Category: Dinner

Sri Lankan chicken curry — this one is just a staple. I probably ate it every week, growing up, and must have cooked it at least once a week for myself when I was in grad school.

For Kev and the kids, I cut most of the chicken thighs off the bones, but I throw the bones in to cook, because it adds immensely to the flavor.

Amma likes to crack the bones with her teeth and suck out the marrow; she’s hard-core. It’s her birthday today — thinking of her.

I came home from World Fantasy and almost immediately made myself comfort food — beef and potato curry, the first thing I really learned to cook, with some indulgent short-grain white rice.

I usually try to make rice with a lower glycemic index, because I had gestational diabetes with Anand, so I try to be a little careful of my sugars. But sometimes, you just want to indulge.

Kavi and Kevin love this curry too — Anand still can’t handle anything spicy, poor munchkin. Sensitive tongue!

I’m getting better at using these molds — it took about 30 minutes to cut and fill 5 pies (plus one empanada-style with the leftover pie crust).

And I used a Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust, which meant that there was only about 45-60 minutes of active cooking time (take pie shell out of fridge, let thaw, make filling, roll out and cut and fill fox and owl, brush with beaten egg), and then bake about 30 minutes.

If you choose to cut the eyes and other parts completely out, rather than just leaving an impression, be careful not to overfill, or they’ll likely break apart while baking.

Rich and tasty dinner, paired with a citrus-spinach salad to cut the richness.

A friend came by for lunch yesterday; we had talked about getting Indian takeout, but I’m trying to eat a little healthier, and I had time, so I ended up cooking Sri Lankan instead.

(Not to claim Sri Lankan is inherently healthier than Indian, just that my cooking is usually healthier than restaurant takeout.)

I’m trying to amp up the health aspects of some of my meals:

• I tried adding sweet potatoes to the chicken curry (good, but got a little overcooked, should have added them later in the process)

• did half-and-half basmati and Sri Lankan red rice (lower glycemic index than white rice, doesn’t take any longer to cook, adds a subtle nutty flavor)

• served with cabbage mallung, which is already pretty darn healthy (cabbage, onions, coconut, green chili, just a touch of veg. oil)

Tasty meal.

Technically, nasturtiums aren’t classically part of Sri Lankan kale sambol, but I grew these from seed, so I added them, and they’re so pretty and edible and why the heck not?

Nice to have enough time to make my favorite curry.

I tried to reproduce two of Amma’s classic dishes to tempt her appetite — we’re trying to get her to eat a little more. High stakes cooking!

The carrot curry actually came out better than it has in years, even though I didn’t have green chilies on hand. The beef and potato curry was reasonably good, but not as good as hers, and I don’t know why! Her cooking is just magic.

I may have last-minute decided to do a Jaffna crab curry — which is mostly an indulgence for me, because I love it, but no one else in my house eats crab, so I don’t have much of an excuse to make it. But party.

Of course, it does mean that anyone unwilling to eat rice and curry with their clean hands instead of knife and fork is going to have a challenge…

Thanks to my sister Sharms Murraj, who taught me how to make this one. It’s her birthday today! Happy happy birthday, kiddo!

Cooking for Wednesday’s pre-ChiCon party is coming along nicely, I think. Focusing on Sri Lankan stuff for now, since the American food will be mostly just throw it on the grill and/or order.

Kevin helped me tonight with mixing up fluff, chopping cashews, peeling beets and matchsticking them, so it was reasonably low effort knocking out four more dishes, even after coming home from teaching at 7 (it helped that I had seasoned onions ready in the fridge for the curries). Made the mango fluff, the cashew & cranberry milk toffee, the curried beets, and the cashew curry.

Big triumph of the night was figuring out why my last several batches of milk toffee had tried to burn — I kept thinking it was because I’d switched pots, but no — it’s that my Wolf range runs hotter than a normal range, and I’d forgotten that I need to adjust my recipe for that (from medium-high to medium, and from medium to medium-low). SO nice not having to worry about it burning this time!

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Menu planning, for the curious. It’s like prepping for Thanksgiving, but more so. Currently have 95 Yes RSVP’d, with another 23 Maybe. I expect some will drop out due to travel complications, tiredness, etc., but still should be a good-sized shindig. Of course, Amma regularly threw birthday parties for something like 150-200 Sri Lankan diaspora folks, so I have a ways to go still…

Thank goodness the weather is looking pretty perfect for Wed — we should be able to be mostly outdoors. Otherwise, my house would be bursting a bit at the seams!

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SRI LANKAN COOKING

– pick up some appetizers from Indian store (Darius Vinesar, I may send you on this errand on Wed; I’ll order in advance)
– beef curry — DONE
– pork curry — DONE
– shrimp curry — DONE
– lamb curry (mild) — DONE
– deviled potatoes — DONE
– carrot curry — DONE
– coconut sambol — DONE
– cashew curry — DONE
– curried beets — DONE
– naan — BOUGHT
– mango fluff — DONE
– milk toffee — DONE (except for cutting)

COOK TUESDAY:

– lentil curry
– kaliya curry (eggplant, potato, and plantain)
– jackfruit & chickpea curry
– cabbage varai

MAYBE COOK?

– green mango salad
– vatallappam
– passionfruit marshmallows
– coconut rock

MAKE WEDNESDAY:

– kale sambol
– saffron, sultana, and cashew rice (use vegan butter)
– tropical fruit salad
– mango-passionfruit punch

FOR GRILL:

– Sri Lankan eggplant & mushroom skewers (use vegan mayo and yogurt)
– Sri Lankan bell pepper and ripe jackfruit skewers
– Sri Lankan grilled chicken kabobs
– hot dogs, hamburgers, sausages
– corn with elotes fixings
– pineapple & mango skewers with chili, salt, and lime
– potato salad
– watermelon if it’s hot
– pies

Tuesday night: move frozen curries to fridge; get ice bags for chest freezer

WEDNESDAY: Order Chicago-style pizza

Shifting into high gear for the party cooking. To try to keep myself sane, I made the meat curries in advance and froze them, so these are done:

– beef curry
– black pork curry
– tamarind shrimp
– lamb curry (mild)

I also made a big batch of coconut sambol. Next step, the veggie dishes (which are all incidentally vegan, which is easy to do with Sri Lankan cooking — just be sure to use oil instead of ghee, and don’t add in the tiny dried shrimp or Maldive fish that are sometimes added to veg dishes).

Yesterday I started off with eight bags of frozen chopped onions and sauteed then in my biggest sauté pan (which is very big) with oil, black mustard seed, cumin seed, cloves, cardamom, and cinnamon stick. That makes a great base for many of our dishes, and will make cooking for a party much faster.

So far, I’ve taken portions of those seasoned onions, and made the two curries that I can do in my sleep, devilled potatoes and sweet carrot curry (with a bit of heat from green chilies). The list of dishes I’m hoping to do is probably longer than I actually have time for, given I have to, you know, teach today, for example. But if I end up with extra seasoned onions, they freeze well, so can be stowed away for a hectic future day.