2015 May 24: Flags In

It's Memorial Day weekend back in the United States, so to commemorate in a small way I created a Sri Lankan inspired traditional American meal. It's nothing compared to the backyard BBQs, camp outs, and picnics back home, but this year, for reasons that follow, I wanted to do a little something even though we are not in the States.

First, I made plain rice. We never know who is going to show up to visit, so I always make a lot of food on Sundays, and rice is quick and easy and filling.

Next, instead of potato salad or baked potatoes, I made the potatoes that we all love, the ones that I bake in the oven with onion and garlic and turmeric and which are always a hit with visitors and even with the readers of our blog who have tried them.

Instead of devilled eggs, I just made boiled eggs. There are two reasons for this. First, mayo goes bad quickly in the heat, so leaving the mayo out of a dish is a prudent thing to do. Second, I suck at peeling eggs. My friend Champika told me to add salt to the water and the eggs will peel perfectly. It works for her.... but my peeled boiled eggs continue to look like someone used power tools on them! I shouldn't be surprised - thirty years later my family still loves to tease me about the time I burned the boiled eggs. 

Finally, I made coleslaw. Steve doesn't like coleslaw - he will eat it if I make it, but he doesn't like it. But me? I love coleslaw. I think it runs in the family. I remember when my brother was younger - he may have been in Grade 3 - and he would ask mom to make coleslaw every night. He could not get enough.

I put a Sri Lankan twist on today's version, however. Here is the recipe:

Put the following into a large bowl:

• 1/2 a shredded purple cabbage
• 1/2 a shredded green cabbage
• 1 very thinly sliced purple onion
• 2 very large grated carrots

In another bowl, mix together:

• 2/3 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup of your favourite white, cider, or white wine vinegar (I used coconut vinegar)
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of curry powder

Taste and add more salt or curry powder if needed - it will vary depending on the type of vinegar.
Pour over vegetables and mix well.

A friend from church and her twelve year old son came to visit after church, so we shared our simple meal with them. They both loved the coleslaw, and I have to admit that it was pretty good. And hey, if a twelve year old boy likes it, it can't be half bad!

But I digress....

The summer between Grade 11 and Grade 12 I was blessed to have won a speech contest. It was sponsored by the International Order of Oddfellows and Rebekahs, and the grand prize was a bus tour with two hundred seventy other youth from across North America of Ottawa and thirteen states, and four days at the United Nations. The program still exists, and I would highly recommend it. You can learn about the Pilgrimage for Youth by clicking here.

One of the places that we visited was Arlington National Cemetery. I remember walking though the acres and acres of clean white crosses and being overwhelmed by the sense of loss and sacrifice that was represented there. It was truly one of the most memorable experiences of the trip for me. Little did I know about my own connection to this place.

Courtesy http://www.redrosestudio.com/Arlin%20Natl%20Cem.html

On this Memorial Day weekend, I would like to pay tribute to a family member that I learned about recently from my father and his cousin Marjorie Hodgson, who lives in Vermont. In addition to being an avid genealogist, Marjorie continues to paint even though she is now, for all intents and purposes, blind. Normally I reserve such sentiments as those that follow for Canada's Remembrance Day, as can be read about here, but it is fitting that I tell this person's story today.

Sarah Maude Pittman was born December 21, 1896, in Hickman's Harbour, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, to John and Mary "Polly" (nee Blundell) Pittman. She was the third of seven children, and was my father's mother's sister...my great aunt. Maude, as she was known, served in World War I, and somehow made it to the United States where she married Albert Blundon. She and Albert made their home in Somerville, Massachusetts. In August 1927, at age 30, she died while giving birth to their first child, and the babe died just two months later. She was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

When I saw photos of American soldiers planting flags on each of the four hundred thousand graves in Arlington National Cemetery this past week in their annual Flags In day, I could not help but think that I am so grateful that someone has been remembering this lost member of our family every year. With her emigration to another country, her dying so young, her husband now long gone, her only child passing so soon after her own death, there is no family nearby to lovingly tend her resting place, to remember her as they pass by, or even to simply clear her grave every now and then as those of us who regularly visit cemeteries do just because a grave needs some attention or because the surname is familiar. For eighty eight years her grave has been tended with care and her service during WWI commemorated by groundskeepers and soldiers and perhaps a passing tourist or family members of others buried nearby.

Courtesy http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/flags-arlington-prepares-memorial-day-n363051

Whether one agrees with war or not, whether one supports war or not, it is important to remember that some of us, our brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, cousins and friends, are willing to put their lives on the line for us and for their country. Please honour them, and my great aunt Maude, by taking a moment to watch this touching short video.

2015 May 19: Coconuts and Coconut Milk

Coconuts and coconut milk are staples of Sri Lankan life. Both are used daily in cooking, sambols, raw and even as a seasoning. While it is high in saturated fat, coconut meat and milk has no cholesterol. It is a good source of sodium, potassium and magnesium, three minerals that must be replenished often in this land where perspiration leaches minerals from the body at an alarming rate. It also provides iron, B12, B6 and dietary fibre.

To open a coconut, you just need a thick sharp edge to whack against the middle of the drupe. Any edge will do - just be sure that it is an edge that you don't mind having broken, as coconuts can be very hard! Most people use the back of a thick knife, but even a concrete block or a step will do in a pinch.

One of the rewards of opening your own coconut is that you get to drink the coconut water straight from the shell. You can't get much fresher than this!

To get the meat out, you should use a scraper. There are two basic kinds - one that looks like a citrus juicer that has a crank that you turn, and one that looks like a small bench that you sit on, like this one:

First you scrape along the edges to smooth them out. Then you scrape the middle, turning the coconut slightly after every few scrapes. You know you are done when no meat is left inside the coconut. (Don't worry if there is a little brown from the inside as well.)

At our Sri Lankan New Year celebration, these were our expert coconut scrapers. 

My friend Champika showed me how it is done. If you are good at it, it should take you about two minutes per half coconut, or four minutes total.

Here I am scraping coconut for the first time. 

Needless to say, it took me a lot longer than two minutes!

If you just want coconut meat for recipes or to eat plain, you are finished now. But if you are looking for coconut milk, keep reading....

Coconut milk has got to be one of the easiest things to make. Ever. I am completely serious! All you do is...wash your grated coconut.

Yes, you read that correctly. You wash it.

Take your freshly grated coconut and place it in a bowl. Add a cup of fairly warm water. Mix it around a little. Then squeeze all the water out of it and place it into a second bowl. You can use a cheesecloth if you like, but using your hands also works. This is called thick coconut milk. It is used for desserts and sauces, including curries. It is rich and creamy.

Pour another cup of water over your coconut, and again squeeze out the liquid, reserving the coconut in a third bowl. This is called thin coconut milk. It is used for general cooking and in soups.

Repeat the process one more time. You will end up with a slightly coconut scented or flavoured water. Use this to cook starchy vegetables such as potatoes, yams or manioc.

If you have a food processor or blender you can wash your coconut one more time by blending and then draining the liquid. This liquid can be used the same as the third wash, or use it to thin dishes where the sauce has become too thick.

The meat is then discarded.

If you are going to drink the coconut milk, you should mix the first three washes together.

Of course, canned coconut milk is always an option when cooking. It is usually a mix of the first two washes.

Fried Dough Odyssey

Growing up, my brother and I loved when mom made homemade bread. If we were lucky, she would save us a little bit of the dough so we could flatten it out between our hands, then fry it in some butter in a pan on the stove. Maybe add a little rhubarb jam or molasses afterwards. Toutons, we called them. So yummy!

Courtesy https://billandpaulinesexcellentadventures.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/dining-dangerously-corner-brook-carnival-cuisine/

Sometimes when we went camping as a family, or when we went camping with the Girl Guides or the Boy Scouts, we would wrap the dough around sticks and roast it over the fire. Smoky mouthwatering goodness, straight from the hot coals to our eager maws.

Courtesy https://erinsdckitchen.wordpress.com/2012/07/23/dough-boys-or-the-dessert-to-end-all-desserts/

These days, mom doesn't make bread in the old bread bowl, but she and dad do use a breadmaker. No stovetop toutons, though. But she does make an incredible onion pudding:

Norma's Onion Pudding
1 cup flour
2 tbsp butter
1/3 cup milk
2 tbsp baking powder
1 medium onion grated
salt
a bit of sugar

Mix flour butter, baking powder, salt and sugar together. Add onion and milk to make a soft dough. Grease pan, cover and boil over water or bake in oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Try centre to check that it is done.

Courtesy http://stuffedatthegills.blogspot.com/2014/12/steamed-onion-pudding.html
This one is steamed, but we like it baked better.

In 1998 my daughter Amber and I moved to Pond Inlet, Nunavut. There we fell in love with bannock. We eagerly waited for special occasions at the school, like Inuit Games Day, where one of the stations that the children rotated through was the refreshment tent. It served hot deep fried bannock, fresh out of the cooking oil. Amber and the other children would gobble it down as fast as it could be made. There was nothing quite like fresh bannock cooked outside and eaten outside.

Courtesy http://ronwassink.blogspot.com/2010/10/deep-fried-bannock.html

I lost my recipe years ago in an unfortunate moving incident. I had a bag that was filled with all my old recipes, some of them irreplaceable as the people who had shared them with me had passed on. My then-husband, thinking he was being helpful, saw the bag sitting in the kitchen and threw it in the dumpster near our townhouse. Before I realized the bag was missing, the dumpster had been emptied. Bye bye recipes.

I recently sent out a plea to my friends in Pond, hoping to replace my bannock recipes.

"For frying, 2 cups of flour, 1tsp baking powder. And salt if you want and 1 cup water mix it up," said Donna Pitseolak-Kublu, who got the recipe from Morty Pitseolak, who was the post-mistress in Pond when we lived there. Get some cooking oil good and hot and drop in pieces of the dough and fry until done. I asked Donna, "And what about the one that you bake? The recipe's almost the same, I think, but maybe has a little sugar in it? and oil?" This is the way that Rebecca Qitsualik, the elder who taught me Inuktitut, made hers. She was an unusual woman, the only Inuit elder at the time who was trilingual in Inuktitut, Innuinaqtung, and English. (Her favourite food was Philadelphia cream cheese, because it tasted just like the baby seal stomach that her parents used to feed her as a child. Think about that the next time you eat a bagel!) Donna replied, "I don't put sugar in mine. I find it too sweet. I remember my late mother Seanna used to use flour, baking powder , salt and little bit of oil and water and she wouldn't use any measuring cup." 

Courtesy of http://shay.la/poached-eggs-smoked-pork-bannock-cage-free/

Incidentally, Donna's mother made my kamiks - traditional boots made from caribou leg skin with the fur attached and an inlaid chevron design of alternating black and white seal fur. They were stunningly beautiful. She also made matching kamiks for the guy I was with at the time, but his had the fur reversed - the main part of the boot was made from sealskin and the design from caribou. She explained that these were wedding kamiks - the man's used a sea animal and a little bit of land animal, while the woman's used a land animal and a little bit of sea animal. This way, the family would always be provided for, because the man would not insult the sea creatures while out on the ice, and the woman would not insult the sea creatures back home on the land.

But, back to the fried dough....

Naomi Tigullaraq, my friend and former teaching colleague at Ulaakjuk School, told me, " I never measure mine, when I'm making one, might give you the wrong measurement. Flour, water, baking powder, lard or oil, and pinch of salt if you want to add some, and some people used milk instead of water."

And my former student Nina Kautaq said, "We just dump everything together."

This reminds of the old Newfoundland cookbook my mother has, which lists the ingredients, and that's it. No step-by-step instructions, no oven temperature, no bake time. Those were things you were expected to know already!

In 2002 I went to China. There we had salted youtiao, long strips of fried dough, with our morning breakfast congee, or rice porridge. In the late afternoon, we might sometimes have a similar dish called tanggao, but shorter and dipped into sugar. Either way, they were yummy. 

"Chinese fried bread". Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chinese_fried_bread.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Chinese_fried_bread.jpg

In 2007, I moved to a Dene community in the Northwest Territories. Again, bannock was heavy on the menu at any cultural or school event. Sometimes they deep-fried it, but just as often they pan-fried it, like Newfoundland toutons.

3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp baking powder
1/3 cup oil
1 1/2 cups water

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Mix the wet ingredients together in a measuring cup. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and mix together until it forms a ball. Knead on a floured surface until it is no longer sticky, adding a little more flour if necessary. Divide into two or three pieces, depending on the size of your frying pan. Flatten each piece to about 1 inch thickness. Fry in a greased pan on medium heat for about fifteen minutes each side. Serve with jam. 

Courtesy https://mrsmelva.wordpress.com/2010/05/15/our-trip-to-the-rapids/

In 2012 I moved to a Cree community in Manitoba. The Cree people love their bannock! And for good reason - fried or baked, smeared with butter and jam that drips down your face...it doesn't get better than this! 

Elanor and a boy in her grade three class enjoying some fresh bannock.

The remains of the bannock station at cultural days after a class had passed through.

We were invited for supper at a the home of a friend from church a couple of Sundays ago. Well, not exactly their home. Her mother-in-law's home, because it was close to where we lived and they didn't want us to get lost going to their own home, which is apparently in some little village some distance from here.

While Steve has been in typical Sri Lankan homes before, it was my first time. We walked down the long lane through the small Tamil neighbourhood near the beach in Negombo. The front yard was immaculately swept - a chore performed every morning by the woman of the house - and the front door was surrounded by a large beautiful jasmine bush. We entered the small home and sat chatting with our friend for a while. As we chatted, she formed the dough that her mother-in-law had made into flat little rounds, and began frying them. They were delicious.

Then her mother-in-law came home, removed those from the table, and replaced them with ones that she herself had made! Only the best for guests - and while our friend's dough was great, her mother-in-law's was incredible. (It reminded me of my own bread-making experiences with my daughter, Amber. We could follow the exact same recipe, but her bread always tasted better than mine.)

So, now I have eaten the lightest, thinnest fried dough I have ever had. Crispy on the outside, with pockets of warm soft dough inside in some places, bubbles of air in others.


I had four.

Maybe five.

Or six.

Plus the two I had already eaten that were made by our friend.

Now I have to get that recipe!

2015 March 21: Buffalo Curds and Walrus Meat

I've eaten a lot things I never thought I would eat.

In Pond Inlet I ate raw seal, raw frozen char, caribou jerky, narwhal, beluga, polar bear and aged walrus. To make aged walrus, catch your walrus at the floe edge in April. Butcher it and cut it into football sized pieces. Wrap the pieces of meat in the skin and tie it shut with the intestines after squeezing out all the offal. Bury the whole thing under a big pile of rocks so that animals can't get to it. Go back to get it in October. Eat frozen.

I didn't actually want to eat aged walrus, but when you are at a community feast and one of the oldest elders in the community offers you some, it would be very rude to turn it down. Besides, he looked like he was thoroughly enjoying himself, slicing off bite sized pieces as fast as he could and just wolfing them down, smiling and nodding his head and smacking his lips. How bad could it be, right? So, when he looked at me, sliced some off the hunk in front of him, and held it out to me on the tip of his knife, and said in halting English, "You want?", I couldn't say no. After watching me swallow it practically whole, the elder held his side as he laughed so hard that tears flowed freely down his face. With a smile, he leaned towards me and said, "You want more?" "No thanks," I replied, which sent him into further gales of laughter, and which led to him telling everyone that I had tried it, and which then led to everyone else offering me little bits of everything else that was being eaten. Hence, the seal (looks like beef, tastes like fish), char (dip it into soy sauce and it ain't half bad), caribou jerky (pretty good actually), and polar bear (looks like pork, but don't eat the liver). I passed on the seal eyeball and caribou fly larvae, though.

Amber didn't care much for some of the food in Pond, but one thing she loved was char. I could not feed that girl enough of this fish that is similar to salmon in colour and taste. I took her two best friends - Heather and Amina - and her to a feast one evening, and I could not cut up the char fast enough for the three of them! Two other ladies nearby and a man next to me starting tossing the three girls char as well. They could not get enough! Word soon got around just how much she loved char, and rarely more than a few days went by without someone knocking on my door with fresh frozen char for Amber.

Another evening, my parents had come to visit from Newfoundland. When Heather and Amber learned that we were having char for supper, they ran around the house yelling, "Yay! We're having char!" in English and Inuktitut. With supper ready, I called the girls down from the bedrooms, and they eagerly ran to the table, then stopped dead in their tracks. "What's that?" they asked, as they surveyed the gorgeously baked char with lemon and onions. "It's char," I replied. And both girls ran sobbing back to the bedroom because "You ruined it! You cooked it!"

And when Amber and I moved to Ontario, there was a seafood restaurant that she loved to visit because they served char. The first time we went there, they asked how she would like it cooked. "Raw and frozen," she replied. You have never seen such a strange face made by a waiter. "Is she serious?" he asked me in disbelief. "Oh, yes," I said, "She is quite serious." Every worker in the restaurant - and not a few patrons - hovered nearby to watch her eat her raw frozen fish with absolute gusto.

When I went to China with a group of teachers as part of a course at Brock University, we ate as a group. We sat around a large round table, and the hotel restaurant just brought us about twenty or more different dishes every day. Most people tried to figure out just what each dish was before eating it, but after the first few meals, I quickly learned that you don't ask, you just eat. Chicken stomach tastes like oyster mushrooms, but chewier. Duck tongues were pretty good except you have to be careful of the bone. Chicken feet are rather rubbery, but it's the way that you eat them that can be a little off-putting: hold the claw between thumb and first finger, put the foot in your mouth, and use your teeth to strip the bone as you pull it out. I almost ate scorpions, but was put off of the idea by the girl next to me saying, "It's pretty good except the legs are stuck in my teeth."

One day I found a real treat on the table - deep-fried caplin! I took the whole dish and finished them all myself. It was such a treat to get something directly from home.

In St. Pierre I had horse steak. Enough said.

Now that I am vegetarian, I eat lots of things that I never ate before, but none so exotic as my previous meat-filled adventures. Here in Sri Lanka I am trying all sorts of fruit and vegetables that are new to me.

And buffalo curds.

When Elanor and I went on a church ladies trip a few weeks ago, one of the men who came along asked me if I had tried buffalo curds yet. I had not. For more than five minutes he extolled the virtues of buffalo curds and honey, telling me how wonderful it is and how healthy it is.

When I say buffalo I mean water buffalo.

To make buffalo curd, first milk your water buffalo. Then, bring the milk to a boil and simmer for ten minutes. Remove from heat, cover and let cool. When cool, add a little plain pure yogurt, yogurt starter, or a little leftover from a previous batch. Put into clay pots, cover and let sit for ten hours. Eat soon, or refrigerate. To eat, add a little honey or brown sugar or jaggery or palm syrup or molasses.

Buffalo curd is sold in supermarkets and road side stands throughout Sri Lanka. When buying it, buy it early in the day if it is not refrigerated, and make sure it is white, not yellow. Yellow is old; white is fresh. But, if it is not in a clay pot, it is not considered real buffalo curd! 

Courtesy http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/09/what-is-sri-lankan-food-like-cuisine-guide-international-travel-curry-string-hoppers-coconut-sambal.html

You can make a reasonable facsimile by using pure unflavoured Greek yogurt, instead. Don't use the North Americanized versions of yogurt, though - most of them have been tainted with gelatin, sugars, flavours and colours. Astro makes a Balkan style yogurt that would also work. It's even better if you drain off any liquid from the top so that the yogurt is a little thicker - buffalo milk has twice the fat content of cow milk. Or, if you are really ambitious, you could substitute sheep milk and make it yourself from scratch!

Like I said, I have eaten many things I never thought I would eat. Homemade water buffalo curds is one of those things that never even crossed my mind!

But, boy, it sure was yummy!

2015 March 20: It's Finally That Time of Year!

It's finally that time of year! No, not springtime, although I am sure that our family and friends back in North America are fervently wishing and praying for signs of spring after the mountains of snowfall that they have received.

It's jackfruit season.

Steve is in heaven. He loves jackfruit, although it is an acquired taste. The first time he tried it many years ago he thought it tasted strange. But now he is a true jackfruit connoisseur, and has been eagerly anticipating the beginning of jackfruit season. Every time we pass a jackfruit tree he comments on how the the fruit is coming along.

Jackfruit season is so anticipated here in Sri Lanka that when I asked our tuktuk driver - a different one than we usually use, as 'ours' was away yesterday - to take us to get some samosas for supper, he said, "No! No samosa! You need jackfruit!" Then he drove us to the fruit market in central Negombo, and personally chose the jackfruit he thought was at the perfect stage of ripeness. After looking through them, feeling them, and smelling them, he chose three. "This one you must eat today. This one you must eat tomorrow. This one, just eat later."

Okay!

So, we returned home with our fresh jackfruit, as well as green jackfruit and chopped jackfruit for cooking. Unfortunately, in all the commotion, I ended up with three bags of the goodness, rather than the two that I paid for. All night I dreamed that I was on a Wanted Poster at the post office, for theft of jackfruit! Today our regular driver took me back to the vegetable stand where I bought them, and somehow between four market sellers, my driver, myself and lots of pantomime, I was able to make it know to the owner that I owed him money! 30 rupees (22 cents) is not a lot to pay for peace of mind and sweet dreams.

Jackfruit is a strange fruit. It grows directly from the trunk of the tree instead of from the branches because the fruit is so heavy - one fruit can weigh up to 80 pounds!

By Shahnoor Habib Munmun (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Huge soft yellow kernels with a texture reminiscent of mango slices or peaches that are just a little too soft cover edible seeds the size of macadamia nuts.

"Jackfruit Flesh" by Mullookkaaran - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jackfruit_Flesh.jpg#/media/File:Jackfruit_Flesh.jpg

Delicious raw, it is also good cooked into savoury dishes. Here are some recipes that look like the ones I like in different restaurants we have eaten, but I confess to completely ripping them off...er...borrowing the recipes...from other sites!


Green Jackfruit Curry - eat this as a cold side dish with rice
Recipe and photo courtesy http://www.srilankanrecipes.info/recipes/Sambols/GreenJackFruit.aspx

Ingredients
1 Green jackfruit (2 cans of green jack fruit)
Turmeric powder
Salt to taste
(a)Ingredients
2 tspn Mustard powder
1 tspn black powder
chopped 1 clove garlic
1 tbsn curry powder
shredded coconut(1/2 cup)
(b)Ingredients
1 tspn mustard seeds
Sliced onion
Curry leaves
Rampe(pandan leaves)
2 or 3 dried whole red chillies

Peel the outer skin of the Green jackfruit and chop it into very small pieces.Now add salt and turmeric powder and a little bit of water and cook for awhile.Chop all the (a)Ingredients together with shredded coconut and add a little salt and add to the boiled green jack fruit mix.When the coconut mix is well heated take it out of the stove.

Heat a pan with a little cooking oil and temper the (b)ingredients and add it to the cooked dish and mix well.


Green Jackfruit Curry - if it looks like tuna, tastes like tuna, but is vegetarian...it's jack fruit.
Recipe and photo courtesy http://www.infolanka.com/recipes/mess3/148.html

Ingredients

3 cans of Young Green Jackfruit
1 onion, chopped
1-2 green chillies
2 tsp garlic, chopped
2 tsp ginger, chopped
1 sprig of curry leaves (optional)
1-2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
2-3 tsp curry powder
3-4 cardamoms
3-4 cloves
1 inch piece of cinnamon
2-3 pieces of goraka
1 can of coconut milk
salt to taste

Fry the onions, green chillies, ginger, garlic and curry leaves in about 1 tbsp of oil, till golden brown. Next add all the spices, fry for a minute for so till fragrant.
Now add the rest of ingredients, except coconut milk, stir to coat. Add salt.
* Transfer the mixture to a slow cooker, add coconut milk. Stir and cook on low heat for at least 6 hours. The curry would turn a dark brown color when done. (I usually let it cook over night)
Serve hot.
* You can cook this also in a pressure cooker. Cook for about 20-25 minutes at steady pressure (Since cooking times, vary depending on the type of cooker you have, use your judgment here)
** If you want to cook on the stove, cook under low heat in a heavy bottom pan.

Deep-Fried Jackfruit Seeds
Recipe adapted from and photo courtesy http://www.inside.lk/food/recipe/deep-fried-jackfruit-seeds/

Ingredients

1 cup jackfruit seeds

oil for deep-frying plus oil for frying

1 sliced onion

1 tsp red chili flakes

1/4 cup fresh or dried unsweetened coconut flakes

salt and pepper to taste

Boil the jackfruit seeds until the shells soften. Let cool. Cut in half and remove shell. Heat the oil and deep fry the seeds until golden brown. Drain. Deep fry the onion slices until golden brown. Drain. Roast the coconut in a dry pan for a few minutes. Put everything into one bowl and mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste.

And of course, our favourite, just plain jack fruit, fresh from the tree! (You can buy these canned in the International section of grocery stores, and they are almost as good as fresh.) Monkeys love the fruit as well. When we were in Kandi last week, Steve and Elanor watched a troupe of about thirty toque macaques happily sharing some with each other. Three were breaking apart the fruit and then passing it to the others.

All this talk of jackfruit is making my mouth water. I think it's time to go have some right now!

2015 March 14: Sri Lankan Style Potatoes

We love potatoes. Boiled, fried, roasted, stuffed, baked, chipped, deep-fried, mashed, saladed.... Okay, the last one is not a real word - but it should be! We love 'em all. And we have added a new version of potatoes to our long list of favourites - Sri Lankan style.

I haven't found a recipe that is remotely like any of the versions we have been served here, which includes a creamy sauce with curry or turmeric, mustard seeds, red chili flakes and a few other assorted odds and ends. But, I came up with this Sri Lankan inspired version of roasted potatoes that was downright heavenly!

Steve says that I can now add Sri Lankan to my list of world cuisines that I have mastered. I wouldn't go that far - yet - but I do love the blends of spices that are used here.

Pamela's Sri Lankan Style Potatoes

6 very large new potatoes, washed and cut into 8 pieces
4 medium purple onions, peeled and quartered
3 heads of garlic - yes, heads, not cloves!
salt
red chili flakes
1/2 tsp turmeric
oil

Put everything into a bowl and toss until the vegetables are coated with oil and the spices are spread evenly throughout the mixture. Put everything onto a baking sheet. Bake at 375. Bake about 20 minutes, then mix so that the vegetables do not burn. Continue baking until potatoes are soft and garlic has started to caramelize.

Here is a picture - everyone was gobbling them so fast that this is only half of what I made. I'm lucky I even got this shot!

2015 March 8 and 14: Dambala

Last Sunday, the three of us went to our favourite Sunday Sri Lankan restaurant with our friend Mario. He first introduced us to the restaurant on our first Sunday at church here. He eats there most Sundays, and when Steve asked if the food was good there, his reply was "It's good enough" with a modest tilt of his head.

Boy, was he right! And also wrong.... This little place serves some of the best Sri Lankan food we have eaten anywhere in the past month. Usually we show up and the three ladies who own the place just start bringing us food. Everything is always delicious, and we always leave feeling satisfied with a wonderful meal and for a very modest price. Last time, for example, all-you-can-eat for four people was 705 rupees ($5.38).

One of the dishes that we were served last Sunday was called dambala. Dambala are an absolutely wonderful kind of green bean. It looks like it has four frilly wings, hence the English name 'winged bean'. I first encountered this strange looking vegetable in the grocery store, but having no idea what it was called, did not buy any. Now that I knew what they were, I bought some, and tonight we had homemade winged beans for supper. They tasted just like at the restaurant, just not as spicy.

You can probably use green beans in this recipe, but I would use a French cut bean rather than short cuts - that way, you will get some of the crispy texture that occurs because of the thin wings on the cut winged beans.

Dambala

8 winged beans chopped into 1/2 inch pieces - makes about 4 cups
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
6 curry leaves if you have them
1/2 tsp of red chili flakes - use up to 1 1/2 tsps if you like it spicy!
salt to taste
2 tbsps cooking oil
a little water

Cook the onion and garlic in the oil until translucent. Add the chopped winged beans and curry leaves, stir, cover, and let cook. If the onion or garlic start to get too cooked, add a little water and replace the lid. Stir occasionally. When the beans are almost cooked, add the red chili flakes. Do not replace the lid. Stir until water is evaporated, then add salt to taste and remove from heat. You want the very edges of the beans to be slightly crispy, and the thicker parts to be al dente.

2015 March 8: Pol Sambol (Coconut Relish)

A very popular garnish served in Sri Lanka is Pol Sambol. It is a traditional Sri Lankan dish that makes use of the easily obtainable coconut that grows in abundance all over the island and the little purple onions that are a beloved favourite food of the people here. We love it. And while the ingredients remain the same, the variations are as many as there are people that make it!

Here is a recipe that I like:

1/2 cup finally chopped purple onion
1 finely chopped clove of garlic
1 tsp dried red chili flakes (2 tsp if you like it hot!)
5 curry leaves, chopped, or crumbled if using dried
3 tsp soy sauce (traditionally, use 3 tsp Maldive fish flakes)
1 tsp ground black pepper (I leave it out - I am not a black pepper fan)
1 cup fresh or dried unsweetened coconut flakes (if using dried coconut, add a little warm water and let sit until absorbed)
juice of 1/2 lime
salt to taste

Put everything into a blender, mortar, or bowl and mix or mash until the coconut turns orange.

Serve with rice, hoppers (a type of savoury pancake), or string hoppers (a type of noodle pancake), or basically anything!

2015 March 8: Green Banana Curry

I bought some bananas that everyone in the store told me were very good to eat, and were ready to eat. I didn't think they were ready, still being very green, but always up for a culinary adventure (as long as it is vegetarian), I bought them.

They were not ripe.

They were not "ready to eat".

They were, however, good to make Green Banana Curry!

Here is the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

• 3 green bananas or 6 small green bananas
• 1 tsp raw curry powder
• 1 piece cinnamon
• 1 tbsp onion, chopped
• 1 tsp red chili flakes
• Curry leaves
• 1 cup coconut milk
• Pinch of salt, plus salt to taste
• Water

Peel and cut the green banana into bite size pieces. Put bananas into a large pot. Add all other ingredients except coconut milk and water. Add enough water to cover the bananas. Cook on low heat, covered, stirring occasionally, until bananas are soft. Add more water if necessary during cooking. When the bananas are cooked, uncover, add coconut milk and cook for 2 more minutes. Add salt to taste.

2015 March 4: Torment. Or...the Absolutely Wretched Supper

Can we say melodramatic???

Elanor is currently gulping down 1/2 cup of water or more with every bite of her supper while frantically waving her hand in front of her mouth.

"Why are you doing that?," I asked.

"It's so spicy!," was the reply.

"Elanor, there's nothing spicy in the food."

"Huh?"

"There. is. nothing. spicy. in. the. food."

"Well, it's spicy to me!"

"These are the same beets with coconut milk that you've been eating all week, and the same eggplants you've been eating all week, except I added some bbq sauce to them."

"Well the bbq sauce is spicy!"

"No. You watched me make it - ketchup, brown sugar, a splash of vinegar. Nothing spicy."

"Well it's Sri Lankan food and Sri Lankan food is spicy."

"Yes, but this Sri Lankan food was made by a Canadian. It's not spicy."

She puts one little drop of coconut sauce on her tongue and gulps her water again.

Rolling my eyes, I go into the bedroom where the AC is running, having finished my own absolutely delicious supper already.

Now she is making gagging noises by the sink...... When does hubby get back from his conference in India? sigh

The door opens. In peeks the girl. "Yes, Mama?"

"Yes, what?"

"Did you call me?"

"Nope. Did you finish your beets?"

"No," with a loud sigh. "Seriously, they're making me wheezy. Seriously."

Wheezy? I don't think that's the word she is looking for, but I let it slide.

She goes into the bathroom, makes all sorts of moaning noises, and when I don't respond, she goes out the other bathroom door and back to her absolutely wretched supper.

You would think I was trying to poison her.

She didn't have any complaints about lunch. We decided to go for a walk through the nearby alley down to Beach Road, along there until we found somewhere to get some lunch, then back through the alleys and side roads at the other end of the street until we got back home again.

Her lunch was one banana pancake and a chocolate milkshake. The milkshake was gone in 18 seconds. The banana pancake turned out to be basically Bananas Foster, but with the banana wrapped up in a crepe. Or I should say crepes. "One banana pancake" turned out to be two super-sized crepes, two whole bananas, and two huge scoops of ice cream!

Chatting with Steve via Skype. With a wink he tells me to stop tormenting the poor girl. Tormenting??? I ADDED SUGAR to her food and she is acting like I gave her Thai peppers to suck on!

She comes into the bedroom and sits on the floor, plate in hand. The beets have been choked down. The eggplant has disappeared, presumably in her stomach and not mashed into the kitchen drain. All that's left is onions in bbq sauce, which she appears to be mashing before dropping them into her mouth with the fork, like a baby bird being fed by an automated crane.

More water.

More sighs.

I ask if she would like to hear today's blog.

"Sure!"

I read it to her.

"Anything you would like to say?," I ask.

"I said the food was sour."

"That, too," I reply. "Are you finished your food?"

"I only have onions left."

"Onions are food."

More sighs. "I guess that means I'll have to drink an entire bottle of water then!"

"I guess so."

"Humpfh."

Supper started at 5:40. It's now 7:16. She's still not done.

Me? I thought it tasted great.