Sri Lankan Workshop

At the weekend I attended a Sri Lankan cookery workshop - run at the same place where I take my Italian cookery lessons. (Which I know I have yet to blog about - but don't worry, it will happen, this week we're making Osso Buco!)

The tutor was Martyn Grover, Head of Department at a nearby College, and it is his recipes I have recreated here.

The whole morning was very enjoyable (despite the fact I almost didn't make it following a slight overindulgence the night before at a dinner party...) The pace was laid back, and there were lots of opportunities to chat with fellow foodies, and to hear stories from when Martyn lived in Sri Lanka. The dishes were all very simple, and straightforward to prepare... but the flavours certainly packed a punch!

We got to make 3 dishes:

Tomato Sambal

Paripoo

Coconut Rotis

I loved them all, and could hardly wait to go home and scoff it all! Rather bizarrely, coconut falls into Boyfriend's cream&cheese loathing, so I got to eat it all to myself! :)

Unfortunately I have to cancel my Lebanese course with Martyn, but I will definitely be signing up for some more. Watch this space!

Sri Lankan Workshop: Coconut Rotis

To accompany the spicy, piquant tomato sambal and creamily delicious paripoo, we made some coconut rotis.

I'm not usually a fan of coconut meat (although I adore coconut milk and coconut based curries!) but these were really good - and complimented the two sauces very well.

The biggest challenge is trying not to eat them as they come out of the pan ;)

Coconut Rotis

225g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
180g freshly grated coconut (use a processor for this if you can - otherwise it'd be a lot of hard work!)
30g softened butter (optional)
2/3 green chilies - finely chopped (optional)
2 tbsp finely chopped onions
Coconut oil for frying

In a bowl, mix together the flour, coconut and salt, then add just enough water to form a dough. If you have any of coconut milk left you could use some of that here (either from the paripoo, or the real stuff from cracking the coconut open!). The tutor used some 'real' coconut milk, with some coconut milk from a tin, mixed in with a bit of water.

You want the mixture to be very soft, but not so sticky that it sticks to the work surface.

Work in the onions, butter, and chilies (if using). You may need to add a bit more flour now if the mixture is too wet.

Knead for 5 minutes, them leave to rest for about 20 minutes.

Divide the mixture into 10 balls.

Heat a heavy-based frying pan until very hot, and add some coconut oil. If you don't have any oil, then you could use ghee instead. As you do each ball, only add oil if required, you probably shouldn't need to for each one.

For each ball:

1. Roll out until about 5mm thick. The way we did this in class was to place a ball between two sheets of greaseproof paper, then used our fingers to spread it out.
2. Peel the roti from the paper and place in the centre of the pan.
3. Cook for 1 minute
4. Turn with the spatula and cook for a further minute on the other side.
   

Serve with a Sri Lankan curry (or curries!) of your choice!

Sri Lankan Workshop: Paripoo

At the Sri Lankan Cookery workshop I recently attended I fell madly in love with this simple, easy and gorgeous curry! It was sooo good - creamy, spicy, comforting, and above all, packed with flavour.

My pictures just don't do justice to the vibrant colour of this dish (although thanks to some great feedback from Jill over at Simple Daily Recipes, I will hopefully be getting more real light to them soon! Thanks Jill!)

Paripoo - Sri Lankan Dhal!

• 90g red lentils
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 2 dried red chilies, left whole.
  
• 8 curry leaves
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
  
• 1 onion, finely chopped
  
• 100 ml water
• 1/2 tin coconut milk

Ok, so how simple is this???

Are you ready?

Put all the ingredients into a pan, except the coconut milk.
Simmer for 15 minutes (stirring frequently to prevent the lentils sticking)
Add the coconut milk
Cover and simmer for another 15 minutes.

There you go - a gorgeous curry, made from scratch in half an hour!

Sri Lankan Workshop: Tomato Sambal

This was the first dish we made in the Sri Lankan workshop I attended recently. I got to use an ingredient I hadn't seen before - coconut oil. Apparently coconut is widely used in Sri Lanka and neighbouring counties - it isn't until you go further north that the use of coconut oil begins to be replaced with ghee.

It is lovely stuff - and not too difficult to find! I managed to buy a bottle of it from the first wholefood store I went to. Check out the link above to read about other uses it has!

Tomato Sambal

• 3 large ripe tomatoes (approx 225g)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp chili powder - adjust according to taste and strength
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 5cm cinnamon stick
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 onion
• juice and zest of one lime
• 1 tsp sugar

Slice the tomatoes and arrange them on a plate. Sprinkle with the chili powder and salt and leave to marinate while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Slice the garlic and finely chop the onions.

Heat the coconut oil in a saucepan to medium. Once hot add the sliced garlic and fry until starting to change colour. Add the cinnamon and continue to fry until the garlic has turned golden brown. Don't let it burn though, or it will turn bitter!

Add the onions and continue to fry until soft.

Now add the marinaded tomatoes and gently simmer for 15 minutes.

Remove from the heat, allow to cool slightly then add the lime juice, zest and sugar. Boiling the lime juice will lose a lot of its punch, so only add after cooking.

Serve as part of a Sri Lankan meal - usually alongside curry.