Category: Sri Lanka

Fish with with Mulligatawny Flavours

The Daily News Cookery Book is a stalwart of Sri Lankan Cooking, first published in 1929.  My mum was given a copy as a wedding present which we still have and I have a copy of the 2013 edition which seems to be a paperback copy of the 1964 edition without the vintage ads but with all the quirkiness. This quirkiness oftentimes means it is not the easiest book to cook from.   The methods of cooking can seem outdated, the measurements can be odd.  So, I often use it more as an inspiration rather than something to follow exactly.  This is how my dish of Fish with Mulligatawny Flavours came about.  It was so tasty and delicious that I wanted to share it – and after all, it is truly revamping a retro dish for modern times!

Fish with Mulligatawny Flavours 1

So, I hear you ask, why not just make this as a mulligatawny?  I had some really nice roti and I wanted to dip that bread into something thicker than a soup.  A curry gravy seemed like the perfect thing.  So, why not just call it a fish curry?  I wanted to recognise the OG recipe which was for a fish mulligatawny.   There are also some very non-traditional ingredients here – for instance, you would never see Thai Basil in a traditional Sri Lankan curry.  However,  I love its flavour, particularly with fish!  Roti is also not a traditional accompaniment for Sri Lankan food – we do have a coconut roti but this is not the flaky type of bread I am referring to here.

Fish With Mulligatawny Flavours – The Recipes

And now here is the OG recipe.  You can, of course, choose to make this version if you wish.  Please let me know how it turns out if you do!  If not keep reading for my version!

Fsh with Mulligatawny Flavours Recipe

Fish With Mulligatawny Flavours 2

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Fish with with Mulligatawny Flavours

A modern take on a vintage recipe for Fish Mulligatawny

Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 red onions, 2 sliced, 2 chopped finely
  • 1 sprig of curry leaves (about 20 leaves)
  • 2 tbsp ghee or coconut oil, split
  • *450g-600g fish fillets (I used Rockling) but any white fish would work.
  • 1 270ml can of coconut milk
  • 200g vegetable stock
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp fenugreek powder
  • 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 1 tsp ginger, grated
  • 2cm stick of cinnamon
  • 2 tomatoes, chopped
  • 1 10cm stick of celery cut in 4 pieces
  • 150g of green beans, chopped (optional)
  • Salt

To Serve:

  • Lime cheeks
  • Thai basil or Coriander
  • Roti or Rice

Instructions

  • Heat half the ghee or coconut oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
  • Add the sliced onions, half the curry leaves and a pinch of salt.
  • Drop the heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally until the onions are a deep brown.  Take your time with this, it took me 20 minutes to get the onions as dark as I wanted them.  Remove these from the pan and set aside.

 

  • Wipe the pan and add the rest of the coconut oil / ghee.
  • Once this is melted turn down the heat and add the chopped onions, the rest of the curry leaves, the coriander, cumin, turmeric, fenugreek, cinnamon, garlic, ginger and celery.
  • Cook stirring often until the spices are fragrant and the onions are softened.
  • Add the stock and coconut milk.  Cook this mixture down until the gravy reaches the consistency of thickened cream.
  • Add the beans, if you are using them, to the pan.
  • Sprinkle your fish fillets with salt and add to the pan.  Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, depending on the thickness of your fish.  When you turn the fish over, add the chopped tomatoes.
  • Check for taste – add more salt and or a squeeze of lime to balance out the flavours.
  • Remove the cinnamon stick and the pieces of celery.**

To Serve

  • Place a fillet of fish on each place, spoon over the gravy and top each piece of fish with the reserved onion and curry leaf mix.
  • Garnish with coriander, Thai basil and lime wedges
  • Serve with rice and/or flaky roti to soak up that lovely gravy.

Enjoy!

 

Notes

*I had 450g of fish which was three fillets however there was a lot of gravy so you could easily add another fillet in for this same quantity.

** I do not like the texture of cooked celery so I like to remove it before serving.  If you are happy to eat it, chop the celery into smaller slices, as you would when making a soup and leave it in.

 

Fish with Mulligatawny Flavours 3

This is a lovely gently spiced delicate dish – the perfect response to anyone who thinks that all Sri Lankan food is blow your head off hot!

I also found myself eating the leftover gravy with more of that roti the following day and it was also delicious!

I hope you have enjoyed my updating of this old recipe!

Have a great week!

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Not Quite Seeni Sambol

Seeni Sambol is a Sri Lankan side dish, served as an accompaniment to rice, curries and hoppers as per the photo below.   It is an integral component of lampries, which despite Covid-19, mum and I made this year at Easter, as per our normal habit.  I made the seeni sambol this year, something we never really do as it takes so many onions!  I used 8 onions to make mine and in the end, there was not enough for all our lampries and we ended up having to use a shop-bought version as well!

Please don’t judge my hoppers, I am playing with a recipe which I will post on here as soon as I have it right!  The main ingredient of Seeni Sambol is onions.  Put very simply you caramelise them down add some spices and voila – there you have it.

Our 2020 lampries.  This is a SriLankan meal consisting of ghee rice, lampries curry, eggplant pickle,seeni sambol, prawn blachan and frikadeller which mum and I cook annually.  We make enough to last the year, packing individual servings into foil packets and putting them into the freezer to reheat and eat whenever the mood takes us!

Lampries

What I am trying to say is, that I know a bit about Seeni Sambol.  So, when I saw that there was a recipe for it in the Good Housekeeping World Cookery Book, 1972 I was intrigued.  My gut feel is that books this old do not do justice to “ethnic” recipes.  But for the sake of the blog, I was willing to give this one a go.

But, because WordPress loves a subheading,  let’s break it down a little.

The Title

The actual title is fine.  In that, all words are spelt correctly.

It’s the subtitle that made me pause.

And call my mum.

“Are you meant to just eat Seeni Sambol with prawns?”

“No.  Why?”

“No reason”.

So fail on the title.  Seeni Sambol actually means sugar sambol and relates to the sweetness of the caramelised onions and the sugar you add towards the end of cooking to balance out the flavours.  No prawns at all.  Whatsoever.

Seeni Sambol 4

The Ingredients

There are two very non-traditional additions in these ingredients.  Tomatoes play no part in seeni sambol and neither does milk.

You probably could not have got fresh milk in Sri Lanka in 1972 – it would have either been evaporated or coconut milk.  Either way, I inadvertently left the milk out of my version.  I added the tomatoes though.

There is also an ingredient that is used in a traditional Seeni sambol called a Maldive Fish which is a cured dried fish which adds protein and umami flavours to the Seeni Sambol  If you want to make this, and you cannot find Maldive fish, you can substitute Asian fish sauce.   Or you can leave it out altogether which is what they do in vegetarian versions.

Overall though, the ingredients are pretty close to home.  Just forget the tomatoes and the milk if you want to keep it real!

Oh, and btw?  No prawns.

Seeni Sambol 61

The Method

Seeni Sambol

So, it all seems legit until…WTF why are they talking about Prawns? There were no prawns in the ingredients so why are there prawns in the GD recipe???

There are no prawns in Seeni Sambol.  And that’s not just me saying that.  That comes direct from my mum.  And I may be an idiot who knows nothing but she knows Sri Lankan cooking!

So, this is kind of a shambolic recipe.  However, if you ignore the magical prawns that do a disappearing act in the ingredients and reappear in the method and the milk which has no place here what so ever. this is not a bad recipe. I didn’t even mind the tomatoes in the final dish!

Here is the full recipe:

Seeni Sambol 11

And here is a better one from chef Manu Fieldel.  This is a vegetarian version so does not contain the possibly hard to find Maldive Fish.

Hope you are having a good week!  Stay safe friends…the light at the end of this tunnel seems to be appearing!

 

Sri Lankan Lamprais

I had a different post planned for today but after the events of Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka, I thought I would change things up and share some Sri Lankan food.  Lamprais is a dish from the Dutch Burgher community of Sri Lanka, which is my heritage.  The name is derived from the Dutch word “lomprijst” which translates into “parcel of food”.

For English speakers, the closest pronunciation is “lump rice”.

So this is our “parcel of food”.  It is Sri Lankan comfort food at it’s best – hearty, spicy, flavoursome.  Lamprais is something that I have eaten for as long as I can remember – from being a small child who would only eat the fish cutlets (the meatball type things you can see in the picture above) and the rice because everything else was too spicy to nowadays loving the fact that I can have a delicious, satisfying, complex meal on the table within about 45 minutes and using either one baking tray or a steamer.

For the last, we think four years, (maybe five) Mum and I have been making our lamprais at Easter and it has become a little tradition for us(just like chocolate eggs)!  We were planning our timetable over a very non Sri Lankan roast lamb dinner when we heard the horrible news of the Easter Sunday Isis bombings in Sri Lanka.  Thankfully no one in our family or friends was injured in the horrendous act of violence but over 300 innocent people have lost their lives.

I have always wanted to share this dish but have baulked at it because it’s just so involved…but given we were down to make them, now seemed like a perfect time.

Let’s break down what goes into our version of lamprais.  This will vary slightly, each family will have their own variation. For instance, many people add an egg into their lamprais which is not something we do.  Also, traditionally in Sri Lanka many people add fried ash plantains.

Here’s what goes into ours:

Here is Charmaine Solomon’s recipe for Lamprais – there are some slightly different spellings / terminology but this is the closest version to ours that I could find.

We do not however, pour that final bit of coconut milk over the dish before cooking.

Lamprais9 - Ghee Rice recipe

 

Lamprais Base – Ghee Rice

Ghee Rice is the foundation of every lamprais.  (Except for last year when we ran out and had to sub in some microwave brown rice for our last two lamprais).

Ghee rice is long grain or basmati ricecooked in ghee (duh) with spices such as cardamom, cloves, curry leaves and cinnamon.  This gives a lovely flavourful base for your lamprais.

Lamprais3 Ghee Rice

The Main – Lamprais Curry

So, in our breakdown of labour, mum always cooks the ghee rice because she does it really well and I can’t cook rice for shit.  Making the lamprais curry?  That’s my job.

Lamprais curry is like no other curry, I know for two reasons.  Firstly it’s a mixed meat curry containing beef, lamb, chicken and pork.  I mean have you ever?  It’s also delicious.  Like seriously who knew mixing ALL the meats would taste so good?

Second, in most other curries, you cook the meat from the start in the gravy.  Not so with this one.  You boil the beef, lamb and chicken first, then tip the cooked meat into the curry gravy to simmer away for a couple of hours.

If you make this, be prepared to chop things for HOURS.  Four onions,  eight garlic cloves.  And around two kilos of meat into a pea-sized dice.

Did I say labour of love?

Did I say this is why we split this between two people and only cook it once a year?  On a long weekend?

Also, you can use the water used to boil the mix of meats as stock to flavour the rice.
Lamprais4 Lamprais curry

Lamprais 10 - Curry recipe

Lamprais – My Favourite Bit – Fish Cutlets

Usually, in a lamprais, you get two fish cutlets.  So, they are always the first thing I eat.  And the last thing I eat.  These are little crumbed meatballs you can see in the photo. Or should that be fishballs?  Either way?  They are delicious.  If you are averse to fish, you could sub these out with frikkadels.

Mum makes these –  she made around 60 of them this year.  Which was handy because I ate my weight in them as we were going!

This recipe is from S for Sri Lanka.  All other recipes are from Charmaine Solomon via the The Great Australian Cookbook.

 

Lamprais5 - fish cutlets

 

Lamprais 11a - Fish cutlets

Lamprais 11b - Fish cutlets

In the above photo, you can also see our first condiment or sambol – Prawn Blachan

Lamprais Accoutrements 1 – Prawn Blachan

Blachan is made from dried prawns and spices.  It is spicy, salty, pungent and a little goes a long way.

Lamprais Accoutrements 2 – Seeni Sambol

Seeni Sambol is a caramelised onion relish that adds a touch of sweetness to your lamprais.  You could make this yourself.  If you feel like chopping up another four onions after you’ve chopped up four for the curry….or you could find your local Indian / Asian / Sri Lankan grocery store and just buy a jar of it.

You have to make the rice, you have to make the curry, the meatballs and the blachan.  Trust me,  unless you want to end up sobbing on the floor, buy the seeni sambol.

Or make it just because it’s delicious a couple of days before you want to make the lamprais.

Lamprais 12 Seeni and Blachan

 

Lamprais 6

Here is our process in motion!

Lamprais Accoutrements 2 – Brinjal (Eggplant) Moju

Now, normally I make our brinjal moju but this year, I decided to use some ready made. Not so much because of my recently diagnosed allergies, but more so because I just didn’t have the time.  The purpose of the eggplant moju is to add a little sour into the dish, to cut through the richness of the curry.  And possibly also to add a vegetable that is not onion into this dish!

I also have no concerns about eating the moju despite the allergy.  It is, after all, only a spoonful per meal

Lamprais 13 Eggplant

Which brings us to the end.  We made 16 lamprais. We make ours big so one is enough for a meal.

Lamprais7

Now you might have been wondering about the preponderance of aluminium foil in this post.  Lamprais are traditionally wrapped in and steamed in a banana leaf.  This also adds another layer of flavour/aroma to this dish.   Here is a traditional lamprais that I had at the DBU (Dutch Burgher Union) in Colombo when I was there in 2015.

Lamprais8

As much as I would like to go traditional, we use aluminium foil so we can pop our “parcels of food”  straight into the freezer.  You can either bake your frozen lamprais in the oven for around 40 minutes or steam them for around the same amount of time.  I personally like to cook them in the oven because the bottom of the rice goes a little crispy like in claypot rice.

So that’s it…our lamprais….I don’t expect any of you to be crazy enough to make it, but if you have somewhere that sells Sri Lankan food near you, why not try some!

Stay safe, be kind to each other, take care and have a wonderful week!

 

Frikkadels – The Danish Girl Goes To Sri Lanka

I am reading The Danish Girl for  book club.  I am not that far into the book  – so there are  no spoilers here for anyone who may be concerned but there was a part very early in the book that blew my teeny mind and most likely not at all for the any of the reasons you might be thinking!

 

Danish Girl

Here is the passage:

Even with his eyes closed, standing shirtless in front of his wife felt obscene.  It felt as if she’s caught him doing something he had promised he would avoid – not like adultery, but more like resuming a bad habit he’d given his word he would quit, like drinking aquavit in the canal bars of Christianshavn or eating frikadeller in bed”

– David Ebershoff, The Danish Girl

In Sri Lankan Burgher cooking, we have a delicious meatball called a Frikkadel.  The name was too similar to the frickadeller found in The Danish Girl for me not to undertake some extensive research.  (Otherwise known as googling the word Frikadeller.) And yes, they are pretty much one and the same.

Knowing this also helped to fill a gap in my knowledge about these meatballs.  I have long wondered why they are flavoured with dill which is not used that much in Sri Lankan cooking.  But it is used a lot in Scandinavian Cooking.  Mystery solved!

I cooked some ages ago and never got around to posting them so here are my Friikkadels.

FrikkadelsSri Lankans would not normally eat frikkadels in bed but they would be quite commonly handed around at a drinks party as a “short eat” which is what we call finger food.

Here is the “official” description from the delightful ( but totally demented) Daily News Cookbook, a bastian of Sri Lankan Cooking.

“The term “short eats”  was originally used to describe the dainty sandwiches, dry cheese or other savoury biscuits, potato chips and miniature sausages accompanying the drinks at sherry or cocktail parties which usually began at six o’clock in the evening and lasted for a couple of hours at the most….

The chief requisite of short eats is that should appeal to the eye as well as the palate; but they must also be easy to eat –  that is, small enough to be conveyed to the mouth with the fingers or, at the most, a small wooden pick”

Frikkadels2My frikkadels were eaten as short eats with a dollop of date and tamarind chutney and a garnish of coriander. However, the best, best, best way to eat your frikkadels – better than a short eat or even in bed is as part of a lampries.

Part of a what you ask?  One day, when I have an infinite amount of time on my hands I will make one for you.  And your minds will be blown by the awesome deliciousness of them.  It’s unlikely to happen in the foreseeable purely because of the seven billion things that need to be included.  For the lampries is a little pack of many items of Sri Lankan delciousness.  Traditionally this would be cooked and served in banana leaves but nowadays alfoil is also used.  The lampries contains:

  • Ghee rice
  • Lampries Curry – made with chicken, lamb beef and pork.  I know it sounds mental but it’s so good!
  • Frikkadels
  • Brinjal Pahi – which is an eggplant pickle
  • Coconut Sambal
  • Prawn Blachang – which is a dried prawn pickle type thing.  Ish.

Now do you see why I will most likely never make this myself? Not only do you need to have all of those things.  But they all have about twenty ingredients each.  To make lampries tis a labour of love.  Which is why we buy them frozen. The best are straight from the kitchen of a little old Sri Lankan  lady.  Next best is from your local Sri Lankan cafe or restaurant.

And here is one that I ate at The Dutch Burgher Union when we were in Sri Lanka last year:

Lampries with Frikkadels

My favourite way of eating a lampries is to eat one of the frikkadels first.  Then the rest.  Then the second frikkadel as the very last thing.  Kind of like the cherry on the top!

Frikkadels came to Sri Lanka from the Dutch who borrowed them from the Danes. There is also a South African version also via the Dutch.  Frikkadels can also be found in many other countries of Northern Europe.  This is certainly the little meatball that could!

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Frikkadels

Delicious Sri Lankan /Dutch / Danish meatballs

Ingredients

Scale
  • 500g minced beef – do not use the leanest type, you need a higher fat content to keep the frikkadels moist
  • 1 large red onion, finely chopped
  • 1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
  • a piece of ginger about the same size as the clove of garlic, grated
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • juice of 1 lime
  • a large pinch of ground cloves
  • a pinch of cinnamon
  • a pinch of grated nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 sprigs of dill, finely chopped
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup of bread crumbs for coating
  • Oil for frying, ideally coconut but peanut will do

Optional Ingredients

  • Lime wedges to serve.
  • Coriander leaves to serve
  • Chutney or sweet chilli sauce to serve

Instructions

  1. Separate the eggs.
  2. Mix the minced (ground) beef, onions, ginger, garlic, pepper, lime juice, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg dill and salt thoroughly with the egg yolks.
  3. Form into balls the size of large marbles.
  4. Beat the whites of the eggs with a fork just enough to break them up but without frothing.
  5. Dip the balls into the eggs whites then roll in the crumbs so they are well coated.
  6. Heat the oil in a deep pan until boiling then fry the frikkadels a few at a time.
  7. When cooked through they should be crisp on the outside and juicy on the inside.
  8. Keep hot, draining on kitchen paper.
  9. Serve with a wedge of lime, chutney or as part of a lampries.

Why not try some at your next party?  Or in a lampries?  Or even in bed?

The Danish Girl does not open here until the end of the month.  Have any of you seen it?  What did you think?

Have a fabulous week!

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