My origins are from Jaffna, we eat red
parboiled rice and make string hoppers and pittu with red rice flour. Also we use
tamarind and coconut milk to make tangy hot and sour curries. Sinhalese use lot of
wheat flour to make their food and also white rice & red raw rice is popular. Hence you would
find bread, different variety of
rotis (flat breads) and ingredients like goraka (Gambooge),
lemon grass being used to flavor curries. In Muslim cuisine you would find dates and influence of Malay cooking in their food. In hill country where tea
plantations are, tea pluckers eat lot of rotis. Sri Lankan rotis are made
with wheat flour and grated coconut.
Seeni sambol is one of the popular
spread used in Ceylon to make sandwiches. Mainly because it can be cooked and
stored in air tight containers in fridge for few weeks. I have fond memories of having
seeni sambol sandwiches when we had gone on overnight school trips. Lots of
onions are thinly sliced, stir fried in oil till they are slightly browned.
Crushed cinnamon and green cardamom powder is used to enhance the aroma. Brown color
comes from sugar, curry powder and chili.
I like to spread it on my sandwiches with melted cheese on top. You can
also serve it with typical Sri Lankan food like hoppers and pittu. ( Pittu appears
like cous cous & is made with rice flour and steamed with grated coconut)
Hoppers looks like half a ball (hemispherical shape) and is a crispy crepe served as breakfast or dinner. Hoppers are made with fermented rice flour. Generally served with Seeni sambol, sambol or lunu miris (spicy salad made with lots of onions and crushed red chilies)
String hoppers on the other hand is
steamed noodles made with rice flour dough. The dough is filled in a mould.
Then the mould is gently squeezed to get strings, which is pressed into special
string hopper mat in the shape of small circles.
Sambol is also another popular Sri
Lankan food item. Its made with grated coconut, crushed red chilis and onion.
And the most popular Ceylon street food is Kottu, which is roti pieces (flat bread) mixed with curry sauce, vegetables or meat.
Chinese rolls are actually a snack. Its wheat flour pancakes filled with potato and vegetable or meat or fish curry.
Then coated with bread crumbs and deep fried. Crunchy on outside with yummy
curry filling. If you are spice foodie you will absolutely fall in love with
Sri Lankan food.
Coming back to today's recipe - Seeni
sambol; I spread it on baguette bread and made a subway style sandwich. Filling
is seeni sambol, cheese, topped with cucumber and tomatoes. Spread the choice
of your sauce. I used mustard sauce.
Print Recipe here
Ingredients
Onion 1kg
50 ml / 4 large tbsp canola oil
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
half a stick of crushed cinnamon or 1 tsp cinnamon powder
2 tbsp zero chili curry powder
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp sugar
handful of curry leaves
Salt to taste
Method
Add roughly chopped onions into a food processor, coarsely blend them.
Onion 1kg
50 ml / 4 large tbsp canola oil
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
half a stick of crushed cinnamon or 1 tsp cinnamon powder
2 tbsp zero chili curry powder
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp sugar
handful of curry leaves
Salt to taste
Method
Add roughly chopped onions into a food processor, coarsely blend them.
Heat oil in a non-stick pan, add onion, cardamom, cinnamon, curry leaves and salt. Stir with wooden spoon. Stir fry till onion is lightly browned.
When you notice change in color i.e slightly browned, add sugar, curry powder and chili powder. Stir to mix the spices with fried onion. Cook for few more minutes till they are fragrant. Turn off heat, once it completely cool down, refrigerate in a airtight container.
Here are some other Sri Lankan food
recipe post links
Check out other recipe posts under Sri Lankan Cuisine label
Hello,
ReplyDeleteWe bumped into your blog and we really liked it - great recipes YUM YUM.
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I came across this via foodgawker and I am so excited to see a blog with Sri Lankan food, especially all vegetarian! Love it!
ReplyDeleteHow much cardamon do you add? 1/2 tbsp? The units seem to be missing there... (same with the cinnamon) But looks truly delicious!
ReplyDeleteNo its 1/2 tsp cardamon also just a half a stick cinnamon crushed or1tsp cinnamon powder. this measurements are for a kilo of onion.
ReplyDelete