You may have noticed that I have not been
actively posting over the past few weeks. This is because we have moved to a
new country(in the middle of Europe). I am still
adjusting to my new surroundings and tied up with the post-move chores. As a foodie this
means tasting new food and experimenting. Unfortunately I still have not
started taking photos in new place, as we are still in a temporary place with limited
cooking space. But I'm eagerly waiting to capture and share all my new
experiments with you all. God willing we hope to move into a permanent place
soon.
This recipe is called varai in Tamil, is a Sri
Lankan style stir fry. Similar dish is prepared in Kerala cuisine and is called
"Thoran". It simply means stir fried vegetables mixed with shredded coconut,
dry red chili and curry leaves. You may use mustard and orid dhal or bengal
gram to add color and nutty flavor to this stir fry. (Imagine carrot stir fry,
with dark green curry leaves, red chilis and yellow gram. Wow what a healthy
treat to your eyes and body!) You can make similar stir-fry with all kinds of
vegetables. Some vegetables that I have
used are leeks, grated beet root, grated carrot, square beans, long beans,
green beans, green plantain, boiled potatoes, boiled tapioca. So that's why I say you can do this stir fry with any
vegetable of your choice. Also you can do this with any type of
greens. One of my favorite greens ares kang kung cooked in this style. I serve
it with rice.
