Sri Lankan Cookbook: Traditional Sri Lankan Recipes Made Easy

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The eggplant – usually the purple-skinned, long and slender variety – is cut into bite-sized wedges and deep fried, giving the eggplant a crispy texture with a soft and silky interior. Hoppers are the Sri Lankan answer to the pancake. The batter is made from a slightly fermented concoction of rice flour, coconut milk, sometimes coconut water and a hint of sugar. Walking through a market in Sri Lanka your nose will detect it long before your eyes do. Inside the shell is a dark brown paste that resembles something between tamarind pulp and fermented raisins.

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Rice and curry and lunch are synonymous in Sri Lanka. While it may seem, when you first arrive to the island, that Sri Lankans eat rice and curry three times a day, it is not so. I am guilty of thinking that myself. It is not impossible for someone to eat rice and curry for breakfast or (in rare cases) for dinner, but that’s not common. As you’d expect from an island in the Indian Ocean, seafood plays an important role in Sri Lankan cuisine. Fish ambul thiyal (sour fish curry) is one of the most beloved varieties of the many different fish curries available.Sri Lankan food includes a lot of naturally vegan options thanks to the use of coconut oil and coconut milk. Following a vegetarian or vegan diet is fairly easy on the island as long as you choose traditional Sri Lankan dishes. If you are on a gluten-free diet, it also shouldn’t be a problem. Not only is rice the most popular choice of carbs, but rice flour is actively used in baking and making sweets. Kiri toffee (milk toffee) and pol toffee (coconut toffee) are prepared for major celebrations in Sri Lanka, including Sinhala and Tamil New Year, or without any reason at all. Milk toffee is a mixture of sugar syrup with condensed milk. Sometimes chopped cashew nuts are added to enhance the flavor. Pol toffee is a variation of toffee that is made with grated coconut. Both can be found in small road side shops and supermarkets, but the best ones are homemade toffees. She is an entrepreneur in the London food scene hosting pop ups and is also the owner of a Appa or Hopper Stall called Weligama serving a variety of rice hoppers including egg hoppers, hoppers topped with palm jaggery and coconut milk. You should also keep in mind that there are dozens of curries in Sri Lankan cuisine. It’s easy to fall under impression that people are eating the same thing for lunch every day. But while you do indeed eat rice and curry, curries almost never repeat day in and day out. Pretty much any kind of meat, fish, vegetable, fruit, leaf, or nut can be cooked into a curry. Now imagine how many options you have. Before Sri Lankans started growing tea, the country was one of the biggest exporters of coffee in the world. The coffee industry was thriving in XIX century, with its peak in 1870, until the plants were affected by a fungal decease known as the coffee leaf rust which wiped out whole plantations. Coffee production dipped and tea bushes were planted instead.

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The author provides an insight into Tradtional Sri Lankan food in detail, reaching out to her own personal collection of heirloom recipes from family and friends carefully handed down multiple generations. Sambol is a term used in Sri Lanka for ingredients that are combined and eaten raw, sometimes more of a chili sauce and sometimes more of a salad, like gotu kola sambol. Shyamala Sivaraman a chef, food writer, and photographer is a Sri Lankan by birth but a citizen of the world, she has lived in the UK and has helped build a strong community scene when it comes to Sri Lankan cuisine. She has worked with multiple other authors including Emily Dobbs on “Ceylon: The Cookbook”. Her blog titled “Sugar Apple” captures her many journeys into the Island through recipes, travelougues, and photos. You might also know it as mandioca or caasava. Manioc is a root vegetable that slightly resembles potato in taste, but feels more starchy. For breakfast it is simply cut into pieces and boiled. Then served with, you guessed it, pol sambol! A very filling and satisfying meal. Serendip is a book that takes the readers on a journey through the rich traditional cuisine of Sri Lanka. Not only does the book have one of the greatest collections of traditional Sri Lankan recipes, but it also provides personal insights into Peter’s memories of his childhood on the island. This comprehensive compilation of the best Sri Lankan food and heart-warming stories is a testimony to the rich culture and tradition of the country.

Instead of starting this article by explaining to you what Sri Lankan food is, let me tell you what Sri Lankan food is definitely not. I found some passages hard to read because they reflected some of my family’s own experiences and struggles. The book is beautifully written and very moving and coupled with the recipe makes it deeply personal.

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I managed to get a copy a few years ago. It’s a beautiful book with a few select recipes. Funds from book sales go towardsPalmeraan organisation that helps support vulnerable families in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka’s recent history told through personal storiesAs for homemade ginger beer, in Colombo, you can find it at the Good Market Shop and at Dutch Burgher Union. Both are made with nothing but ginger, sugar and carbonated water. The taste is much more sharp in comparison with EGB. In a country in which the coconut is of supreme importance, there’s one Sri Lankan side dish that pays fitting tribute. While rice and curry is the most traditional and common meal for lunch, there are a few other dishes you can choose instead. Although all of them include rice anyways. Oh, Sri Lanka! Remember string hoppers I recommended to have for dinner with spicy curries? Now, the same string hoppers can be enjoyed sweet, with pani pol stuffed inside. “Pani” in Sinhalese means honey, “pol” — coconut. Pani pol is prepared by mixing grated coconut with kithul treacle (natural sweet syrup), and cardamom. For lavariya, string hopper is filled with pani pol and rolled up. Pani pol can be also stuffed inside thin pancakes. I shared a recipe of my cultural mix between Russian pancakes stuffed with Sri Lankan pani pol here. Chocolate biscuit pudding is, probably, the closest to a European dessert you’ll find in Sri Lanka. It can be shaped as a cake and cut into pieces, or prepared in a jar, with more gooey consistency, and eaten by spoon. Chocolate biscuit pudding is made with Marie biscuits, cocoa powder, and butter, which are basically the same ingredients Russians use to prepare kartoshka. The outcome is quite different, but just as delicious.

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Pol sambol, which might also be called fresh coconut relish, is a simple blend of finely grated coconut, red onions, dried whole chilies or chili powder, lime juice, salt and Maldive fish (if available). The ingredients are diced or ground, then combined in a bowl. Over the traffic and noise at a Sri Lankan market, you’ll likely hear the clanking of metal on metal and know kottu isn’t far away. Kottu is Sri Lanka’s hamburger – everybody’s favorite go-to fast food when craving something tasty and greasy. Parippu, or dhal curry, is the most common curry in all of Sri Lankan cuisine, a staple in any restaurant or household. Masoor dhal (split red lentils) are first rinsed and boiled until soft.This books helps you discover the fabled island of ceylon beyond the sapphires rubies and spices and takes a deep dive through the eyes of professional chefs as they highlight the best that the country has to offer. Second, traditional Sri Lankan food is not all about rice and curry. Don’t get me wrong, Sri Lankans do eat more rice in one sitting than most other nationalities in a month. But rice and curry is not all Sri Lankan cuisine has to offer. With so many ethnicities living in this small country you can’t forget about Tamil, Burgher, and Muslim dishes that are also a part of the local food scene.