We were in Adelaide this time last year. It was a food centred trip, as most of our holidays are, and we trekked across the city to find some quirky and unusual haunts. Parwana Afghan Kitchen was lauded as authentic and delicious, two words we couldn’t really look past. Despite missing the turn and having to…
Category: Curries
Pumpkin Curry with Coconut Milk
As you probably already know, I’m a big lover of pumpkin. Especially pumpkin soup. It’s warming, sweet, creamy and comforting. However, when I have made it for Sri Lankan relatives, especially male ones, they don’t seem to get it. I suspect this curry has a lot to do with it. Pumpkin, cooked Sri Lankan style,…
Parippu – Sri Lankan style dhal with coconut milk
I’m not going to mince words here. If you want to call yourself a serious Sri Lankan cook, this recipe has to be in your repertoire. No buts. Dhal really is the centre of Sri Lankan cuisine, some would probably argue the centre of many South Asian cuisines. It’s cheap, it’s quick and it’s delicious….
Watakolu (Ridged Gourd) and Potato Curry
During high school I took home economics (culinary arts) like most students. During our year seven classes, the teacher would parade a rare and unusual spice and ask us to name it, dangling the grand prize of a merit award in our face. I’ll be the first to admit I was a total goody-two-shoes,…
Potato and Leek Baddum (Stir-fried potato and leek)
Leeks are like eggs I find. Oftentimes required in recipes only in part. “Use white part only” is a phrase that I hear a lot more than “Use green part only”. What happens to all those spare green parts then? I usually chop them off, pop them in a bag and watch them sit in…
Devilled Potatoes (Ala Theldala)
Me and this dish had a falling out some years ago. Twice a year the Sri Lankan Buddhist community in Sydney would throw a food fair to help raise money for the temple. Groups of people would host stalls serving traditional Sri Lankan fare; string hoppers, roti, koththu etc. The hopper stall was…
Cashew Nut (Cadju) Curry
Did I ever tell you guys about the great cashew caper? It was the day our cousin Ruvi and he husband Pesh were leaving Sri Lanka and after a lovely lunch we headed to ODEL to buy some devilled cashews. We left a sleeping baby and the husbands in the car and went inside to…
Mustard Carrot Curry
I was speaking to a friend recently who cooked a curry for dinner and commented on the thousand and one ingredients. While she enjoyed the curry she was lamenting the fact that cooking curry from scratch is time consuming and requires a multitude of often expensive ingredients that will go off in a cupboard before…
Brussel Sprouts Mallum
Brussel sprouts and I have a pretty good relationship, thanks mainly to this dish. I didn’t suffer the overboiled, over cooked, covered-in-cheese-to-hide-the-taste brussel sprouts growing up. My mum discovered brussel sprouts late in life (I don’t think they exist in Sri Lanka) and so did what any Sri Lankan would do, make a mallum. A…
Pinto Bean Curry
I grew up in a house that didn’t often have parripu. Ammi wasn’t a huge fan and would usually find new and wonderful things to make hodi (gravy dish) with. Cucumber curry (recipe to come) and spinach curry were much more prevalent at dinner than parripu. We had friends growing up that had parippu at…
akkis kitchen 