[UrbanCropCircle] Sri Lankan Cooking Lesson Notes

[rhonda at sustainableballard.org]

Hello all,

Apparently at the gathering Carol Ann said she would pass along notes she
took at the Sri Lankan cooking lesson in which greens were featured.  As
follows.....

Chitra’s Cooking Lessons  -  June 22, 2009

(Mayuri Grocery Store in Redmond is best and an inexpensive source of
Indian foods)

Dessert First


   1. Mango Ice Cream

Make a mixture of vanilla ice cream and overripe mangoes that would be
tossed (by the Mayuri grocery store in Redmond).  Scrape all good mango
pulp into a blender plus softened vanilla ice cream. Blend, and re-freeze
for later dessert use.

   2. Mung Bean preparation
         1. Wash in a collander and soak from two to four days, changing
water daily or more.  Boil and eat with dehydrated coconut and
salt on the first day that they are ready.
         2. Can add tempay which is a heated mixture of black mustard
seed, oil, shallots thinly chopped, garlic mashed and chopped,
salt, curry leaves (or bay) i.e. the sprouts are flavored
differently the second day for keeping interest.  Heat thoroughly
all these ingredients.  Lastly add the sprouts.
   3. Triangle Sandwich

Make a raised dough with white flour.  (I made it with whole wheat pastry
flour using a very moist dough that is similar to naan dough using soy
milk, very small amount of sugar to give the yeast incentive, salt and
active yeast.  Knead only in the beginning after making moist with warm
soy milk.  Raise once in slightly warm oven.  Shape into big triangles and
add filling to the center.  Pull in the points to make a pocket.)  The
stuffing needs to be precooked and mixed.  e.g
.

         1. Potato/green vegetable mixture with sambola
         2. Carrot white curry with chicken or beans
         3.  Red Curry of any green vegetable and meat or fish

           Bake and freeze if not immediately using
but wrapped tight so
they do not dry

           out.  Reheat later.  Can brush outside with eggwhite.  (And can
mark with a food

           dye with code to provide hint of what kind it is.)

   4. Fishballs

Make a mixture of cooked and either ground or mashed fish plus spices. 
Shape into balls with a circumference that is a little less than a
quarter.  First coat in flour, then dip in egg white, roll in fine bread
crumbs and deep fry. (I think this could be done by flattening the balls
and sautéing in small amount of oil instead 
 as with crab cakes.)

   5. White Curry (i.e. no red chili) of carrots

Prepare sliced carrots with onion sliced, hot green pepper (Serrano?),
fenugreek dry roasted, cinnamon, saffron, salt.  For more flavor add
Maldive fish flakes, one curry leaf and two panda leaves heated in oil. 
Boil well and then, after all is cooked add coconut milk and lime to
taste. (The coconut milk brand is Chaokah and comes in small 6 pack cans
from a store in China town named__?__ or elsewhere.)  Panda leaves can be
found at Uwajimaya – “pandamum”, long green blades like large grass that
can be cut in one inch pieces, and can be frozen.)

(To release lime juice roll the lime while  pushing with heel of the hand
before cutting.  Never slice through the center but instead off-center and
along the long axis.)

   6. Carrot Top Salad  (or parsley salad)
         1. Step one:  Use a technique of picking through for good
‘leaves’.  Make a roll and then cut in half.  Put the two
side-by-side with the flat edges facing the same way.  Hold very
tight and slice extremely tiny slices like a French chiffonade
technique.  Make sure the slicing creates super, super thin
slices.  Hold the rolls tightly with the left hand and hold down
to table.  Use sharp, sharp knife.  Whenever cutting greens be
gentle and avoid bruising (sawing) greens because this creates an
“herbal” taste which is not sought in these dishes.
         2. Step two:  Fine chop shallots and hot green pepper (Serrano).
         3. Step three:  Cut lime off center, but only after rolling with
palm of hand pushing down on it to release juices before making a
cut.  Add lime juice and salt.
         4. Step four:  Add Maldive fish flakes, and dry coconut flakes
(very small)
         5. Step five:  Squeeze all ingredients but green ones in an
emulsion with your hands.
         6. Step six:  Mix with chopped green carrot tops thoroughly but
lightly so as not to bruise the greens.
   7. Mallum (mallung)

In a pan put a small amount of oil (could use coconut oil), salt, pepper,
saffron, Maldive fish flakes, coconut flakes and heat to bring flavors
into the oil.  Add greens that have been fine chopped and stir quickly for
a few minutes.  Take off heat.

   8. Canji

This is a soup and is used as a morning dish with greens in it.  Prepare
garlic cloves by mashing with broad side of a knife and chopping (not
necessary to fine chop)  Prepare chopped spinach.  Make a liquid of cooked
brown rice (Sri Lankan brown rice has a dark brown hull attached to it.) 
coconut milk, water, garlic, salt, spinach “juice”, hot black pepper. 
This can be made like a porridge in consistency with more rice added. 
Other leaves don’t need garlic but spinach does.  Heat and serve as a
breakfast soup or porridge.  Put the spinach in during the last few
minutes so it stays bright green stirring lightly to see the spinach turn
the right color green.

   9. Peppermint Condiment

Salt, shallots chopped, peppermint leaves chopped, lime juice, coconut
____, hot green pepper chopped, Maldive fish flakes.  Make into a paste
using “bullet blender”. Use cold with yellow rice dishes or as a savory
with all meat dishes.

  10. Sambola – uses no greens at all but is used to flavor many things.
         1. Ground dried shrimp sambola
         2. Coconut, dry, plus fresh tomato
         3. Beet sambola – raw beets are chopped, can put in blender with
water, then can add hot spice plus onions but not green ones,
salt, crushed red chili pepper (dry), let beet cook, coconut
dried, pepper to taste.

A sambola is a non-green, dry, fine consistency condiment or spread for
rices, meats, sandwiches, etc. it doesn’t have to be hot.  (It is like a
somewhat dry relish.)

  11. Mango Curry

Raw chopped mango, coconut milk cream, chili, saffron, home made curry
powder, salt

  12.  Homemade Curry Spice Powder

The ingredients are bought individually and frozen (after dry roasting).
Once about every six months the ingredients are mixed in a batch, ground
together and stored in a jar at room temperature for daily use. Some
ingredients are added later individually to dishes such as panda leaves or
curry leaves.

The basic powder has three main ingredients:  5 parts coriander: 3 parts
cumin: 2 parts fennel.  Chitra does not use tumeric.

Additional ingredients in lesser portions can be added to taste such as
oven roasted rice, oven roasted coconut from dried coconut; oven roasted
cardamon; oven roasted cinnamon; oven roasted fenugreek (gets bitter with
over roasting but still smells good).

  13. “Cones”

Garbanzos – Heat black mustard seed, curry leaves, and red onion cooked
until golden in oil.  To taste add lime juice, salt and fresh red chili. 
Add to folded paper cones to be eaten by hand.



Additional notes:



Jack seeds from jack fruit can be stored frozen and eaten with almost
anything, with beef and greens for example.



Add strong greens to curried meat dishes.



Each household has its own recipes and a Sri Lankan cookbook that is
representative of Sri Lankan cooking would be difficult to make.



At this cooking visit


The vegetables (green ones that could be put in dishes, single or in
combination) were – parlsey, peppermint, nasturtium and flowers, chicory,
hot mustard leaves, broccoli raab, arugula with flower, spinach, sugarsnap
peas, dinosaur kale, mung beans, shallots, onion, garlic, lime, coconut
grated and milk (cream really), (Serrano) hot green peppers. Chitra felt
that the argula had some sesame component in its odor.



Eating is done by putting food on your own dish from a large serving
plate. There are no utensils.  A kind of brown rice is added to the plate
and this is a kind that has retained bits of dark brown hull.  Then the
diner prepares the final dish herself using fingers to thoroughly mix the
ingredients by squishing them through your fingers ( quite messy) in
preferred proportions.  Eating is done by hands.  Also pretty messy.



I forgot the carrot salad ingredients and the parsley salad ingredients!