Cook book review - Hidden Kitchens of Sri Lanka by Bree Hutchins

Book review – Hidden Kitchens of Sri Lanka – Bree Hutchins

When I came across a Sri Lankan cook book written by a non Sri Lankan, I was first a little sceptical about it. What would a young, Australian woman know about Sri Lankan cooking was my first cynical thought. She was not even a chef but a lawyer turned food writer.

However, Bree Hutchins’ efforts in unearthing some gems of little known food and her meticulous attention to reproducing some interesting dishes from all over the island of Sri Lanka are commendable and she has produced a book that does Sri Lankan cooking proud. I found her cookbook to contain more authentic Sri Lankan food than many a cook book published by Sri Lankan celebrity chefs and I want to congratulate Bree on her producing such a wonderful addition to the world of Sri Lankan cooking.

Bree has travelled the country courtesy of the Dilmah tea company who sponsored her travels and has peeped into kitchens in many unusual places, a food cart selling street food, a Tamil war widow’s kitchen in the North, a humble tea estate workers kitchen in the hill country, Sinhala and Tamil New Year food prepared in village kitchens by Sinhala and Tamil families, a Muslim woman’s kitchen creating a full feast, a soldier cooking in the army barracks and an entrepreneur making food for sale as well as kitchens that make street food. Her recipes are all tested and she provides a lovely and warm narrative about each dish and the beautiful photographs taken by Bree herself add so much to the value of the book.

Bree has included some unusual recipes such as the prawn vadai sold by a young Muslim man Rahuft on the Galle Face Green. Photograph of these Vadais with three prawns with heads placed parallel on top of the vadais reminds me of the Isso Vadai (prawn vadai or lentil cakes) sold on the trains from Badulla to Colombo I used to take often. She has a recipe for Mothagam which is an unusual Tamil sweet which I have not come across since I tasted it at a friend’s house in Jaffna in the early 80s. I have often wondered how it was made and finally came across the recipe which I will try out very soon.

All recipes in Bree’s book are well written with comprehensive and easy to follow instructions and hints on taking short-cuts and with guidelines on where to get ingredients which are very helpful to people who are new to cooking Sri Lankan. She has included a comprehensive glossary and a list of alternate names of ingredients that would help cooks from both sides of the Atlantic.

Hidden Kitchens include recipes for Muslim delicacies such as biriyani with Korma curry and different garnishes, fried whole chicken, a mungbean-green pea-carrot and cashew curry and a rich vatalappam dessert and a Faluda, a sickeningly sweet gaudy pink drink which is so good to taste. Bree covers food prepared in Dansal - free food stalls that feed passers-by during the Vesak Festival (Celebrations for Lord Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death which falls in May) such as the humble manioc served with a fiery lunu miris (a sambal made out of chillies, salt and Maldive fish), ginger and coriander tea and kola kenda, a green leaf based herbal porridge which is  a healthy and staple breakfast food. She covers Tamil and Sinhala festive food cooked in the kitchens of a Tamil household and that of a young Sinhalese couple in Hatton in the hill country. I was impressed by Bree's attempts at making Konda Kevun or oil cakes which is not something many Sinhalese cooks of this day can achieve.

Not many glossy cook books would include humble fare that is cooked on the humble hearth of a tea estate worker. Mary, a tea plucker from a row of cottages in an upcountry  estate shares her recipes for an egg curry, spinach with dhal and fried cabbage which is delicious. An inmate who works in a prison whose work involves cooking for other inmates makes coconut flatbread (pol roti) eaten with a skipjack tuna curry. A man from a remote village who makes fiery chilli bites and squares of milk toffees using fresh milk have shared their recipes which look very tempting. A typical upcountry village woman reveals her secrets in making curry powder from scratch, a fried potato dish, a Polos Ambula (slow cooked spicy young jack fruit), Okra  curry and Brinjal Moju ( fried and pickled aubergines/brinjals) which are typical Sinhalese dishes that would grace any almsgiving in that area.

As a fan of Tamil food ever since I lived in the hill country and worked in Jaffna, I appreciate the instructions to make some delicious seafood from the North and East Coast such as dubbi nandu (balmain bugs), a tamarind based fish soup Puli aanam, Odiyal kool a beautiful seafood soup which is the signature dish of Jaffna that uses palmyrah flour as a thickener, the fluffy and soft Idlis which are steamed dough cakes accompanied by Rasam and mint Chutney are all there along with a brightly coloured Rasavalli pudding made from a purple yam called Rasavalli. I have never eaten this dish so I made it using frozen purple yam from Thailand which turned out very nice and none of my Sri Lankan friends who tasted it had seen it before. I also tried out Bamini’s thosai (dosas or fluffy pancakes made from fermented batter that consists of black gram, rice and plain flour) from scratch which was different and much better than my usual Thosai recipe using readymade oorid dhal flour. The addition of a Thosai Podi, a spice mix that is sprinkled on Thosai was new to me but was a novel extra.

If Bree stops being a food writer, she can always find work as a photographer as her photos speak volumes. The book is  tribute to all the cooks from the hidden kitchens and the author has done a wonderful job not taking the credit away from the creators of those dishes.

 The author is humble enough to apologise for any errors that she may have made due to her not speaking Sinhala or Tamil and may have made culturally or with historical facts. Even the most eagle-eyed critic would not find many errors as Bree has taken meticulous care in getting her facts right and her book is an endearingly beautifully written and illustrated volume which every Sri Lankan food lover should be proud to own and use often.

As a person passionate about promoting Sri Lankan food to the world, I want to sincerely thank Bree Hutchins and congratulate her on her contribution to the Lankan food scene.

Hidden Kitchens of Sri Lanka is published by Murdoch Books and sponsored by Dilmah and costs approximately A$ 50.