A small, once separated from the mainland island in the Indian Ocean for many centuries was considered a real treasure. And not only because precious stones were mined here. Growing in Ceylon (the so-called Sri Lanka before 1972) spices in past centuries were valued at least as emeralds or sapphires, so merchants from all over the world came for them. They also trained local chefs with their culinary traditions. The Arabs showed the islanders how to use saffron, and told them about a rice dish that turned into Sri Lanka in Burian and Pilau (reminiscent of pilaf). The Dutch told the Ceylon people about the Christmas cake and meatballs, and the English instilled in them love for roast beef and puddings. So thanks to the mixture of gastronomic customs from different parts of Europe and Asia, Sri Lanka's culinary art arose.
Asian Bread
As a Russian table is difficult to imagine without bread, so Sri Lankan - without rice. Even a literal translation of the question "Did you eat?" From the Sinhala language sounds like "Did you eat rice?". Prepare a favorite product in various ways and mainly in order to smooth out the sharp taste of other dishes. And his house is preferred to eat with his hands. If suddenly you are lucky enough to be on an Asian meal, put a bowl of rice on a plate and a few spoons of various curries. Then take the right hand (just right!) By a pinch of both, mix it into a single pyramid, pick it up with your fingertips and send it to your mouth. Make kiribat - rice on coconut milk, which in Sri Lanka is usually served at weddings, birthdays and the New Year. To do this, pour 2 cups of rinsed cereal with 4 glasses of water, salting and vari until the liquid evaporates. Then add a half cup of coconut milk and cook over low heat. Then grease the deep plate with oil, put rice into it and let it cool. After this, tilt the mass over another dish, without destroying the shape, and cut it into rhombuses. Top with rice coconut shavings.
How many people, so much curry
Unlike neighboring India and other countries, in Sri Lanka for curry, first spices are fried in oil, and then they are added to them with other ingredients. And cooks do not adhere to classical proportions - everything is determined by the flight of their imagination. The resulting diversity is united only by the fact that the composition of the food includes leaves of the curry shrub. Dishes are made salty or sweet and add to them meat or fish, and in the vegetarian version - pumpkin, potatoes or lentils. People unfamiliar with the cuisine of Sri Lanka believe that it is almost identical to the Indian one. Of course, there is some similarity between them. However, these are two independent gastronomic directions. Sri Lanka is on the island, so the menu of local people meets more fish dishes. In addition, there is more often than on the mainland, preparing food from rice and using coconut products - milk and butter - much more widely. They say that the variants of curry in Sri Lanka are not less than the local residents, because in each family there are special recipes for the dish.
For chicken-potato curry, first pour a little vegetable oil on the bottom of the potato, fry it with 3 onion-cut bulbs and chicken cut into pieces. Then put the chopped garlic head and a large pinch of spices: red and green pepper, coriander, turmeric, cumin, fennel, cloves, cinnamon, 2 tbsp. spoons of chopped ginger. All fried, drop 10 curry leaves and cook for 5 minutes. Then put 10 potatoes, cut into a large cubes, with a portion of water and cook for 6 minutes. Then add a glass of coconut milk and hold for 5 more minutes.
Sambol, burning language
We do not usually have a change of treats in Sri Lanka. On the table immediately put up a lot of bowls with all sorts of dishes and spread coconut cakes rothi - be careful with them. After all, it is quite fresh in other countries, but here they are cooked, without regretting the chili pepper. The main snacks to improve appetite in Sri Lanka are also so sharp that it feels like they are able to burn through the tongue. They are called sambols. Prepare a sambul from eggplant. Cut a thin layer of two eggplants, sprinkle them with salt and turmeric and leave for a couple of hours. Then drain the liquid, dry the vegetables and fry in the oil. While they are cooking, mix a couple of chopped chili peppers with one chopped onion, 2 teaspoons of lemon juice and 3 tablespoons. spoons of coconut milk. Mix the mixture with eggplant.
Pineapples with pepper
More than once, Russian tourists, having stopped by in the chic hotel of Sri Lanka and found in the room a welcome basket with fruit, were indignant: "Why did you put apples ?! It would be better to give mango with rambutans! "If the next time you encounter such a situation, do not rush: the apples in Sri Lanka are a rarity. They are quite expensive, so they only treat expensive guests. But other fruits here do not consider exotic. Bananas are fried with local people, pomelo is eaten with pepper sauce, rambutan is made with stuffing for pies, and pineapples are used only fresh with black pepper and salt (by the way, it is very tasty). One of the most memorable fruits is huge (up to 40 kg) pimply fruits of breadfruit. Sweet, delicately eaten pulp in a raw form, the skin is preserved in sugar, and the leaves are added to the salad. No less universal and mango: it is put in curry, tea leaves are made from leaves, and dried flowers and stones are used in Ayurveda.
Apples on Sri Lanka
Surprise curry friends with pineapple. To do this, mix 4 teaspoons of chili pepper, turmeric, curry powder and salt. Slice 2 pineapples into cubes and sprinkle them with this mixture. Pour a little vegetable oil into the pan and fry on it 3 finely chopped garlic cloves, 1 chopped onion, 10 curry leaves, a pair of cinnamon sticks. Put the pineapple in a pan, stir everything and continue to fry for about 7 minutes over low heat. Then pour 1.5 cups of coconut milk, add the fire and cook for another 10 minutes.
Arak
If you are in Sri Lanka, be sure to grab a local strong alcohol arak as a souvenir for a man you know. A drink with this name is made in many Asian countries, but here it is distinguished by the addition of palm juice.
Toddy
Very popular on the island of Toddy - palm moonshine.
Ingredients
■ dry yeast - 4. spoons
■ water-1.5 cups
■ beer -1/2 cups
■ coconut milk -1 glass
■ rice flour - 3 cups
■ sugar - 3 tbsp. spoons
■ salt - to taste
■ oil - for frying
■ Eggs - 10 pcs.
Cooking method
1. Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup warm water together with 1 tbsp. a spoonful of sugar and leave for 10 minutes. 2. Pour 3 cups of rice flour into the bowl and pour the yeast into it. Add the remaining water, beer and mix. Put the dough in a warm place and let it go up. 3. Add coconut milk, 2 tbsp. spoons of sugar and salt. The dough should be liquid, but slightly more dense than pancakes. 4. Heat the wok well and oil it with oil. 5. Pour the dough into the frying pan, quickly turning it so that it spreads out, and the "skeet" turns out. Smash the egg in the center, as for a fried egg. 6. Bake the cake under the closed lid on one side for about 5 minutes.
Like crayfish
The hero of the national film "Kakraki" Michal Mihalich (Mikhail Efremov) wanted to become a poet, but became an official. Now he has life experience, money and power. But there is no happiness. And, perhaps, he would never know what it is if he had not met Nastya (Olga Song), who had never eaten "kakraks". You ask what "kakraki" is. The answer to this question is the quote from the film. "Have you ever eaten lobster?" - "And who is this?" - "It's like crayfish, only very large."
- lobsters (small) - 4 pcs.
- tarragon - 1 tsp.
- wine vinegar - 4 cups
- olive oil -1/4 cup
- salt - 2 tablespoons
- garlic - 1 tooth
- sweet mustard - 1 teaspoon
- pepper -1/4 h spoons
Cooking method
In a large pot, pour water (about a third of the volume), lay out lobsters and cover. Wait 10 minutes on low heat. For the sauce, mix the vinegar, oil, tarragon, salt, garlic, sweet mustard and pepper. Cover it and put it in the refrigerator. Finished lobsters soak with a napkin and serve with sauce. In the cartoon of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller "Cloudy, possible precipitation in the form of meatballs," the protagonist, in order to gain recognition, devises how to satisfy the hunger of the inhabitants of a ruined town. He manages to build a machine that, without stopping, produces food of any quality and in any quantities. The idyll continued until greed wins out of prudence and the rain of huge meatballs falls on the city. By the way, everyone has saved love, and not at all to meatballs.
Meatballs in Asian style
- veal - 400g
- onion - 2 pcs.
- flour - 2 tsp.
- potatoes - 400 g
- white wine -1 glass
- water-1 glass
- garlic, parsley
Cooking method
Ceilings of garlic together with parsley. Turned meat mixed with egg, add a bit of soaked loaf, half chopped garlic and parsley, mix everything thoroughly. A mixture of salting, pepper, blind meatballs from it, roll them in flour and fry for several minutes in a skillet with boiling oil. Pull it out and put it in a saucepan. In a frying pan, fry the onion and, without stopping stirring, add to it the remainder of garlic with parsley and a little flour. After 5-10 minutes put the resulting sauce into a saucepan with meatballs. Add wine and water, add bay leaf, bring to a boil and carcass 10 minutes.