Savoring Sri Lanka
Cookbook pays homage to country’s flavorful, often overlooked cuisine Pol sambol (coconut relish) Kale sambol
Mary AnneMohanraj missed a lot of things when shewent off to college, but the thing shewasmost homesick forwas hermother’s cooking.
When her parents immigrated to Connecticut fromColombo, Sri Lanka, in 1973, they brought with them their fiery curries, coconut sambols and countless rice dishes.
Many of the recipeswere adapted to accommodateAmerican ingredients. For instance, her mother, Jacintha, used ketchup instead of tomatoes because coconutmilkwas hard to find. But even adulterated, the foods offered a comforting and familiar taste of theirTamil culture.
Mohanraj remembers sitting in her dorm roomat theUniversity of Chicago, so desperately hungry for her mother’s beef and potato curry that she begged for the recipe over the phone. Once in hand, “Imade it over and over again,” she recalls, because that was the onlyway she could get to eat the dish.
Back in the 1990s, Sri Lankan restaurantswere nonexistent even in ethnically diverse cities such as Chicago because the small number of Sri Lankans who started arriving in theUnited States in the mid-1950s tended to be professionals. “Thereweren’t a lot of cooks coming in to set up restaurants,” Mohanraj said. Also, the doctors and lawyerswho made a new home here usually pushed their kids to go to college.
Even today, Sri Lankan food is hard to come by outside ofNew York City and parts ofNew Jersey, making the food unfamiliar to most. That’s a shame because as Mohanraj’s cookbook, “A Feast of Serendib: Recipes FromSri Lanka (Mascot Books, $40), makes clear, the cuisine’s distinctive curries, sambols, hoppers (a type of pancake) and vinegar-based pickles are as vivid as they are flavorful.
Colonized first by the Portuguese and then theDutch and British, Sri Lanka has been a multi-ethnic society for more than 1,000 years. The food reflects those influences, with dishes like frikkadels (a type of Dutch meatball), Portuguese “love cake” (made with nuts and spices) and brandy-infused British fruit cake on the menu.
Sri Lankan food sometimes is described as a mix between Southern Indian and Thai flavors. YetMohanraj stresses it’s definitely not what most Americans are used to eating when they go out for Indian food. While the two nations share many of the same ingredients, Sri Lankan food is usually hotter than the creamy curries and butter masalas that are a staple ofNorthern Indian cooking. That’s because Sri Lankan curry powder— dark roasted to make it more intense and complex— is usually loaded with chili pepper. (Mohanraj’s recipe includes two teaspoons of cayenne, in addition to coriander, cumin, fennel and fenugreek seeds.)
Instead of dairy, coconut is the foundation, along with chilies, lots of vegetables and leafy greens. Given the island nation’s location on the Indian Ocean, seafood also plays an important role in the cuisine. Crab curry is a specialty, along with ambulthiyal, a type of sour fish curry.
Sri Lankan food also makes frequent use of fresh curry leaves, an ingredient that can be hard to track downif you don’t have easy access to an Indian market.
An important note here: Curry leaves are not to be confused with the bold spicemix knownas curry. Their flavors are as disparate as their colors— leaves are green while the powder is yellow or yellowish-red. Neither is a substitute for the other. In fact, if you can’t get your hands on fresh or dried curry leaves (readily available on Amazon), it’s best to leave them out of the recipe all together, Mohanraj said.
Learning an unfamiliar cuisine can be overwhelming, so when Mohanraj started writing the cookbook in 2015, she opted for a “hand-holdy” format geared to home cooks like herself. Nothing’s too fancy, most ingredients are easily sourced and the recipes are easy to follow, with many including italicized notes offering substitutions, helpful cooking hints or playful family remembrances.
Many of the 100-plus recipes are family favorites that she started gathering more than 20 years ago as a college student to put into a book as a Christmas present for her mother. Others came fromfriends orwere discovered 2-inch 1. In dry pan 2. Blend
Makes: 2 to 3 during years of meticulous research and testing in her home kitchen.
“I didn’twant to have just the thingsmy family makes, but core recipes are fromwithin the Sri Lankan community,” she said. They include everything from salads, condiments and drinks to desserts, egg and meat dishes, and nearly two dozen curries.
Mohanraj said she hopes the cookbook will offer a taste of some of the best food on the planet— and teach those who aren’t familiar with her homeland a bit about its history and traditions.
“It’s about sharing culture,” she said. “I hope people will love it and bring something new into their lives.” teaspoon black mustard seeds 1 to 2 tablespoons cayenne 1. In large pot, 2. Add beef and stir on high for a minute or two, browning the meat. Add milk, stirring. Cover, turn down to medium and let cook half an hour, stirring occasionally.
3. Add 4. Serve bunch kale, leaves stripped cup shredded unsweetened coconut 1 to 2 1 to 2
Pulse kale in food processor until completely shredded into small bits. Add onion, coconut, tomatoes, lime juice, sugar and salt. Mix thoroughly.