Category: Vegan

Okay, and here the recipes still to finalize, I think. Coming soon! Although there are 24 here, and only supposed to be 15 or so, so some may be cut — if there are recipes here you’d particularly like to see, let me know!

* steamed roasted appams

* fenugreek gravy

* spicy mashed green gram balls

• “Beyond” chicken curry?

* tomato & passionfruit jam

• bonda

* green gram pudding

Spending a little time this morning trying to figure out what I want to include in Vegan Serendib. I’d really like to finalize the table of contents by the end of April, and I think that’s do-able. The plan was to remove all the meat and fish and egg recipes from Feast (about 40), and replace those with 40 new vegan recipes from Sri Lanka.

The problem isn’t finding those — the problem is narrowing down which ones to include. So far, I’m pretty happy with all of these, which means I probably have room for about 10-15 more. I kind of lost track of my test cooks last fall when things got busy (I blame the pandemic and switching to online teaching), so I need to ask people to start test cooking recipes again.

I kind of love that the Vegetables section has expanded to Savory Fruits, Flowers, and Vegetables. There’s a rose & hibiscus salad coming, for example.

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SAVORY FRUITS, FLOWERS, and VEGETABLES:

• Bottle Gourd and Spinach Curry: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10161550809829616

• Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Jaggery, Balsamic, and Cayenne:

https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10161625256254616

• Green Chili Curry: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10162062139529616

• Green Tomato and Lentil Curry: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10161542190374616

– tested by Taylor, Lucinda, Jennifer, Linda

• Dried Hibiscus Poriyal: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10161534798914616

• Hibiscus (Shoeflower) Curry / Sembaruthipoo Kari: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10161535931054616

• Pineapple Curry with Coconut Milk and Saffron: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10161949008449616

• Mild Green Plantain Curry: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10161568742619616

• Spicy Plantain Curry: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10161568698699616

• Tempered Green Plantain Peel: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10161570297779616

• Pumpkin Curry: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10161581447339616

ACCOMPANIMENTS:

• Green Tomato Chutney with Apples: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10161531491924616

– tested by Jude and Jessica

• Quick-Pickled Cucumber-Carrot Relish: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10161534135234616

– tested by Maya

• Eggplant Pickle / Brinjal Moju: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10161597857279616

• Spicy Pineapple Pickle (Achar): https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10161948554219616

• Plantain Sambol: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10161569885339616

• Roasted Pumpkin Seeds: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10161582154884616

SOUPS:

• Curried Pumpkin Soup: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10161582206649616

GRAINS:

• Keerai (Spinach) Pittu: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10162072391064616

• Milk Rice / Kiri Bath (with Bottle Gourd variation): https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10161553704479616

• Tamarind Rice with Black Lentils: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10161951228944616

• Toasted Coconut and Sesame Rice, with Black Lentils: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10161952261869616

SWEETS:

• Lime & Coconut Scones, with Lime Glaze: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10161969747104616

• Mango-Ginger Scones, topped with Jaggery: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10161854232729616

• Irasavalli Kizhangu Kanji / Purple Yam Pudding or Porridge: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10162109419154616

Question for vegans — as I’m working on Vegan Serendib, I’m mostly just creating recipes that are already vegan in nature — vegetable pickles, sambols, curries, etc. BUT, I’d like to include at least a few using specifically vegan ingredients, such as agar-agar, used to substitute for gelatin.

I could just buy a bunch of different things and try them, but I’d like to stay as much as possible to ingredients that are easy to get for the home cook.

Tell me about your vegan cupboard — what do you typically have on hand already? Vegan butter? Agar-agar? What else?

Thanks!

I could use a little naming help. I’m developing 40-ish recipes for Vegan Serendib, and we’d like to offer a digital supplement of just those recipes, primarily for people who’ve bought Feast already, and don’t want to buy a whole other cookbook with a lot of duplication. I don’t know what to call it, though.

Serendib Supplement is logical, but sounds like I’m selling vitamins. I don’t love it.

Bonus Serendib?

Serendib: Second Helpings (vegan edition)?

Something else?

Lord, I hate naming things. Help.

We got our first pre-order of Vegan Serendib, today, woohoo! Which also reminded me that I should tell you that it’s now available for pre-order.

I do want to be clear that there’s a lot of overlap with Feast, if you already own that — I’m developing about 40 new recipes for Vegan, along with about 60+ brought over from Feast.

Eventually, we’re thinking we’ll issue “Serendib Supplements” of some kind, so that people who bought Feast can get the new recipes from Vegan without buying a whole new cookbook. But I’m not honestly sure how quickly that’ll happen. I think we can get the digital version together quickly, but the print editions may take a bit. (And then the same thing with Gluten-Free Serendib, which we’re planning for 2022 release).

And someday, when there’s enough new recipes, we’ll hopefully do a glorious two-volume Feast of Serendib — twice as big, with ALL the recipes thus far, so completists can get everything in a coherent package. A real feast. That’s at least 3 years out, though, maybe more.

So with all that in mind, here’s your pre-order link!

https://serendib-kitchen.myshopify.com

Oh, it’s going to be a little difficult deciding which recipes to include in Vegan Serendib. The temptation is, of course, to put more and more in, to make it really comprehensive. But every time you add a recipe with a color photo, you add some cost to the production of the book. So add 10 recipes, and you have to add a few dollars to the cost, to even have it break even.

The question is whether to make it the same size as Feast(100+ recipes) and the same similar $40 cost, or let it be a little smaller and more affordable. We should be able to do a paperback without photos as a compromise (maybe $25 instead of $40) but that does have similar price concerns regarding length — if I made it shorter, I could make that cheaper too.

80 recipes for $30 hc / $20 pb?

60 recipes for $25 hc / $15 pb?

(Rough estimates…)

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Brainstorming possibilities now — here are a few I’m considering adding. More will come. If there are any here you want to advocate for, now is the time. I’ve *starred the definite additions.

Vegetables (mostly as curry or varai):

1) ash plantain (mild or spicy, with kaliya curry variation)

2) poosanikai / ash pumpkin (wintermelon) curry

– vellai (white), variation rasavangi (tamarind)

3) bitter gourd curry

4) breadfruit curry

5) elephant foot // karanai yam (substitute sweet potato) curry or roast

6) plantain flower (if I can find some)

7) snake gourd // pudalangai (substitute summer squash)

8. ridged gourd (substitute zucchini)

9) green chili curry

10) hibiscus curry or sambol

11) sweet pumpkin (or acorn squash, or butternut squash)

Grains:

* milk rice

– jaggery rice

– tamarind rice

Soup:

– dhal rasam (lentil soup)

Accompaniments:

* brinjal moju

– fried jackfruit seed

– quick-pickled cucumber-carrot relish

– acharu (vegetable pickle)

– lime pickle

– green tomato chutney (daily)

– pickled dates

– passionfruit jam

– green banana peel chutney

Snacks:

– bonda

– kolukattai

Desserts

– thengai paal / coconut milk payasam

– parippu piyasam

– laddu and variations

– coconut milk ice cream

– passionfruit sorbet

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And this is what’s already confirmed, recipe-tested, etc., and WILL be included (about 40) — these are all in Feast:

Appetizers:

Dried Chili-Mango Cashews / Kari-Maangai Kaju

Vegetable Cutlets

Lentil Patties / Kadalai

Vegetables:

Basic Approaches to Vegetables

Cashew Curry / Kaju Kari

Eggplant Curry / Kathrikkai Kari

Green Mango Curry / Mankkai Kari

Green Jackfruit Curry / Pilakkai Kari

Okra Curry / Vendikkai Kari

Deviled Potatoes / Ooralai Kulunga

Cauliflower Poriyal

Eggplant, Potato, and Pea Pod Poriyal

Tempered Lentils / Paruppu

Cabbage Varai / Muttaikoss Varai

Green Bean Varai

Sambar

Accompaniments:

Pickled Beet Salad

Green Coconut Chutney / Thengai Chutney

Mango Pickle / Maangai Oorukkai

Coriander Soup / Kothamalli Rasam

Bitter Gourd Sambol / Paavakkai Sambol

Chili Onion Sambol / Lunu Miris Sambol

Coconut Sambol / Thengai-Poo or Pol Sambol

Eggplant Sambol / Kattharikkai Sambol

Kale Sambol

Sweet Onion Sambol / Seeni Sambol

Coconut Milk Gravy / Sothi

Grains:

Golden Rice Pilaf

Vegetarian Biryani

Herbal Porridge / Kola Kenda

Hoppers / Appam

Stringhoppers / Iddiyappam

Plain Roti / Godambu Roti

Chopped Roti Stir Fry / Kottu Roti

Savory Rice Pancakes / Thosai

Steamed Rice Flour and Coconut / Arisi-Maa Pittu

Stir-Fried Semolina / Uppuma

Sweets and Drinks: Tropical Fruit SaladFresh Sweet Lime Juice / Thesikkai SaaruMango or Passionfruit LassiArrack SourMango-Passionfruit Punch or Mimosa

I’d love to find some vegan test cooks for the new vegan edition of my Sri Lankan cookbook.

I’m hoping to get 5 volunteers who are willing to test cook maybe 10 new recipes over the course of the next month. You’d let me know if any of the instructions need clarifying, and I’d love your thoughts on flavor profiles, cooking techniques, etc. as well. In exchange, I’ll be happy to send you a hard cover + ebook edition of either the vegan cookbook, or, if you prefer, the original Feast of Serendib cookbook (you can even mix and match one of each).

I’d love to get some experienced vegan cooks to take a look at these recipes; if you’re familiar with South Asian and/or Sri Lankan cuisine already, that’s great, but not necessary, since I’m hoping this cookbook will be accessible to a broad range of readers.

UPDATE: I think I’m up to 5 test cooks! That was fast! But if you’d like to follow along on my wall, I’ll be posting the recipes here over the next month, and I’ll be giving out some free ebook copies here as well! All my posts are public, so no need to friend me — a follow should work fine.

Do I have any vegan Sri Lankans in the house? I’m starting work on expanding Vegan Serendib, and I’d love to hear more about what dishes you particularly love and would want to see in a cookbook like this.

Other vegans are welcome to weigh in too, and other Sri Lankans, and, well, anyone, really.

Cover not final, but isn’t it spiffy? Jeremy John Parker does great work!