your preference.  Thinly slice the shallots crosswise, in roughly the same size and thin-ness as the cucumber.   Mix together in bowl.  Add salt and pepper, toss to coat.

And I like to add the following ingredients a little at a time, tasting in between to get the flavor just right.  It is hard to get the measurements right, so you use mine as only a guide.  Its different each time, depending on the heat of the chili, the sweetness of the coconut, and the acidity of the lime.

Add the coconut milk to the bowl.  Its easy to use the dried coconut powder because the cucumber exudes so much water, that it combines and creates the coconut milk.  If you are using fresh coconut milk, allow the cucumber to stand for a while, and drain off some excess – this is a salad, not a soup – so make sure its not too wet.

Thinly slice some of your chili – here is the trick – only add as much as you need to get a hint of heat.  This is a delicate dish, and it should just have the chili as a background note.  So thinly slice and  add a little at a time, mixing it up and having a taste.  When you think you’ve got the heat right, add the juice of half the lime.  Has the heat level gone down too much? Add a little more chili?  Does it need salt?  Lastly the pinch of sugar just balances the whole thing – you won’t taste the sugar, but every flavor will be better rounded.

You should be able to taste all the different flavors and it should intrigue your palate, not overwhelm in any way.  Real Sri Lankans add umbalacuda (dried maldive fish), but we know how I feel about that.

Allow the salad to sit for approx 15 minutes before serving.  Any less and the flavors won’t have melded, but it will still be good.  Any more, and the cucumber gets progressively less crunchy, but it is still delicious.

 

Godamba Roti

Sri Lankan recipes not only reflect the indigenous flora and fauna, but the waves of cultures that have crossed our island’s path. We have cokies from the Dutch, we have pittu from the Tamils, the best sweets are Muslim, and we have godamba roti from Singapore.

godamba roti, chicken curry, purripu, cabbage, and cucumber salad

Godamba roti or murtaba as it is called in Singapore is part of our street food culture.   In small “hotels” along the streets – aka restaurants, they would serve kotthu rotti – which is sliced up godamba roti, tossed with egg, vegetables and meat  – all on a hot griddle and served right away. My sister and I went traveling all around Sri Lanka by ourselves one summer and our father told us not to eat food from street-side vendors or those hotels.  Of course, we ignored him and ate some of the best vadai, kotthu roti, fruit and ice cream that we ever had.  And our tummies were fine.  The only time we got sick was when we over ate passionfruit.  But what are you going to do?  Its passionfruit!

Anyhoo, godamba roti can also be wrapped around a savory filling – my favorite.  And it can be served plain, with some curries.  I remember getting it in Sri Lanka, with ladlefuls of steaming curry on top.  I like to serve mine on the side because I don’t want my roti to get soggy.

Ingredients
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp oil
1 cup lukewarm water
½ cup oil

Mix together the flour, salt and the tablespoon of oil and rub together.  Then add all at once, the lukewarm water, and mix.  Knead for approximately 10 minutes.

Divide into equal-sized balls, and then cover with the ½ cup of oil (add more if necessary) and let rest for at least one hour.

Put a griddle on the heat – flat side up – or heat up the widest pan you have.

Take a little oil from the bowl and grease your cutting board (plastic or marble works best for this dough) and take one the balls and press it down flat, spreading the dough like you were smoothing a bedsheet out (thanks to Charmaine Solomon for the imagery).  Don’t worry about any holes or its shape.  We are not professional godamba roti men – who can spin it out like pizza dough into nearly translucent thinness.  Although I think I did pretty well towards the end.
Then transfer the roti carefully (this is hard, I admit) to your extremely hot pan, and cook for approx. 1 minute on each side – until golden brown spots appear.  You can set them aside as they are done, one on top of each other, and cover the whole thing with a lid.

Serve with curries and enjoy.  The godamba rotis also keep really well.  Just put it in a Ziploc and freeze or refrigerate it.  You can put it in the oven or in the microwave to heat up.

 

Coriander, Ginger and Honey

So its been a while since I’ve blogged.  What happened was that I made this amazing dinner – with appa (hoppers), three different kinds of curries, a salad, all from Sri Lanka and I forgot TO TAKE PICTURES.  You don’t understand the amount of time, the technique, involved.  So I got dejected, and couldn’t even think about blogging.

Plus, then there’s the fact that I’m a lawyer, and I work full-time, and was in the process of changing jobs, and that life got in the way.

But now, I’m sick with a terrible cold.  Let me tell you  – I fought it, I thought I’d escape, as I’ve done a couple of time this winter, from actually getting sick.  But alas, alas, I succumbed to a nasty head cold with wracking coughs.  I’m quite toxic.

But this is a food blog, you say.  You are not interested in the fact that I go through about a box of tissues a day.  But I say unto you, this is the time to unveil a old Sri Lankan cold remedy.  Well, I don’t know how many other Sri Lankan mothers have made this for their children, but my mother made it for me, and now I make it for me and my husband whenever we have a cough and/or cold.  I studied some Ayurveda, and I actually think that the properties in this remedy is also good when you have stomach problems.

It is just three ingredients.  Coriander seeds, fresh ginger, and honey.  Coriander is typically cooling, but when combined with ginger, and the heat that it brings, it provides a balanced heat that soothes your tight chest, sore throat and head cold.  Honey also balances out the heat and cooling properties, as well as is antibacterial and provides sweetness.  I don’t claim to be a vaidya (an Ayurvedic healer) by any means, but I know I find this drink to be delicious, comforting, and helpful in soothing you when you feel like crap because you have a cold.

ginger and coriander

Ingredients

3 inches of ginger, sliced
½ cup of coriander seeds
honey to taste

Place ginger and coriander in a pot, and add about 6 cups of water.  Boil it down until it becomes approximately 3 cups.

Strain into a cup, sweeten to taste with honey and drink.

coriander ginger tea

To your health!

 

My own 100

Because to be honest, I was thinking about the omnivore’s 100 that has been circulating around, is just one person’s perspective, and therefore is biased according to where he/she’s been, what he/she thinks is exotic, delicious, unique, challenging.  And some Brit cannot possibly have been exposed to the variety and the uniqueness that is present in NYC.

To be fair, I am currently bitter about London getting the 2012 Olympics and not NYC.  Of course this is old news, but I’ve got PMS, and I want to be angry about something so why not this?  What will they show for their opening ceremony, I ask you?  Tea-drinkers, Beefeaters, brawling drunken fools in football jerseys and the Queen? really I ask you? REALLY.

But if New York had the Olympics? We could just randomly pull anyone off our streets – preferably from a borough other than Manhattan and say – bring something that your mother cooked you, and dress in your ethnic garb, and we’d have a show.  It’d be like the UN on parade.  Plus, we could just play Ken Burns’ documentary on big screens all around.  Does London have a Ken Burns documentary about it?  No.

I have now worked myself up to the point that I’ve nearly forgotten the purpose of this post.  MY 100.  Mine.  Totally biased, haphazardly thought out and I’ve tried to leave out the stuff that the other guy had on his list.  But PB&J is a definite experience that everyone should have.  So a few will be the same.  Its also got some Sri-Lankan dishes, that I’ll post recipes for on this site someday (soon).

Here goes:

My 100

1.    pizza from a pizzeria (NOT brick oven fancy pizza)
2.    coconut sambol
3.    peking duck
4.    dim sum
5.    kiri buth (coconut milk-rice)
6.    indian food from a hole in the wall that only cab drivers frequent
7.    barbecue ribs (kansas city style or dry rub, either is fine)
8.    bagel with cream cheeze, lox, capers, red onion and tomato
9.    blueberry muffins
10.    salmon sashimi
11.    tzaziki
12.    swedish meatballs
13.    wasabi mashed potatoes
14.    tarte tatin
15.    lobster roll
16.    congee
17.    cheese fondue
18.    steak tartare
19.    caesar salad
20.    boquerones
21.    peanut butter and jelly sandwich
22.    bibimbop
23.    cochchii chilies (sri lanka hot pepper in the house!)
24.    bhel puri
25.    arepas
26.    chicharones
27.    candystripe figs (my latest food glutton experience)
28.    pina colada
29.    french onion soup
30.    tacos from some guy in a cart
31.    sopapillas
32.    sweetbreads
33.    southern biscuits
34.    fried chicken (NOT from KFC)
35.    grilled cheese sandwich
36.    philly cheesesteak (WITH velveeta)
37.    muffaletta
38.    chicken wings
39.    cheese fries
40.    rambutan
41.    mangosteen
42.    alphonso mangoes
43.    tamarind
44.    honeysuckle flower nectar
45.    iberico ham
46.    rocquefort (the queen of all blues, imho)
47.    nutella
48.    masticha
49.    mochi
50.    cardamom
51.    McDonald’s french fries
52.    The “oysters” from a roast chicken
53.    Guanciale
54.    Pork belly
55.   Fried Zucchini flowers (stuffed or not stuffed)
56.    Twinkie
57.    Fried Dough (holla at me, street fair food)
58.    Corn dog
59.    macarons
60.    Kimchi
61.    devilled pork
62.    Roasted peanuts
63.    Goldfish (the crackers)
64.    Toro
65.    Hoppers (appa)
66.    cassoulet
67.    Cranberries
68.    Shirred eggs
69.    cheesecake
70.    periwinkles
71.    Caramel apple
72.    Gummi bears
73.    Vadai
74.    Whole roast pig
75.    Spaghetti carbonara
76.    Coconut layer cake
77.    rasam
78.    sorrel
79.    Marrons glaces
80.    red velvet cake
81.    watalapam
82.    bacalao
83.    Bananas foster
84.    pineapple with salt and pepper and maybe also a pinch of chili powder
85.    Pickled okra
86.    Toll house chocolate chip cookies
87.    Jamaican beef patty
88.    kulfi
89.    Pumpkin ice cream
90.    conch fritters
91.    horchata
92.    Crackerjack
93.    Buffalo milk yogurt
94.    Scotch eggs
95.    Thick sliced bacon
96.    scrambled eggs with tabasco sauce
97.    Kentucky bourbon
98.    lemongrass
99.    pisco sour
100.    japanese curry

 

I couldn’t resist….

I read a LOT of food blogs. And one of my favorites – Very Good Taste – which is a great blog out of the UK put forth a list of 100 foods that an omnivore should try and made it into a very cool game.

Here are the rules:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.
There were four things on this list that I had to look up, and only three things that I crossed out – horse, because I love them, and I ride them, and so cannot eat them and whole insects, and roadkill, for what I hope are obvious reasons. I am just not that cool. But this was totally fun! of this list, I’ve only got 21 things left to eat before I whack them all (barring the 3 I refuse).

PS — what I found particularly hilarious was the inclusion of hostess’ fruit pie. I mean really? I loved their cherry pies when I was little, and lord have mercy did I eat a ton of those totally sweet delicious and utterly fake things. Now I know why – just to tick it off the omnivore’s 100.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

 

Kadala

We’ve had a couple of crisp autumnal days already this August in NYC. Luckily, it is back to being hot and steamy, but for those few days, I started looking forward to all that autumn promises – especially applepicking. We have a tradition of heading to an orchard in upstate New York every fall. My mother packs a picnic that a mix of Sri Lankan shorteats such as cutlets, patties, kadala as well as artisanal cheeses, fruit, proscuitto, blueberry muffins, cake, and sandwiches. The heady aroma of the orchard, the crisp wine, the beautiful foliage, the delicious food, combined with family time makes for an amazing getaway.

One of the dishes my mother makes for whenever we’ve gone upstate for apple-picking or camping or to a lodge, is kadala. She uses dark chickpeas and tempers it with a mixture of mustard seeds, onions, chilies and then adds coconut. It is easy, it is delicious and it is healthy.

 

pollos curry

I fought it. for 30 years I would not eat pollos, or jackfruit. The jackfruit is an amazing tree and fruit/vegetable. It grows super tall and strong, and the fruit just sprouts from the side of the tree. They grow to be huge, i mean watermelon huge, and they’re covered with prickly rind — almost like when you get goosebumps.

So the fruit is eaten as a vegetable for its first two stages of life – as a young fruit, it is pollos and it is tender, and meaty, with a light flavor. Then as it ages, it becomes cos, and when you cook it, it is much starchy and sticky – more like an extra glutinous potato. And when it is ripe, varaka, it is stinky, fruity, overripe in aroma, and only the hard core Sri Lankans eat it. This includes my mother. I used to always eat cos curry – so good, so unavailable in the US, so reminiscent of my grandmother’s house. But never pollos curry and never varaka. And then I turned 30, and decided to have a small piece…

I was an idiot, for so long! What was my problem?! I could have been eating pollos for decades, but I’m only now just getting into it and making up for lost time.

Who knows? Maybe one day I will eat varaka as well. (shudder).

Where to find pollos? Go to the Asian section of any grocery store. Look for the thai products. It is canned. You can get it fresh – if you try hard – and why suffer? I use canned. It is delicious. This is a one pot, throw it all in at once, easy cooking curry.

Pollos Curry

 

Green Bean Curry

My sister and I, as we cook Sri Lankan food on our own, realize that we have this typical combination — purripu, bean curry and chicken curry. Those three, so delicious, so comforting, are what we first starting making on our own. Perhaps because they are so easy to make. TRUST me. To be honest, though, the chicken curry was never the same color as my mom’s and I couldn’t figure it out, and then she said, oh, did you add tomato paste? and I said, NO, because you never told me to!! So now, that’s resolved.

But this is a post about bean curry. Like purripu, this is one pot cooking with hardly any prep. You know, as I write these posts, I realize how easy and available, Sri Lankan cooking really is. We don’t prep too much and typically, everything is thrown into a pot, and simmered and served. I admit, some ingredients may be exotic, but those ones aren’t crucial – they can be substituted or even omitted. The ingredients in this dish, for instance – you can use those yard long, dark green and wiry string beans that’s sometimes known as the chinese long bean, or you can use regular green beans, or even haricots verts. The picture below is using the long bean because I went to Patel Brothers in Jackson Heights and they had some lovely bunches.

 

Puripoo, Purripu, or Puripu (dal)

I am not sure how to spell this– I’m doing it phonetically, but the words look funny, don’t they?

Anyway, Purripu, or dal, and rice is a comfort food for me. It is quick, healthy, and a complete meal. It is also served with other curries – I like purripu b/c it binds all the curries and rice together. And it is the first Sri Lankan dish that I ever cooked because it is so easy to make.

purripu

 

Recipe for Pol Sambol

Oy. I finally started a blog, I finally get my act together and then my digital camera broke. It was all my fault. I dropped it when on vacation in Greece! On our second day! Luckily disposable cameras came to the rescue. I still don’t have a camera; I’m waiting to get an iphone. These shots are courtesy of my father’s camera (thank you appachchi!)

I thought I should inaugurate this site with the recipe for which it is named. Pol Sambol (coconut sambol) is a classic Sri Lankan dish, a big big favorite, combining the heat of chilies, the sweet delicateness of fresh ground coconut and the tartness of lime. Yum.

Ingredients

approx. 2 cups fresh ground coconut (see note below)

chili powder

lime juice

salt

pepper

curry leaves (carapincha)

1 minced shallot

optional: maldive fish (umbalacuda)

Method:

In a bowl, combine your fresh grated coconut, and add enough chili powder and mix it with your hands or a spoon until it gets a nice bright orange color. This is meant to be a spicy dish, eaten to complement rice and curry or rotis, so it can take a lot of heat. But whatever; add as much as you are comfortable with. We even make white pol sambol or green pol sambol (with green chilies!) so there is no steadfast rule. If you want color, but not heat, use some paprika as well.

Mix in salt, pepper, curry leaves and minced shallot. Taste and make sure it has enough salt/heat. If you are using maldive fish, add it as well. Then add lime juice. its supposed to have a nice kick, like when you make guacamole — that acidity? same thing here. Use plenty.

Done! Finito! You can eat it as part of a meal – of rice, curry, or roti or hoppers (appa) [recipes for these things will follow] or, as my father does, you can eat it with nice bread, slathered with butter. the butter makes the pol sambol stick to the bread, and voila, a Sri Lankan snack. I do it too. And then I have a cup of tea.

NOTE: you can use dessicated coconut flakes – just reconstitute them with hot water. If they have frozen grated coconut, that’s cool, too. But fresh is best – since this is a fresh dish. do not be afraid of the coconut! I buy one that is heavy for its size, has liquid in it when I shake it, I poke its eyes and see if there is nice white coconut within. then I whack it with a hammer along its circumference until it splits in half and then pry out the white coconut flesh with a knife. Then I put it in the food processor until it becomes that nice grated consistency. I also have a coconut grater, but unless you find it in an south asian grocery store, the food processor method is a hit. its labor intensive, yes, but do it at once, keep extra in the freezer and you’re ready to go later on. I should post a video on this – its hilarious the way I open the coconuts. (its like cracking someone’s head open, so I often go “eee!” as I open them).