Month: January 2013

52 week project – Sri Lankan cookbook – Parrippu

| poppypeach
Yawn what a busy weekend that was which is why I am testing out my recipe on a Tuesday night! I planned for Monday night but as I was cooking for the kiddos I figured I would not get the response that I would like so tonight is the night. Digging out some old mix CDs I got to work on this weeks recipe of Parippu or Dahl (my mum called it Lentils – Vege, a recipe from my Aunty).

As Parippu is a fairly easy recipe I teamed it up with a egg and vegetarian sausage curry to have with the brown and wild rice I picked up the other day.

Parrippu (Vegtarian Lentil Dahl)

Parrippu with Sausage and Egg Curry, served with desiccated coconut and lemon zest

1 cup lentils
olive oil
onion
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 cloves garlic
curry leaves
1 teaspoon turmeric
200 ml coconut milk
100 ml water

1. Saute lentils in oil on low – my lentils were already soaked (be careful and watch they don’t stick to the pan).

2. Add onion, cinnamon powder, mustard seeds, garlic, curry leaves and turmeric mix together with the lentils.

3. Add coconut milk and water and mix on low till ready to serve with rice and curry.

Egg and Sausage Curry 

This recipe was sourced from masterchef.com.au and I have changed it up a bit due to lack of ingredients and such.

Egg and Vegetarian Sausage Curry

1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 brown onion
3 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon curry powder – think I am going to track down some Sri Lankan Roasted Curry Powder
Curry Leaves
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
200 ml coconut milk
100 ml water
Herbamare to taste

3 eggs
2 vegetarian sausages

To serve

1 tablespoon desiccated coconut
Chilli flakes
Lemon Zest

1. Head coconut oil in large skillet and cook onion, garlic, curry powder, curry leaves, mustard and fennel seeds for 5 – 10 minutes till onions have softened.

2. Add coconut milk and water and cook with the lid on low for 15 minutes.

3. Toast coconut and finish with roasted coconut and chilli flakes for extra spice.

Yes adding some chill powder would be great but I am serving this to my kids and they will say it is too ‘picy – still I did get a thumbs up for this and they both enjoyed it! 

52 week project – Sri Lankan cookbook – Yellow Rice and Curry

| poppypeach
This week has been busy with sewing for a show I am doing in a couple of weeks – so there has been plenty of me and my sewing machine time in between everything else. I scored an amazing array of fabric at the last FabMo distribution which I will make into aprons, placemats and tote bags.

This week I am going to try a Sri Lankan Seitan with cinnamon, ginger and coconut.
(It should be chicken but as I am vegetarian – no animals for me!)

A one bowl meal – divine

Sri Lankan Seitan Curry with Yellow Rice 

3 cloves garlic, crished
1 tbs grated young ginger
50ml lime juice
4 fresh long green chillies

3 tbs olive oil

450g seitan strips
1 tablespoon paprika or more to taste
1/2 cup flour 

1 large white onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp ground turmeric
3 green cardamom pods, crushed
4 cloves (or 1 teaspoon ground cloves)
2 cinnamon quills
1tsp curry powder

270ml thick coconut cream
Corainder leaves, to serve

1. Pound garlic, ginger and lime juice and 2 of the chillies in a mortar and pestle or blend in a small food processor, until a paste forms.

2. Dredge seitan strips into flour and paprika. Saute dredged seitan in 1 tbs olive oil – set aside for later.

3. Heat oil in a heavy-based saucepan at low temperature. Add onion, turmeric, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon quills and cook for 8-10 minutes or until onion is transparent. Add garlic/ginger/chilli paste and 150ml coconut milk and combine well. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

Seitan sauteed after being dredged with flour and paprika – yum!

4. Add coconut cream, sautéed seitan and remaining 2 chillies whole and simmer until seitan is warm – around 5 minutes. Season, scatter with coriander leaves and serve.

Seitan curry finished with fresh coriander

Again I served this with a yellow rice – this time trying the recipe with mushroom stock… Still the flavour is not the same as my Mum’s using a chicken stock cube though it was somewhat flavoursome. I have had suggestions to cook the rice in a homemade vege stock that has spices and onion as the base with fennel fronds and pea skins with a bit of stock concentrate added for extra flavour. Let’s see how that goes next time I try the yellow rice?

Stil the seitan curry with the paprika was even better the next day as all currys get tastier with age – I would say that this was not my mums chicken curry flavour though having to omit certain ingredients I will have to deal with it having my signature vegetarian twist. 

52 week project – Sri Lankan cookbook – Coconut sambal

| poppypeach
Today I am attempting a Coconut Sambol which I plan to have with Cauliflower Fritters. We shall see how it all turns out…

I will post a pic or two when I take them…

1. Soak Desiccated Coconut in Cow’s milk for a while (1/2 pkt or more if you like).

2.  In blender mix in 1 diced onion, 2 green chillies & 1 large tomato.

3. When done add chilli powder (1 1/2 teaspoons or less according to your taste), 2 tablespoons vinegar, cracked pepper (as you desire) & Maldive Fish (2 tablespoons powdered which has been done in a blender).

Add all this to the Desiccated Coconut which has been soaked (as above).

4. Lastly add the lot back into the blender and mix well and when spoon it into what you require. The rest into plastic containers & you can freeze this!!

Ingredients for the coconut sambol

Coconut Sambal – Veggie Style

1/2 cup coconut soaked in 1 tablespoon milk
1/2 diced onion
1 tomato
1 spring onion (instead of green chilli – I was serving this to my kids)
1/2 lemon
Chilli Powder to taste
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast (as a salty substitute for Maldive Fish)
1tablespoon white wine vinegar
Pepper
Sea Salt

Soak the coconut while you prepare the other ingredients then mix gently together in a bowl and serve with rice and a vegetable dish. Add more chilli if you wish.

Coconut Sambal – vegetarian style

So the outcome was close but not as tasty as I remember it – of course due to the lack of chilli! Still if I tried the Maldive Fish yes it would be the same but I eat fish though I will have to research the sustainability of the Maldive Fish for cooking. It was a cooling substitute with the papadums and my friends special recipe sack of a vegetarian pulav was a perfect addition.

The Recipe Sack – Vegetable Pulav was super easy and very flavourful

Coconut Sambal, Cauliflower Fritters, Vegetable Pulav & Papadums

With the addition of the rice, papadums and cauliflower fritters (recipe link above) to the meal we enjoyed it and felt very content after such a feast. The cauliflower fritters took ages to cook as they were fried with a flour, egg batter (I do  not eat fried foods often at all!) – it really needed extra spice like chilli and some warmer flavours like cumin, coriander, ginger and garlic to add a depth of flavour. This was a whole head of cauliflower so it looks like it is Indian food for dinner again tonight. Add some tomato base flavour and chickpeas to the cauliflower and some Lemon Rice, perfect!

52 week project – sri lankan cook book – Yellow Rice (vegetarian style)

| poppypeach
A project I have been wanting to work on for ages has been to collect my mums Sri Lankan recipes and then make a book of them. So now I have a Sri Lankan cookbook and her recipes it is time to get myself into gear with making it happen, I have decided to make it into a 52 week project as that is somewhat doable with my schedule with the kids, cats and volunteer work. So here is the book and recipes I have so far and each week I will have to gather supplies and make something Sri Lankan… Here goes!

The Ceylon Cookery book – published in December 1968 

My mums written recipes
My husband love Sri Lankan food too and he was so excited he decided to make a Love Cake for New Years Eve. For our wedding we had love cake as our wedding cake, it is not too fancy though it is incredibly aromatic and delicious. He did an excellent job of making it the first time with unknown ingredients and since trying it out on our friends has received a few hints on the ingredients. Here it is on our table – a bit out of focus it sits in front of the green cheese platter. 
Sri Lankan love cake – which everyone enjoyed

This week I am doing something easy (I hope!)

Yellow Rice – here is the recipe straight from my mums notes.

Cook in a Rice Cooker
Wash 5 cups of Basmati Rice (a couple of times taking away the starch) then add 6 cups water 
3 chicken stock cubes (I will be using vegetarian stock)
Cardamon pods (6 or 8) 
A sprig of Curry Leaves
Powdered Turmeric
& stir well with a fork. 
Then lastly add on top 
1 finely chopped onion
6 or 8 cloves
2 or 3 pats of Ghee on top and place in Rice cooker and turn on and cook till it switched off to “keep warm” then with a fork take out all spices, but leave a few curry leaves and with a fork stir through rice and break any lumps so it will be easy to dish out on to a place and eat!!
Here is the Update on the Yellow Rice recipe… I took it on a more healthy approach by using brown rice.

Yellow Rice – the Vegetarian Version

Rinse 2 cups brown basmati rice
For flavour I suggest this stock – use 3 cups dehydrated porcini mushroom stock
6 crushed cardamon pods
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 finely chopped onion
2 cloves garlic

Next turn on your rice cooker and wait – it is very easy.

Brown rice turning into Yellow Rice

Due to the vegetarian version of no chicken stock cubes – use whatever flavourful vegetarian stock you have to get a deeper flavour throughout the rice. I used a small amount of stock so I will try it again with the 3 cups and see what happens. The yellow rice from my mum is oh so delicious and I am sure it has to do with that chicken stock cube and the fresh curry leaves from the tree!

This is the side I had with it and it was a great colourful plate of food – the pumpkin miso was a tasty addition to the yellow rice.

101 cookbooks Miso Sesame Winter Squash recipe or from the book Super Natural Everyday

Happy New Year…

| poppypeach
Well to all a Happy New Year – yes this post was late as the snow day happened over a week ago now but there was a lot going on between Christmas and New Years. Here are a couple of pictures taken from our snow day at Leland Snow Park up at Pinecrest. We just went up for the day which was great though my feet nearly caught frost bite! It was so uncomfortable that I had to warm up in the car so I could feel my feet again. After lunch it was playing in the snow with the kids so really it was pointless paying nearly $100 to go into the snow park. Still it was a lovely day trip – yes a 3 hour drive up and back which meant a pizza for dinner.

Snow up at Pinecrest

Yum Snowballs