with Mary Anne Mohanraj
Ideally, you’d have coconuts right outside, and you could just crack them in half and grate yourself some fresh coconut. But for those of us whose climate doesn’t permit such a thing, and who have run out of the frozen coconut that our grocery stores now finally carry, at least we have the option of reconstituting dessicated (not sweetened!) coconut in a little hot milk or coconut milk, for something that ends up an acceptable substitute for the original…
I felt like a relatively light dinner tonight, and a simple vegan meal of coconut milk rice, cauliflower poriyal, and pol (coconut) sambol hit the spot! (Coconut two ways…)
I give you lots of photos of pol sambol, because I make it ALL THE TIME, and so I HAVE lots of photos of it. 
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Coconut Sambol / Thengai-Poo or Pol Sambol
(10 minutes, serves 8.)
This is meant to be an accompaniment—make a batch (it keeps for weeks in the fridge) and then put a teaspoon or two on your plate with your rice/bread and curries. In Sri Lanka, they would just use straight up chili powder, instead of a mix of chili powder and paprika, which would make it fiercely spicy. If I were only going to make one accompaniment for the rest of my life, pol sambol would be my choice, although seeni sambol would be a very close second.
1 cup desiccated unsweetened coconut
3 TBL hot milk (I heat mine in the microwave)
1 rounded tsp salt
1 rounded tsp chili powder
2 rounded tsp paprika
2-3 TBL lime juice, to taste
1 medium onion, minced fine
1. Reconstitute coconut in a large bowl with the hot milk. I recommend using your fingers to squeeze the milk through the coconut. (If you can get fresh or frozen grated coconut, that is, of course, even better, and you can skip this step.)
2. Add salt, chili powder, paprika, lime juice, and onion. Mix thoroughly with your hand, rubbing ingredients together until well blended.
Note: If you don’t feel that your onion is minced sufficiently fine (ideally, to match the texture of the coconut), you can use a food processor to chop it more finely, or grind it with a mortar and pestle. You can grind just the onions, or the whole mixture.
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Dessert tonight — milk rice with bananas, strawberries, mango, and palm jaggery. I was feeling a little fruity.
Last 20 seconds of frying the cauliflower, making sure it’s picked up enough rich golden-brown color. Mmm….
You don’t need to stir the cauliflower constantly — you can just keep an eye on it and let it sizzle. In fact, you don’t want to stir it constantly, because you want it to brown a little. 30 seconds.
Adding the salt, turmeric and cauliflower to seasoned onions, for cauliflower poriyal. 1 min, 11 seconds.
Sautéing onions makes the best sound. 30 seconds.
Cauliflower poriyal is the recipe that got my kids to actually like a cooked vegetable for the first time. I give the credit to the salty, fried onions that intermingle so deliciously with the fried cauliflower.
The key to this dish is sautéing the cauliflower until it’s browned—the browned bits will be the tastiest.
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Cauliflower Poriyal
(25 minutes, serves 4)
3 medium onions, chopped coarsely
3 TBL vegetable oil or ghee
1/4 tsp black mustard seed
1/4 tsp cumin seed
1 medium cauliflower, chopped bite-size
1 rounded tsp salt
1 rounded tsp turmeric
1. Sauté onions in oil on high in a large nonstick frying pan with mustard seed and cumin seed, until onions are slightly softened (not brown). Add cauliflower, turmeric, and salt. (I’ve made this in a regular frying pan, and found that it’s difficult not to burn it; if you don’t use non-stick, you’ll need to stir constantly.)
2. Cook on medium-high, stirring frequently, until cauliflower is browned (mostly yellow, but with a fair bit of brown on the flatter parts). This takes a while—don’t stop too early, or it won’t be nearly as tasty. Serve hot.
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Okay, I haven’t done this so many times, so please forgive the messiness of my slicing of the kiri bath. Sri Lankans should feel free to look scornfully upon it. I’m just glad I got some actual diamonds. 1 min.
There’s something very satisfying about adding an entire can of coconut milk to your kiri bath. 1 min.