Sri Lankan Cookbook: Traditional Sri Lankan Recipes Made Easy

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For my own nerdy reasons and for your convenience, I have separated all the dishes into categories: breakfast, lunch (rice and curry), condiments, lunch (non-rice-and-curry options), dinner, sweets, and drinks. Now let’s get to it! Breakfast Hi. I'm Doris! I am a foodie that has traveled to 78 countries and loves trying cuisines from different countries. I try anything related to food and share my opinions on this blog. Send me a message with any requests! Sri Lanka, also known as ‘The Pearl of the Indian Ocean’, is an island country located in South Asia. Because Sri Lanka was a hub for foreign traders who frequently brought new food and culture to the country, Sri Lankan cuisine is heavily influenced by Indian, Indonesian, Middle Eastern, and Dutch cuisines making Sri Lankan cookbooks with an incredibly diverse list of recipes! Rambutan is an award-winning Sri Lankan cookbook published by Bloomsbury. As part of writing this book, Cynthia spent six months in Sri Lanka researching and testing her 80 recipes. The recipes reflect her northern Sri Lankan roots, more specifically, Jaffna. Why is the Rambutan cookbook important? The three condiments below serve as flavor boosters and accompany carb loaded dishes like rice and curry, kiribath, or pol roti. There are more than three in Sri Lankan cuisine, but these are the most basic and popular ones.

Easy Sri Lankan Recipes | olivemagazine Easy Sri Lankan Recipes | olivemagazine

What a fantastic article! Beautiful photography and descriptions of Sri Lankan food – I can really sense your love and passion for the cuisine. My favourite Sri Lankan dishes are pol sambol and wambattu moju. I grew up in the UK but my parents are Sri Lankan and these are the dishes I grew up with as we had them all the time at home. It’s nice to see Sri Lankan food becoming more popular now – people should know how amazing it is (I know I am biased, but it is the best!). Kottu is served with spicy curry sauce, which you can either use as a dip or pour over your entire plate. Hoppers, or local pancakes, are my biggest frustration with Sri Lanka. Don’t get me wrong, I love-love-loooove hoppers, but why is it that pancakes (and there’s a kind that comes with egg inside) are served for dinner and not breakfast? Made of wheat or rice flour, hoppers are shaped like a bowl with soft center and very thin crispy edges. 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! Although the name suggest that string hopper is some kind of a hopper variety, the two couldn’t be more different. String hoppers are prepared of rice flour, making it a perfect meal for people who are gluten-intolerant. The dough is a simple mixture of rice flour and water that is stuffed in a special device, not unlike a meat grinder. Thin strings of dough are squeezed out to create flat rounds which are then steamed and served with curries.Gorgeous picture accompany you each step of the way making it a colourful and informative visual experience. Godamba roti is not the only ingredient that can serve as the base for kottu, but probably the most popular one. Another local favorite is kottu made of string hoppers (indi appa). Just like in case with kottu roti, string hoppers are cut into small pieces and mixed with spices, vegetables, and meats on a grill with the use of two metal blades. 37. Thosai (Pancake) The only other cookbook that I have seen that focuses on Tamil cooking is Handmade, an Australian-published cookbook that takes you on a journey of amazing food shared through the stories of 34 women – their struggle, hope and strength as they rebuild their lives after decades of civil conflict. Accompanying these stories are their recipes that celebrate a rich food tradition. Sri Lanka has been influenced by a diversity of cultures and one of the most evident is the Dutch Burgher community. Simple yet spectacular is how you can describe these women and their journey, their food captures the hardships faced and the simple pleasures one can cherish by sharing a meal with their loved ones.

Rambutan by Cynthia Shanmugalingam | Waterstones

A specialty of the city of Jaffna, located on the northern tip of the island, this crab curry is a great example of traditional Tamil cuisine. The best place to eat it is obviously Jaffna. Unfortunately, very few people choose to visit it because of the long journey. You can find Jaffna curry in Tamil restaurants in other cities across Sri Lanka. Another thing to consider is that curries that are served together should be balanced and complement each other. Your regular lunch will consist of at least four-five curries, all of which should be of different taste, texture, and cooking method. For example, one of the curries should have a spicy gravy, one of them should have a creamy gravy and no spices (so called “yellow curry”), one should be fried, one should be crunchy, one should be fresh and leafy. 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.Sri Lankan-style Cashew Curry, a traditional vegan dish made with cashews cooked in a flavorful blend of spices and coconut milk, the perfect curry that’s for a light yet flavourful meal. The book is a collection of 100 delicious and original Sri Lankan recipes. It is one of the most favorite items among cookbooks about Sri Lankan cuisine on the market right now. The design of the book is stylish and logical with great photos of the dishes and a table of ingredients for each recipe. Besides incredible recipes, the author also provides you many great stories about Sri Lanka as a beautiful country that is rich in traditions and culture. 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. 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.

Sri Lankan cookbook A review of Rambutan, the award-winning Sri Lankan cookbook

A fruit curry! Yes, it is possible. If pineapple found its way onto a pizza, I think pineapple curry is more than justified. Sri Lankan pineapple is among the best in the world, so while on the island make sure not only to eat it fresh, but try a curried version too. Combined with other dishes, pineapple adds a sweet punch to the explosion of flavors that is Sri Lankan rice and curry. Sri Lankan food is fresh and vibrant, with the perfect combination of spices, textures, and flavours. ‘ Weligama — Recipes from Sri Lanka‘ manages to capture exactly that, with its unique collection of easy-to-follow, innovative recipes that are inspired by the culture of the island. This Sri Lankan cookbook has recipes for every meal and season, ranging from breakfast to short eats, curries, and accompaniments. I know many people complain about personal stories that preface a recipe. But here, the stories are a vital component of the book.

Originating in southern Sri Lanka, it’s available throughout the country at restaurants that serve curry, and is best eaten with rice.

Sri Lankan Cookbook: Traditional Sri Lankan Recipes Made Easy

Cynthia takes us on a journey through the stories and memories of her family to decipher the rich oral tradition of Sri Lankan cooking. This book makes me hungry to travel, explore and eat new things, especially curries' - Yotam Ottolenghi 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.

Gotu kola (known in English as Asiatic pennywort) is a medicinal herb in Asia. It’s shredded into slivers, then combined with shallots, tomatoes, fresh grated coconut and chili and seasoned with a dressing of salt, pepper and lemon juice.