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Dried Hibiscus Poriyal

(15-20 minutes, serves 4 as a side)

In Sri Lanka, hibiscus grows freely in many gardens, and it’s easy to pick some for a curry. It’s a little harder to come by fresh hibiscus blossoms here in Chicagoland, but dried hibiscus is readily available in local Latino markets and online, and coconut milk helps rehydrate the dried blooms.

This poriyal is a bright, tangy element on a rice and curry plate. Be sure to use edible food-grade hibiscus blossoms.

2 T vegetable oil
1 small onion, chopped (about one c.)
1 t. mustard seed
1 t. cumin seed
1 stalk curry leaves (about a dozen)
1/2 t. turmeric
1/2 t. salt
1 c. dried hibiscus flowers
1/2 c. coconut milk

1 c. grated coconut

1. Heat vegetable oil in a medium saucepan and add onion, mustard seed, cumin seed, curry leaves, turmeric, and salt. Sauté on medium high, stirring, until onions are golden-translucent.

2. Add dried hibiscus flowers and stir for a few more minutes until well blended, then add coconut milk and simmer, stirring, for 3-5 minutes more.

3. Stir in fresh grated coconut and serve with rice and curries.

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Quick-Pickled Cucumber-Carrot Relish

This relish grew out of a need to use the last of my pickling cucumbers from the garden (we’d already pickled so many!), and a recipe from Jehan at Island Smile (https://www.islandsmile.org).

Their original recipe was a simple quick pickle, and you could certainly do just that, for a fresh note on your rice and curry plate or in your sandwich; it reminds me of the quick pickles you find in Japanese and Vietnamese cuisine, retaining a little toothsome bite.

If you’d like, though, you can add an extra step, tempering some mustard and fennel seeds to add a seasoned complex note to the dish. Tempering spices in hot oil is a classic South Asian technique, and I really love what it does for these pickled veggies.

We had this relish with grilled pork chops (rubbed with Sri Lankan curry powder, salt, and oil) for our dinner last night. I kept eating carrot and cucumber slices straight out of the bowl while waiting for the pork to finish cooking. Yum.

2 T vegetable oil, optional
1 t. black or brown mustard seeds, optional
1 t. fennel seeds, optional
3 T sugar
1/2 c white vinegar
1 T red chili flakes
2 t. salt
3 cucumbers, sliced in paper-thin rounds
3 carrots, sliced in paper-thin rounds
3 green chilies chopped fine

1 medium onion (red or yellow), sliced fine

1. OPTIONAL: Heat oil in a small frying pan, add mustard seeds, cook until seeds begin to pop, releasing mustard scent. Turn off heat and stir in fennel seeds, frying for another 30 seconds or so. Let cool.

2. In a large bowl, combine sugar, vinegar, chili, and salt.

3. Add chopped veggies and mix (easiest to do with your clean hands.

4. If using tempered spice oil, pour into bowl and mix well.

5. Let sit 10 minutes or so, then enjoy!

NOTE: Will keep for about a week in the refrigerator.

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Sri Lankan Green Tomato Chutney with Apples

In America, this is the perfect end-of-season chutney, using up the tomatoes that didn’t have a chance to ripen. It balances sweet, tangy, spicy, and salty, but the fabulous part of making your own chutney is that you can easily adjust seasonings to taste. So if you want it a bit sweeter, add a little more jaggery; if you want less heat, reduce the cayenne, or omit it entirely.

I’ve combined mine with apples and other fall flavors. For a more traditional version, substitute in more green tomatoes for the apples, and use white wine vinegar.

This chutney would be delicious at the Thanksgiving table, alongside a honey ham, and it’s also yummy on crusty bread slathered with a little butter, with grilled pork or leftover roast turkey. It’s also terrific with rice and curry, of course!

2 T vegetable oil
1 tsp black mustard seed
1 onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
4 c. green tomatoes, chopped
2 green apples, chopped
1 oz. ginger, minced
1 c. apple cider vinegar
2 T jaggery or brown sugar
1/4 – 1/2 t. cayenne
1 tsp fennel seeds
3 whole cloves
1 stick cinnamon

Sauté onions in butter with black mustard seed in a saucepan on medium-high high until onions are golden-translucent, stirring regularly.

Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer, cover, and cook 45 minutes.

Variation: Add 1/2 c. sultanas or chopped apricots for a fruitier version.

Note: Will keep refrigerated for a week or two in the fridge; follow proper canning instructions to store safely for months in the pantry; refrigerate after opening.

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Pear, Prosciutto, and Gruyere

Really missing traveling this morning. We promised our daughter we’d take her to Paris for her 13th birthday, sort of to make up for having to spend a year not traveling at all, e-learning, etc. A year should give us time to save up for the trip.

I’ve been there once for work and was startled to find that Paris was in fact just as magical as all the stories say, and having a croissant from any little bakery on the street was consistently perfection.

So today, instead of our standard apple-cheddar crescent rolls I went for something a little more sophisticated — pear, prosciutto, and Gruyere.

I wasn’t sure the kids would appreciate it, but thankfully they loved it. 🙂

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A Cookbook Classic

I’m going through all of my Sri Lankan cookbooks, trying to decide which new recipes to add to Vegan Serendib. The Ceylon Daily News cookbook is a classic — it’s also pretty funny!

It’s at least half western cuisine, I think mostly British, and a sampling of the luncheon menus provided will give you a good sense of the kinds of menus a certain class of Sri Lankans were attempting to provide a few decades ago.

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Rough Estimates

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…)

*****

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

*****

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

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Eggplant Sambol / Kattharikai Sambol

(1 hour prep, 20 minutes cooking, serves 8)

My vegetarian friends are particularly fond of this dish. It offers a bright note, with its raw onion and lime juice, that wakes up a plate of rice and curry.

1 eggplant
1 rounded tsp salt
1 rounded tsp turmeric
oil for deep frying
3 fresh green chilies, sliced thin
1 medium onion, sliced thin
lime juice

1/4 cup coconut milk, optional

1. Cut eggplant into quarters lengthwise and then slice thinly. Rub with salt and turmeric, spread on a few layers of paper towels and leave at least 1 hour. Bitter water will rise to the surface of the eggplant; blot that water with more paper towels. This will make for much tastier eggplant.

2. Heat about an inch of oil in a deep frying pan and fry eggplant slices slowly until brown on both sides. Lift out with Chinese spider (mesh metal spoon) and put in a dry bowl.

3. Mix with remaining ingredients; serve warm.

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Calling for Vegan Test Cooks

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.

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Feast Featured in Publishers Weekly

A Feast of Serendib was featured in Publishers Weekly’s Holiday Gift Guide under Cookbooks!

Holiday Gift Guide 2020: Nonfiction

These stellar books reveal the lives of myriad artists and writers, from rock stars to sommeliers and literary luminaries. Borges and Me: An Encounter Jay Parini (Doubleday) ISBN 978-0-385-54582-2, $27.95 In this astute memoir, novelist Parini writes of leaving Pennsylvania in 1971 to pursue a PhD in literature at St.