vegetable pulav

52 week project – Sri Lankan Cookbook – recipes I did not have time to post

| poppypeach
The last few weeks have been a bit of a blur with the last month of school and lots of random pot lucks announced at the last minute and little projects to be helping the school with. So due to the craziness I had no time to post recipes, I tried a couple but time has been minimal and chaotic!

Here is some Sri Lankan / Indian recipes and foods I have tried…

One of my first Vegetarian recipe books by Kurma Dasa – well loved!

The book and the salad

North Indian Potato Salad sprinkled with roasted pistachios

Lucky for me my daughter’s teacher had a 50th birthday party and celebrated in style with this amazing feast & I got to score some leftovers – in the picture are string hoppers, egg curry, coconut sambol & some ball cutlets (they had meat in them so my husband enjoyed them!)


A lovely treat of a Sri Lankan feast for dinner
The other meal I created was with my friends Recipe Sack of a Vegetable Pulav with fava beans from our garden and whatever vegetables I had on had – it was just delicious and makes a super easy meal for your first night out camping. We went to Sunset State Park for our second camp trip of the year and the beach was a special place to recharge your soul.
Vegetable Pulav with Fava Beans and Coriander fresh from the garden
So my 52 week project has somewhat gone awry with the busy, crazy life that overtakes my projects – I think what I will have to do is post the recipes when I can as some of the Sri Lankan recipes can be so time consuming and too fried that I cannot create the energy to make them. I love fresh lightly stir fried food and salads so I plan to make Sri Lankan with a twist add the spices, ingredients to something I can create and see how that goes! The Sri Lankan food I grew up with was always a treat and it is probably best kept that way 🙂

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!