Oh Christmas Cake!

Probably too late for this post, but what the heck. It's never too late for the good things in life. Like food.

So the infamous Christmas cake. Or the "Rich" cake as we know it. The deceptively simple yet notoriously difficult to get just right. A recipe that requires patience and almost ritual-like dedication. It's best to start making the cake about 2 months ahead of Christmas as it is a famously known fact that the older the cake gets, the better it tastes. There are a number of recipes that you can find online that may or may not work (most are inconsistent with a number of components missing) but knowing my inability to stick to a recipe to save my life, this particular combination has been tried, tested and perfected over a number of years. For me, this works so I stick to it every time. 

Ingredients 

(Part 1)

250g Sultanas

250g Raisins

250g Blackcurrents

250g Cashews (or almond or both)

300g Cherries

200g Pumpkin preserve (or puhul dosi as we Sri Lankans know it)

150gs Chow chow

250g Dates 

150g Candied peel

150g Ginger preserve

250ml Honey

250g Strawberry jam (optional)

500ml Brandy/Arrack

2 teaspoons almond essence

2 teaspoons Rose essence

4 heaped tablespoons powdered mixed spice(cinnamon, cardamom, clove, nutmeg)

(Part 2)

500g Sugar (I opt for brown sugar as I like the sort of caramel flavour it gives. Plus it's healthier!)

500g Semolina (If you like a fruitier cake, opt for around 300g)

250g Butter

15 egg whites

25 Egg yolks

Method (Part 1)

• De-seed and chop the dates into small pieces. Chop the cherries and chop the pumpkin preserve, chow chow, candied peel, cashews and ginger preserve as well. 
• Combine all ingredients in part 1 in a large bowl or basin. Give it a good stir.
• Put it in large jars or containers and leave aside in a cool dry place for about 1 month. Me being me, only had time to leave the fruits for about 2 weeks this time, but the cake came out just fine.   
• Feed it about once a week with brandy or arrack and give it a good stir. 

After the steeping period for the fruits is done, you are ready to bake the cake. After baking, it is best if you can leave the cake for at least a week before eating it, so that the ingredients can settle, merge and diffuse flavour. So the advise is to bake well before Christmas.

Method (Part 2)

• Roast semolina in a pan until it becomes slightly grainy and turns a golden brown in colour.
• Once it is cool, mix butter and semolina in a bowl until well combined.
• Beat the egg yolks and half the sugar in a bowl until well combined. The mixture should have a creamy, custardy texture which would ideally double in size upon beating.
• Beat the egg whites and the sugar together until stiff peaks form.(A tedious task with a hand beater, be warned!)
• Combine the egg yolk mixture and the semolina mixture together. Mix well. 
• Tip the steeped fruit into a large bowl/basin that has enough space for mixing. Give it a good final stir.
• Combine the semolina and egg yolk mixture and the fruits. Stir well until properly combined.
• Taste the mixture. Add more spices, almond or rose essence as desired if you think that the flavour is not sufficient.
• Fold the egg whites into this mixture. Be careful so as to not stir it too much.
• Prepare the cake tins. It's always good to double line the cake tins with oil paper. Apply plenty of butter as the cake tends to be quite sticky.
• Bake till a skewer or a knife inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
• Rest the cake. Every two days or so, mix together honey with some brandy or arrack and brush the cakes generously with a thick brush. 
• Cut on Christmas day and enjoy!

This is the very Sri Lankan version of the British Christmas cake which I find to be too dry and well, not too "rich". Many use arrack and make it essentially Sri Lankan, but I prefer brandy or a fine aged cognac in mine as it gives this unique aroma to the cake that I have grown to love. 

Traditionally, all the fruits, including the sultanas, raisins and blackcurrants are chopped into tiny pieces or minced with mincing machines which makes the cake go all mushy. I like a chunkier cake and hence I do not chop the sultanas, raisins and the blackcurrants at all. I quarter the cherries and chop only the dates, the ginger preserve, candied peel. pumpkin preserve and the chow chow into fine pieces simply because biting into a large piece of those would be quite unpleasant and off-putting. The result is a moist, "rich" and chunky cake with a delightful bite!

One immediately senses the almond and the rose in the cake, both on the nose as well as on the tongue. As you bite into it, the slightly grainy texture of the semolina contrasts well with the juiciness of the sultanas and raisins that have grown plump with the steeping, bursting forth with their sweet juices against the teeth. The cherries add that distinct flavour and a stubborn bite to the cake while the spices really come through and counteract against the sweetness of the rest of the cake. The ginger preserve adds a certain piquancy that is very much welcome to the sweetness that is on the verge of being slightly overpowering. The candied peel contributes with its due amount of citrus acidity, adding yet another layer of flavour to this already complex dish, fragrant with the piercing notes of brandy, ever present like a background tune right throughout the experience. Sweet, sweet decadence.   

The cake certainly does taste better as it ages and this I can confirm to be no myth. I suppose the fermenting does not stop even after baking. However, store the cakes properly where ants or other animals cannot get to it. Humidity too spoils the cake, so make sure that the place you store the cakes is dry and clean. You can keep the cake for years if I am not mistaken. That is, if you have the kind of eating discipline to make it last that long.   

It's surprising how little sugar you need for the cake though. The ingredients in themselves are sweet enough that extra sugar is considered unnecessary. However, you can always put the almond icing on the cake as well if you prefer, but I just couldn't be bothered. Why ruin a perfectly alright cake with another layer I thought. It already tastes pretty amazing as it is. Quite a mess to cut and serve though when it is chunky. If I do get the time, I make it a point to individually wrap pieces and keep. Less messier to serve that way, much easier to distribute. Besides, what's a Christmas cake if it isn't shared! 

Milk Wine - Essentially Sri Lankan

It's that time of the year again! Despite the occasional gloominess and rain in the evenings, mornings are unarguably golden. The air is festive. Oh, you can almost touch it, the sense of happiness permeating the air.

Which gets me to the next point; inspiration. Christmas is a time of celebration and sharing. It has always been so for my family. We are all about celebrating and December is usually the time when there are constant baking, frying and fermenting smells wafting about, getting us all excited in general.

And the Milk Wine. Essentially Sri Lankan, Milk Wine is a seasonal specialty that is slowly fading out of the scene. When the Dutch invaded Ceylon sometime back, some took treasures away from us while a few who fell in love with the island settled and adapted, adding to our culture, many vivid things. As a result, we have some very cool food amongst us such as breudher, the Sri Lankan Christmas cake, milk wine, Lamprais and the like that are specialties of the Burgher community of Sri Lanka.

Keeping to the Sri Lankan spirit, I have used Ceylon Coconut arrack in this recipe. It's super strong and with my family not being much of alcohol people, I have altered the recipe to taper down the hit of arrack.

Ingredients 

• 1L Ceylon arrack (I've heard of people trying this with brandy but I don't think that it would be the same)
• Rind and juice of 3 limes
• Rind of 1 orange
• Large stick of cinnamon
• 12 cloves
• 12 cardamoms 
• 3 teaspoons coarsely ground nutmeg
• 2 cups orange juice
• 2 cups pineapple juice
• 2 cups milk
• 500g sugar
• 1 and half cups of caramelized sugar

Method

- Grind together the lime & orange rinds, the cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and nutmeg, but don't powder. Mix it all with the arrack. Let it steep for 3-4 days. Shake the bottle well twice every day.
- Warm the milk and add the lime juice. Let it stand a while.
- Combine sugar, arrack, pineapple juice, orange juice together. Mix well till sugar dissolves.
- Once cooled, add the caramelized sugar as well. add to it the milk. Mix well.
- Strain with a thick cloth. After a while, strain twice with filter paper.

- Cork the bottles well. Open them up for Christmas!

These pictures were taken after I had only strained it once with the thick cloth, and so, sediments can still be seen as a result. After it has been strained all 3 times (a tedious, tiring task that I am not looking forward to) it will be a beautiful, semi-clear golden colour. It's still yummy though! And quite strong. The spices really come through, sweetened by the sugar and the caramelized sugar that have nicely steeped within the arrack. 

If however, you like the brew stronger, you can add more arrack. The recipe amount is 1 and half bottles of arrack but I've only used one bottle while adding double the quantity of juices. Play around with the quantities. Soften or strengthen it up as desired. It really is that easy. And remember, the longer you keep, the yummier it gets!   

    

Chocolate Mousse with mint and strawberry - Yum!

Warning - It is advisable to not make this more than twice a year. It is super yummy and addictive and therefore, extremely dangerous. Do not give in! If you do, chances are that you will probably die with a massive cardiac arrest. But it will be a very happy cardiac arrest nevertheless.

Ingredients have been lying around for a while now. It was on Saturday night, after a whole day of chocolate craving that I finally decided to get off my bum and get whipping.

I don't believe in that sorry excuse of chocolate mousse that you find in every nook and cranny. Set with gelatine, it is rather a watery excuse bland in flavour. The real chocolate mousse does not need gelatine to set as it sets by itself. That is, if it is properly prepared.

Chocolate is heavenly to eat but it can be a b**** to work with. One has to be very careful with the mousse as well since if not properly prepared, it tends to be either too thin and watery (I believe that this is the kind that hotels all over set with gelatine and wash their hands off it) or rather heavy and gluggy. The proper chocolate mousse is airy and light while also being rich and filling. It should burst with flavour in your mouth, lathering your senses with blissful chocolatey oblivion. It should hit you with force at the back of the head. The one in the picture does just that.

Ingredients 

• 200g Cooking chocolate (I almost always use Ritzbury. Those of who are too posh for Ritzbury, shoo! No really, Ritzbury works for little everyday chocolaty indulgences like brownies, mousse and choco chip cookies. But it is rather low in cocoa mass so for more refined chocolate dishes [or when I'm feeling particularly finicky and extravagant], I swear by the Hansa dark chocolate 80% - 100%)    
• 4 eggs - Yolk & white separated 
• 4 tblsps Butter
• 250g Sugar (This is a rough estimate. If you are using unsweetened chocolate, you may need more than this)
• 200ml Whipping cream
• Strawberries (optional)
• Mint leaves (optional)

Method

• Melt the chocolate. butter and quarter of the sugar in a pan (Ideally over a bowl of water but pfft! who has time for that?) However, if you are doing this over an open fire, be careful not to burn the chocolate.
• Beat together quarter of the sugar and egg white until stiff peaks form. Keep aside.
• Beat the whipping cream with the rest of the sugar till stiff peaks form. The idea is to aerate, aerate, aerate! 
• Once the chocolate has cooled down to body temperature, add the egg yolks and beat the mixture well together. 
• Now add the chocolate mixture into the beaten egg whites and gently fold through with a metal spoon until thoroughly combined.
• Add the whipped cream as well and fold through. You can either pour the mixture into individual molds/ramekins and refrigerate to set or just pour it into one large bowl to set.

Serving suggestions

For the chocoholic, this can easily be consumed (and wiped off clean in several large spoonfuls) by itself. Add in a few chunks of chocolate for texture and voila! Pure chocolate extravaganza. But for someone like me who appreciates layers of flavour and contrasts of taste in my food, I'd recommend the strawberry-mint combination. Minus side is, you cannot really preset with strawberries since the strawberries tend to bleed out moisture spoiling the mousse in the process. What I've done here is I've chopped up the strawberries and a few mint leaves, tossed them with some brown sugar and layered the mousse upon serving. One spoonful of mousse, one strawberry-mint layer topped off with more mousse. And then I've given it a good sprinkling of chocolate shavings. Works like magic.

Ah, that smell you get when melting the chocolate. So beautiful! Essentially Christmassy. This is the smell of happiness.

I was going to do a bitter coffee jelly to counteract with the rich mushiness and as usual, the laziness came over me. Couldn't be bothered. Oh well.....

The mousse in itself is smooth, velvety and very very airy. It simply evaporates in the mouth, but not before coating your entire mouth with its rich and overwhelming fullness of flavour. The strawberries add a tanginess and a beautiful floral finish while the mint adds a leafy freshness leaving the palate blissfully cleansed. However, everybody may not like the addition of mint, so test it out, take preferences before heaping up the bowl with spoonfuls of it. As for chocolate and strawberry, they are a classic combo that everybody likes.

However to my surprise, I realized that it's been a while since I've made something this chocolaty. I'm thinking, I just might be growing out of chocolate. I've come to appreciate more subtle tastes and layers now and somewhat avert myself from too strong tasting food. Could this be? I think my taste buds are finally growing up!

Two minute pudding - Chocolate chip & salted caramel mug cake

This is all Nigella's fault.

It was pouring outside that night. Just out of the shower, I was snugly curled up in front of the laptop, writing the night away as usual. And as is always the case, writing makes me hungry. And being hungry makes me distracted.

I was absentmindedly browsing through FB when I came across Nigella Lawson's update about some warm chocolate pear pudding. That had me craving chocolate.

I wanted something chocolaty and I wanted something warm. And I needed it now. This is what I came up with. 

Ingredients 

• Handful of chocolate chips (I simply chopped up some cooking chocolate)
• 1 egg
• 5 tablespoons of milk
• 6 tablespoons of sugar (I used brown. I always use brown)
• 10 tablespoons of flour
• 3 tablespoons of butter (or 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil)
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• Few drops of vanilla
• 1 tablespoon of salted caramel (Optional. I have jars of this prepared in the fridge and I thought might as well add this for some extra moistness. Will give the recipe for this later)

(Word of warning - Don't take the quantities seriously since I could not bother measuring anything at all. These are all rough measurements just so that you may have an idea)

Method

• Chuck it all in, give it a good stir, whack it in a mug and pop it in the microwave.
• Microwave till it's no longer liquidy. 

Yes, really.

The result - ooey, gooey chocolaty goodness that is so good that you look around ridden with guilt as you are eating it. The vanilla cakey layer remains intact while once you dig in, the chocolate chips have melted just about right to give an oozing gooeyness from within. The salted caramel will have melted at this point and besides serving as a natural sauce, it will add a salty kick to the otherwise sweet and mellow mixture. Although when adding this, you need to be careful with the amount of sugar you are adding since all the sweet elements come together can end up making this dessert too sweet.  

Of course you can make it without the salted caramel if you don't have any at hand. Just add a bit more of chocolate chips, a drop or two more vanilla and you will have a perfectly oozy chocolate chip vanilla pudding. 

You can be posh and put this in ramekins as well. I suppose it would serve as a formidable dessert at a dinner party even. I do not own ramekins and I wasn't feeling too posh in my cosy old pajamas. Besides, a late night writing session is hardly an occasion. Hence the use of the oversized mug.  

Enough has been heard about mug cakes but I never got the chance to try one out. This really is a breeze. Even a lazy bum like myself can whip this up in a jiffy without batting an eyelid. Although you will probably be bouncing off the walls with the sugar rush after polishing this off like I was that night. I killed off one character in my novel and revived her again later on in the night. It's all Nigella's fault. 

Imagine - Rain is pattering on outside. Inside is cool and cosy with the winds bellowing about, making the curtains dance on the windows. You are nicely snuggled in, both feet up while digging into this warm and oozing pudding, probably dribbling chocolate and salted caramel off your chin. You are trying to lick the chocolate off the spoon but smears chocolate on your nose instead. Warm and sticky. Rain creates music outside. You softly drift away and lose yourself in the sensations.   

Don't look at me. Nigella did this. 

  

Wood apple seaweed jelly - From scratch!

First, let me do the victory dance.

You have to understand, as a person who cannot and will not follow a recipe to save her life, getting this jelly to set, in the way that it has set is quite an achievement. Instructions and I have never really got on very well. Rules for me, wave invitations in my face to smash them unrecognizable, bloody and splintered. I go by touch and feel. I trust my senses. They've served me well over the years.

However, I have been more disciplined than usual in this. When working with an ingredient that I haven't worked with before, I tend to take the guidelines into consideration to a certain extent. This is the first time that I've worked with natural seaweed jelly. And I must say, quantities are important.

 Picture taken from - http://anic-lohas.blogspot.com/2010/07/nutritious-food-1-seaweed-jelly-sea.html

.
The packeted seaweed jelly looks something like this. Only a little drier and more stringy. Sorry I couldn't take a photo before I used it


Ingredients 

• 50g seaweed jelly 
• 400ml water 
• Half a lime
• 2 large wood apples 
• Sugar to taste
• Pinch of salt

Method

To extract the jelly

• Soak the dried seaweed in water for about 2 hours. At the end of the two hours, the amount of seaweed will have doubled in size. 
• Wash the seaweed thoroughly. Remove any sand, pieces of shell and debris that may have been caught in it.
• Put the seaweed in a large vessel and add 400 ml water over it. The water should essentially cover the mass of seaweed. Add to it the juice of half a lime.
• Boil until the seaweed has dissolved in the water. There may still be bits and pieces left. 
• Strain the water with a soft, thin cloth. 

To make the wood apple puree

• Scrape off the wood apple and blitz it well in a blender/food processor with a bit of water. Be careful with the amount of water you add since the end result should be about one cup of puree. 
• Pass the mixture through a strainer to remove the seeds. The mixture should be thick and pulpy.

Final step; Make the jelly!!

• Mix the wood apple puree with sugar and salt to taste. Simmer the mixture over a low fire constantly stirring it until it is well boiled and the sugar has dissolved. 
• Add to this the prepared seaweed liquid. Mix well over a low fire. 
• Pour into individual molds or a flat tray and refrigerate until set. 

Et voila! Your jelly is served!

It tastes amazing! (if I may say so myself). It literally melts in the mouth and is surprisingly creamy, perhaps due to the pulpiness of the wood apple puree. It is tangy, sweet and fresh with just a hint of that earthy seaweed jelly. The seaweed jelly does not smell or taste like you would imagine. Yes, the first thought of seaweed for me is that fishy, yucky sticky smell that I simply cannot stand. But you'd be surprised at what this seaweed smells and tastes like. Familiar with the smell of new clay pots or the water that you drink out of new clay water pitchers? The seaweed smells and tastes exactly like that. A fresh sort of earthiness would be the word I guess. 

What's more, it's 100% natural! No artificial colors, flavors or preservative and whats even more important, YOU know what YOU put in there so it's guilt-free all the way! Oh and it's vegan too. Not that I ever intended it to be, but it is. 

You can also substitute the wood apple puree with any other fruit that you like. Passion fruit would make a delightfully fresh jelly I suppose. I shall try that next time. Mother Dearest also says that it also tastes delicious with milk or with jaggery and a bit of plums and cashews. (And she says all this after she calmly watches me fumbling around with pots, pans and sieves in the kitchen, running around like woman deranged) 

I also did some research by myself (curiosity being my biggest vice) and found that this particular seaweed is considered as a superfood. Apparently it's beneficial in many ways including being a rich source of collagen, vitamins, minerals (said to contain all 56 of minerals actually) and is even known as a cancer fighter. Pretty neat eh?

As if all that is not enough, apparently this seaweed can also be used in salads, soups, stir-fries and etc of all sorts as well. The problem is finding it. Once in a blue moon you find this in the supermarkets and when it is not there often times nobody even knows that such a thing exists. You should simply keep your eyes peeled at every visit to the supermarket. (If anyone knows where I can get my hands on some of these, please let me know)    

Granted that this jelly does involve a lot of work. Let's just say that I now know why jelly packets exist. 

But is the effort worth it? Absolutely. Would I do it again? Definitely.  

Sun is out once again after a while and am I glad to see it. And this wood apple seaweed jelly would be the perfect evening treat to have seated outdoors in the garden to freshen up a warm, sunny day like this. (and dare I say it feel Christmassy again?) 

Rainy morning indulgence - Seeni sambol & egg toasties

Rainy day. Egg & seeni sambol toasties for breakfast. Yum!

The thing with seeni sambol is that once prepared, you can keep it for days. The thing with me is, I don't eat kiribath unless there is seeni sambol or fish ambul thiyal. So Mother Dearest always makes sure that there is extra on the rare occassion that she does make seeni sambol.

Today just happened to be one such day when we had some seeni sambol left over! So the decision was made. It shall be seeni sambol & egg toasties for breakfast today!

A delicious, yet simple treat. Practically child's play. Here's what you need.

Ingredients 

• Bread 
• Seeni sambol (can alternate with pol sambol and is equally yummy, if not more)
• Two eggs - One for each sandwich 
• Cheddar cheese (optional) 

Method 

1. Fry the eggs sunny side up. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Leave the yolks runny.

2. Layer the sandwich. Egg goes first on top of the slice of bread. Then goes the seeni sambol on top of the egg. Then give it a generous sprinkling of shredded cheddar cheese. Close the sandwich with another slice of bread.

3. Pop it in a panini grill. If you don't have a panini grill, you can always heat up a skillet and pop it in that. The aim is to get both sides of the sandwich appropriately browned and crunchy and get the cheese inside melted and gooey. Do NOT pop it in a regular sandwich toaster. It will press the sandwich too hard and cause the egg yolk and melted cheese to fall from the sides. 

This sandwich literally sings in your mouth. The freshly toasted bread will be crisp and crunchy while the ooey-gooey center of half-set egg yolk and melted cheese will give you mouthgasms. The flavorsome sting of the seeni sambol will be cushioned by the mellow, cloudy taste of the runny egg yolk while the cheese will give the sandwich a milky, salty kick. Heaven.   

Finagle has a multigrain bread that I am absolutely in love with. That is what I have used in this sandwich. Me being gastritis prone cannot stomach refined wheat products in the mornings. So this multigrain bread has been  my lifesaver so far. You of course can use any type of bread you like; white bread, roast paan, kade paan, wholemeal bread, home baked, etc.

I love cheese. I want cheese in everything. The cheddar in this can be substituted with a good mozzarella if you can find some. Of course for those who do not like cheese or cheese is not readily available in the refrigerator, you can omit it altogether and it will be good to go anyway. Although, the thought of a sandwich without cheese appalls me. It would deprive this otherworldly sandwich of its coveted richness. But for those who like things spicy, extra seeni sambol without the cheese would be ideal.   

Pol sambol is a great alternative too and I personally prefer pol sambol to seeni sambol. I did not have any pol sambol at hand today. Hence the use of seeni sambol. I've noticed that these classic combos are made available at Panino as well. Good on them.

The trick is getting the eggs done just right. They should be firm enough to hold their shape but mushy enough to squirt once you bite in. When cooking the eggs, you must also give them some cooking leverage for the time it spends in the panini grill/the frying pan. This is the point where I always mess up. There is a danger of overcooking and under cooking the eggs. This morning they came out just right. 

Couldn't resist taking a bite before photographing it. I see the bite has served its purpose as well. You can just about see the gooey goodness sandwiched between those two slices of crispy bread. It can be a bit messy to eat but what the hell, all good things in life are indeed, messy ;) 

Chicken Pomodori melt - Panino

Can I just say that I absolutely love Panino?

It started as a mild infatuation, while I was searching for a substantial lunch at the Good Market. I'm not a huge rice fan and hence sad to say, the options were scarce, expensive and hardly sufficient.

That's when I came across Panino. I had one of their roast paan panini first (I believe it was a chicken pomodori melt) and I was hooked.

I have tried so many of their creations so far, the BBQ pulled chicken, the mushroom & cheese, the chicken burritos and etc, all of which had a unique identity of their own. While I absolutely loved some, others I generally liked and some I did not like (for example, the burritos has a little too much of rice and too little chicken in it which was not to my liking. However, the flavours were good) But today I shall rant and rave about the Chicken Pomodori melt that, hands down, tops the list for me.

I love, love, LOVE the chicken! Very well seasoned and dare I say, melt in the mouth? I love what they have done with the spinach there and that spread! Oh dear god, that spread! Whatever that spread is, it gives all the flavour that the panini needs. It coats the chicken, the spinach and whatever else is in that filling and perfectly balances it out. Would I have it seven days a week for lunch? Hell yeah!

Oh btw, I like my Chicken Pomodori in a wrap. Sure it costs Rs 50/- more but it sure is worth it.

Best part is, it's healthy. I'm bit of a health conscious person and like to watch what I put in my body. Because of this, it is somewhat difficult to find "snacks" for myself. Another reason why Panino is just about perfect for me. And I know this will sound weird but it tastes healthy too (probably it's the spinach. Shrug)

Not a huge fan of their drinks though. Prices are outrageous. For a bottle of thambili, they charge Rs 150/-. For a bottle of narang or ginger beer, its 250! I mean sure, I understand that the eco friendly glass bottling and everything costs, but as an actual food item, its way too overpriced for me. I did try their homemade ginger beer once out of curiosity. It was good, but would I pay Rs 250/- for it? No.

All in all, I'm happy. I found my go-to place for those little cravings. Sad part is I have to go all the way to the Cotton Collection to get my fix. Oh well......

Pasta - Sri Lankan style

Pasta. Essentially Italian. Essentially European. But like all things in Sri Lanka, we Sri Lankans like to make it our own.

Accepted that there are many ways of preparing this dish. Be it with a traditional Bolognese sauce, carbonara, amatriciana or etc, nothing beats the ways in which us Sri Lankans choose to serve the dish. The last time I saw it, it was being served with dhal & chicken curry in a roadside kade. Not too bad I must say.

Pasta is also an alternative for rice in a typical fried rice kind of situation. Toss together some finely sliced carrots, leeks, cabbage, onion with some garlic and ginger in a fiercely spiced stir fry, toss in your prepared pasta and some Knorr or Maggi chicken cubes for good measure et voila! You got yourself fried pasta!

I must confess that the above is a lazy dish that I myself like to make sometimes. We enjoy the fried pasta quite frequently at our household.

But being a lover of all things creamy, I love the special occasion pasta my mother makes, well, on special occasions. It is a combination of fresh cream (the Kotmale kind), bacon (or chicken. But bacon for some reason suits the recipe well), some veggies (onions, carrots, leeks & chopped up tomatoes. No cabbage please) and salt and pepper to taste. Garlic, ginger and onions are sauteed in a pan until golden to which bacon is added and fried till crisp. To this mixture, carrots cut into small cubes & leeks are added. A quick toss and an adequate sprinkling of salt and pepper later, the fresh cream is added and simmered till the mixture is slightly thick. To this mixture the pasta must be added. mix thoroughly and simmer for about 5 minutes and take it off the heat lest that the sauce will dry off. If a slightly more spicier version is required or even for a bit of a kick, add a bit of dried chili flakes, bit of parsley and load up on the black pepper.

If you're feeling a bit fancy, you can serve this with some Parmesan cheese which will add more creaminess to the dish. The veggies must be left slightly crunchy and not cooked all the way through so as to provide texture to an otherwise easy-on-the-teeth dish. The bacon provides a smoky, meaty salty kick whenever bitten into which contrasts heavily with the mellow creaminess of the sauce and the gentle passive taste of the pasta. The best type of pasta to use for this dish is the tubular kind (Penne, Rigatoni or other hollow shapes) as it holds the sauce better while the thickness of the sauce will hold all the other ingredients together.

......or you can just pour some leftover dhal or chicken curry over the pasta and wash it down with a sweetened plain tea. Simple and easy.

And there you have it, Pasta a la Sri Lankan!      

And here is my mother's creamy bacon pasta!

Street food fix - Isso roti/wadei

I was feeling hungry the other day (shock, gasp, yelp!) as I was going home after work, and anybody knowing the area would agree that there is not a single pastry shop/cafe/petti kade, etc to be found around there, the area being the bathroom central that it is (this part of Nawala is bombarded with shops selling bathroom fittings, tiles and the like. Whose bright idea it is to flock all bathroom shops in this place I do not know). However, as I started crossing the road and wait for my trusty office transport I notice this duwanagiriya by the side of the road willed with roti-like disks and what to my delight looked like isso wadei! Determined to get myself an isso wadei, I hastened towards it. On closer inspection I noticed that what looked like isso wadei was not the isso wadei that we know. Oh well, it had isso on it and looked flat like a wadei so I bought three of it. And almost missed Gamage transport in doing so as well! 

The man had hastily taken the wadei-like disks out of the hot oil and packed it up for me so it was quite hot when I took them out. As I opened up the parcel, a delicious aroma filled the van and I noticed out of the corner of my eye a few nosy aunties peeking in as well. It looked quite spicy (my palate has low tolerance for chilli) so I gingerly took a bite. And then, I was hooked.

Although it looked like a wadei, it was a small round roti, a combination of what I suspected was a hint of ground dhal, plenty of coconut, flour and a dash of Maldives fish here and there. It was topped by three scrawny looking prawns and was deep fried in oil. The seasoning was just perfect. Not disappointingly bland like some street food out there with a hint of chilli and the perfect amount of salt, just enough to bring out the flavour of the dhal and the coconut and of course, the scrawny prawns. Not too overpowering either so my palate was happy. The man had topped each disk with a dollop of curry (a thick sort of gravy like what you get with koththu) and a generous sprinkling of finely diced fresh onions and green chilli. It was indeed, a textural extravaganza. As you bite into the wadei/roti, at first you get the yielding softness of the roti followed by the tad bit harder shell of the prawn. Once you start munching on the mouthful, you are treated to the fresh crunch of the onions and the slight sting of the green chilli all blending with the overall mellowness of the rotti and the flavourfulness of the prawn. Gravies usually gross me out but the gravy that was added to this actually adds character to the whole food spectacle. It gives the very necessary streety-ness, that tastes-so-good-that-it-must-be-bad-ness to the whole thing, rounding it up in that special way that makes you hide your saiwar kade cravings from your mom. 

Will I buy from here again? Absolutely. Although I’m bit of a health nut and this is anything but healthy, (oozing with oil, complimented with mysterious condiments god-knows-how-old and kept at a dusty old open cart) I am quite fond of my street food. Yes, I’d definitely go back for more for my weekly street food fix. Want to try the big white roti that looked like godamba roti next time. Wonder what obscure delights he would be offering with that one!  

True that the picture does not look too alluring, but that's the beauty of street food ; they overdeliver and amazes you when it comes to the taste! I should also maybe add that these wadeis were hastily gobbled down after the picture :)