Katta sambal/lunu miris. chilli sambal or Sri Lankan dynamite

My mother or her trustworthy Kussi amma (literally translated as Kitchen Mother or maid) would have laughed their heads off if they saw me publishing a for a very common Sri Lankan dish - Katta sambola or Katta sambal.



My home made Katta Sambal
 

A woman who couldn't make a simple Katta sambal would not be considered to be a woman in their book I guess.

Various brands of Katta sambal available for sale to us now

If you ask any Kussi Amma worth her salt or any village housewife or even a young girl in a village, they would tell you how to make a decent Katta Sambal, a ground concoction made with a couple of red onions, salt, fresh chillies and with the addition with Maldive fish or Umbalakada, ground on a grinding stone and mixed with a little lime juice.

Katta sambal is served with rice, rotis, hoppers or Aappa or eaten with bread. It is a food of the humble poor man. Rice and sambal is meant to be the ultimate poor man's meal.

I craved for a decent Katta sambal when I moved out of Sri Lanka. However, I lived in a place where there were no grinding stones, no hot chillies and certainly no Maldive fish. My parents used to send me care packages of Sri Lankan spices and ones I received a small packet of Maldive fish and I managed to mix it up with sliced white onion, a bit of chilli powder sent from home, ground on a stolen mortar and pestle from the Chemistry laboratory at university and added some lemon juice and made my first sambal. Many years later I still remember how it tasted with some kiribath (milk rice) I made with fresh milk eaten with a few friends in my student hostel.

Living overseas now is not as lonesome as it was when I moved out of Sri Lanka in my late teens. Now I can buy most Sri Lankan food at one of three Sri Lankan shops in Auckland and even in my local Indian shops. One day, a lady in my local Sri Lankan shop was telling me how she marvelled at a nice white man who comes to her shop and calls her auntie and buys bottles of Katta sambal among other things. When she tried to tell him that it was really hot, he had said that he can eat hot food as his mother in law cooks Sri Lankan food. On questioning him, she found that the young white man was my son in law who has a penchant for Katta sambal who even keeps a bottle at work to eat with his lunchtime sandwich.

I still like to make my Katta sambal at home although I can easily buy it over the counter mainly as I don't like anything with preservative in it. All the brands of Katta sambal contains "preservative" but I don't know if it is natural, manmade or unnatural. So despite the other half and son and heir wagging their heads and rolling eyes skyward and wonder why I cannot buy this delicacy like other normal people, I continue to make my own Katta sambal which they devour without hesitation by the bottle.

The other day, a few people who tasted my Katta sambal wanted to know where I bought it so decided to share the recipe particularly for those like me who may be out of their homeland and are craving for Sri Lankan food.

I use the food processor to make my Katta sambal and it is really easy. Here is the recipe.

1 medium red onion chopped roughly
2 tsps. salt
10 tsps. chilli pieces or keli miris
5 tsps. Maldive fish flakes
juice of a small lime or half a lemon

Process the salt and red onion for a  few seconds, add the chilli pieces and process for a couple of minutes.

Lastly add the Maldive fish flakes and process until well mixed and you cannot see the chilli seeds. Lastly add the lime juice and mix.
Store in a dry bottle and keep in fridge.
Makes one jam jar.

Should last for a couple of weeks in fridge.

Hint: - if Maldive fish is not available, you can substitute dried prawns  which you can buy in Asian grocery shops but it alters the taste.

If you don't have a food processor, you can make it with a mortar and pestle with a lot more elbow grease.
 

Koththu roti - Ammi's version of it

Koththu roti - photo credit Pearl of Indian Ocean - Ceylon Facebook page with permission

 

Koththu roti is a very common Sri Lankan food which is made using chopped up Godamba rotis (thin flour based roti tissues) chopped up finely, a handful of vegetables, fish, chicken or meat and the addition of an egg or two and a few sauces.  It has its origins in Malaysia I am sure as Godamba rotis are a version of the Malaysian roti tissue. However, it is now a Sri Lankan dish and we all love it.

Makinng Godamba rotis and then making Koththu is the correct way to do it but I don't have the time nor the patience to do it. So I have derived the easy or the cheat's way to do it.

I use wraps from the supermarket as a fair substitute. The thinner the wraps are, the better. I also don't own one of those metal trays that are traditionally used to make koththu which makes the Koththu sounds when the Koththu cooks make a racket with two cutters that they use to mix everything up.

Traditional way to make Koththu - Photo credit Pearl of the Indian Ocean - Ceylon (with permission)
 

I use my faithful wok to create koththu and although the sound is missing, normally when I make koththu, not a morsel will be left over with my family and friends.

This is my trusted recipe to make Koththu Roti at home especially if you live outside of Sri Lanka and have no access to buying Godamba rotis.

These days, we are able to buy Godamba rotis in packets of 4 or 5 for about $5 in Auckland shops. We even have a Roti Hut opened by a Sri Lankan but not everyone may have access to it as we did a few years ago.

Ingredients:

Serves 4-6

4-6 wraps (the kind that are used to make rolled wraps), cut them into fine pieces with kitchen scissors (about 1" (3 cm) in length and 1/4 " 1 cm) in width or as fine as you can or if you can find them 5-6 plain godamba rotis cut into pieces

2 boiled potatoes, cut into small cubes
2 boiled carrots, cut into small cubes
1 leek chopped finely
1 red and 1 green capsicum or banana chillies (maalu miris) if you can get them, cut into long strips
a handful of cabbage leaves cut finely
1-2 tomatoes chopped
2 red or white onions, sliced finely
3-4 green chillies sliced
a handful of curry leaves
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 small piece of ginger, peeled and grated or crushed
Cooked chicken/ beef or fish (you can use left over curry as I do, cut into bite sized pieces)
4 eggs, whisked lightly and seasoned with salt and pepper
a choice of any sauces that you have : tomato/chilli/soy/fish/Worcester sauce
about 3 tbsps. oil + an additional 1 tbsp.
salt, ground black pepper and chili powder to taste (about 1 tsp each if you must want exactly quantities)


Method:

Heat oil in wok and swirl around to cover the sides. When hot, add the curry leaves and the onions and green chillies and sauté for a minute. Add the ginger garlic pastes, and stir fry till the onion is transparent but not brown. Then add the leeks and stir fry for another minute and then the other vegetables and fry on high heat for a minute or so. Add the potatoes and carrots and then the chopped up wraps or roti pieces. Lastly add the tomatoes. Stir fry using two spoons or fish slices quickly. Add the fish or meat or omit it for vegetarian koththu.

Make a space in the centre of the wok and pour the extra 1 tbsp. oil into this. Let it heat for a few seconds.  Add the eggs into this space and quickly stir fry to lightly scramble egg. Then mix it all up and season with any sauces and check seasoning. Add more salt, chili powder and pepper if you want more spice.

Serve immediately and enjoy.

Ammi's tips:

• I serve it as dinner but you can use it as a snack or a weekend lunch. Left overs, if any, make a lovely lunchbox.
• There are no hard and fast rules about the vegetables you use. Use whatever is in your fridge. Its a great dish to use those odds and ends in the vegetable compartment of a fridge. I have used mushrooms, courgettes, beans, tomatoes etc. with great results.
• If you are using just bland  cooked meat, add a spoon of curry powder
• Usually when I buy a packet of wraps usually one or two could be left over. If this happens, I chop it up and put into a freezer bag and use frozen bits of wraps for koththu on days when I don't feel like doing much cooking.

 

An easy Sri Lankan dinner menu

Some of my foodie friends who are non Sri Lankan often ask me for recipes for a dinner party menu.

The other day, I had to whip up a Sri Lankan dinner party at short notice for a group of non Sri Lankan friends last week. Since I only had a couple of days to do it, I decided to make the first of my lists to project manage the dinner party to make it easier for anyone so decided to post it on my blog.

As I love making lists and keep on ticking off lists as I go, I tend to not stress too much about entertaining as I used to when I first started cooking. I have not given the recipes for Fish cutlets and Wades here as I made them separately and froze them but am happy to do another blog on SL street food at some point

I hope this blog post will help anyone who is keen to try their hand at Sri Lankan cooking to create a great dinner menu for a group of up to about 8-10.

This is only a sample and I created it to accommodate meat eaters, pescatarian and vegetarian guests.

List 1: my menu

Snacks:

Fish cutlets, Wade (little lentil balls), Spiced cashews (recipes for these will not be given here but I will do another blog post on SL street food shortly)

Main menu:

Sri Lankan style vegetable fried rice

Sri Lankan chicken curry

Cashew curry

Seer fish in vinegar and mustard sauce ( thora maalu thel vinakiri)

Mushroom and green bean dry curry

Mixed salad

Poppadum

Desserts: individual crème caramels and Marie biscuit pudding'

My recipes

Sri Lankan style vegetable fried rice

 

 

Ingredients:

5 cups Basmati rice, washed, soaked in water for 15 mts and drained for 15 mts]

6 cups vegetable stock or water

1 small onion chopped finely

1 tsp garlic and ginger paste

1 large carrot peeled and cut into thin matchsticks

1 leek, green part only, cut into thin matchsticks

2 eggs

a handful of green peas, thawed

a large knob of butter

2 tsp oil

a few curry leaves

Method:

Heat  half of the oil and butter in a large wok or fry pan Sauté the curry leaves and then add the onions. Stir fry till onions are translucent.  Add the drained rice and stir fry over low heat for another 5 mts. Add the stock or water and cook, either in a rice cooker if you have one or on the stove, on high heat until most of the water evaporates. Then cover and lower the heat to very low and cook covered and without peeking for another 15 mts or till rice is done. Leave to cool.

Heat the rest of the oil and butter in wok. Then add the ginger garlic paste and fry for a few seconds and add the finely cut carrots and leeks and stir fry. Add the peas. Then add the cold rice and stir fry till combined. Make a thin omelette with the two eggs and salt and pepper. Cut into thin strips and decorate the rice with it.

Sri Lankan chicken curry

 

Ingredients:

Chicken thighs cut into two or three if they are large

for the marinade:

    1 tsp chilli powder

    2 tsps. roasted Sri Lankan curry powder

    1 tsp ground black pepper

    1 tsp salt

    a few cloves

    a few cardamom seeds

    a piece of cinnamon

    2 tsp ginger garlic paste

one large or two small onions, chopped finely

two pieces of pandan leaves (rampe)

a few curry leaves

2 tbsp. cooking oil

half a cup coconut milk

2 tbsps. tamarind pulp

Method:

Mix in the marinade ingredients and coat the chicken well. Cover and marinade for a few hours or overnight.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and sauté the curry leaves in it. Add the onions and sauté till they change light and translucent. Then add the chicken pieces and stir fry on high heat till meat is sealed. Lower heat; add the rest of the ingredients except coconut milk and tamarind, cover and cook for 15 mts. Add the coconut milk and tamarind and stir well. Cook for another 5 mts on low heat.

Cashew curry

 

Cashew curry
 

 

Ingredients:

400 g raw cashews

2 medium onions, chopped finely

3 green chillies, sliced thinly

a few curry leaves

a piece of Pandan leaf (Rampe)

1 tsp turmeric powder

2 tsps. unroasted Sri Lankan Curry Powder

2 tbsps. oil

a piece of Cinnamon bark

salt to taste

a few pieces of Gamboge (Gliricinia Cambodia) or Goraka - optional. You can use lemon juice if you can’t find it

1 cup thin coconut milk (1/3 cup canned coconut milk diluted with 2/3 cups water if you are using canned coconut milk)

1 cup thick coconut milk or coconut cream

Method:

Soak the cashews in boiled very hot water for about an hour. Drain well.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Sauté the curry leaves and then the onions till soft but not browned. Add the green chillies and turmeric and mix. Add the curry powder and then the well-drained cashew nuts. Add the Pandan leaf, Gamboge, cinnamon and stir fry for about five minutes. Add the thin coconut milk and bring to the boil. Cover and cook over a very low heat for about 20 mts. Then add the salt and thick coconut milk and cook until thick.

Seer fish in vinegar and mustard sauce ( thora maalu thel vinakiri)

Seer fish in vinegar and mustard sauce Green bean and mushroom dish is on the right

 

Ingredients:

500 gms Seer fish or any white fish such as King Fish (I used Seer from the Sri Lankan shop here)

2 onions sliced into rounds

a  few curry leaves

a couple of pieces of Pandan leaf (Rampe)

a handful of chopped coriander leaves (Cilantro) optional

half a tsp turmeric

1 tsp salt

a few peppercorns

two or three pieces of Gamboge or Goraka (optional)

2 tbsps. white vinegar

1 tsp ground mustard seeds

1 tsp ground black pepper

5 cloves of garlic thinly sliced

a 5 cm piece of ginger grated finely

1 tbsp. oil

half a cup of coconut milk

Method:

Place the fish slices in a saucepan and sprinkle a little water. Add the Pandan, gamboge and curry leaves, turmeric, peppercorns, salt to taste and cook on low heat until the fish is partly cooked. Leave aside

Heat oil in a large frying pan or wok. Add some curry leaves and sauté. Add the onion rings, green chillies and sliced garlic and ginger and stir fry till soft but now brown.  Then add the liquid from the fish and coconut milk and cook until thick. Add the mustard, salt and pepper. Add the fish pieces making sure you don't break them and mix until the fish is nicely coated and done. Serve in a shallow dish with the onion and sauce covering the fish pieces.

Mushroom and green bean dry curry

Ingredients:

500 gms green beans, topped and tailed and cut into two or three pieces

1 onion chopped

150 gms button mushrooms, wiped and sliced thinly

3 green chillies sliced

1 tsp unroasted Sri Lankan curry powder

half tsp turmeric powder

half a cup coconut milk

1 tsp ginger garlic paste

a few curry leaves

2 tbsps. oil

salt to taste

Heat oil in a saucepan. Sauté curry leaves and onion, Add ginger garlic paste and sauté for 1 mt Add the curry powder and turmeric and then the mushrooms. Stir fry for a minute or two and then add the green beans. Cook for about 3 mts and add the coconut milk and salt. Stir fry till the moisture evaporates.

Mixed salad

I used lettuce leaves, chopped cucumber, chopped tomatoes, sliced red onion and olives in a homemade salad dressing using a little lemon juice, salt, pepper, mustard powder, olive oil and sugar to make a simple salad. 

Individual crème caramel puddings

 

Ingredients:

1 can condensed milk

1.5 cans hot water

8 dessertspoonfuls white sugar for caramel

1 tsp vanilla

4 eggs whisked

In a small saucepan place the sugar and just sufficient water to cover and heat on medium heat until the sugar is just caramelised but not burnt. When it is golden remove from heat and spoon into 8-10 muffin or patty pans and swirl around to coat the bottom. Keep aside.

Preheat oven to 180 deg Place a baking tin of boiling water in the bottom shelf of oven.

Dissolve the condensed milk in hot water and beat into the whisked eggs. Add vanilla and mix. Strain into each muffin cup carefully. Bake in a preheated 180 degrees C oven for about 15 mts until firm. Cool and chill. Unmould onto a serving dish

Marie biscuit pudding  (sorry no photo)

1 packet Marie biscuits. I use Arnotte's in NZ

150 ml thick cream

1 cup castor sugar

4 tbsps. of good quality cocoa powder

3 free range eggs separated

1 tbsp. Kahlua or coffee flavoured liqueur or Brandy

half cup cold milk

Chopped cashews and glace cherry halves to decorate

Place the egg whites in a dry grease free bowl, Add a pinch of salt and whisk till stiff peaks form. Add the caster sugar and beat well until stiff peaks form Add each egg yolk and beat well Add the cocoa and mix in. Whisk the cream till soft peaks form and fold in. Add in the liqueur.

Take a pretty glass dish and quickly soak the biscuits in milk and place a layer of biscuits in the glass dish. Add a layer of the chocolate cream. Repeat layers ending up with a cream layer. Make sure that the biscuits don't get overly soggy. Cover with cling wrap and chill overnight. Just before serving, sprinkle with chopped cashew nuts and a few halved glace cherries

These quantities should serve from 6-8 people.

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Other helpful information:
List 2: My Shopping list

List of Ingredients:

Grocery shop

1 kg Basmati rice

400 g raw cashew

8  onions and 2 red onions

A few olives

2 eggs

Chicken thighs

500 g Seer fish or any other white fish steams cut in half if large

coconut milk and coconut cream

1 can condensed milk

7 free range eggs

1 packet Marie biscuits

150 ml thick cream

1 cup castor sugar

4 tbsps. of good quality cocoa powder

1 tbsp. Kahlua or coffee flavoured liqueur or Brandy

Chopped cashews and glace cherry halves to decorate

 

 

 

Vegetable shop or isle

1 large carrot

1 leek

5 cloves of garlic

a 5 cm piece of ginger

500 gms green beans

150 gms button mushroom

Half a head lettuce leaves

1 lebanese cucumber

3 tomatoes

Pantry stapes (check if you have them before buying)

vegetable stock powder

garlic and ginger paste

green peas

Cooking oil

Butter

 ground black pepper

 salt

white sugar

White vinegar

vanilla

milk

Spices: (from a Sri Lankan spice shop)

chilli powder

Sri Lankan curry powder – roasted

Sri Lankan curry powder – un roasted

Ground turmeric

Cloves

 a few cardamom seeds

  Cinnamon

a few pieces of Gamboge (Gliricinia Cambodia) or Goraka or lemon juice if it is not available

Small packet curry leaves or dried curry leaves

A packet of frozen or dried Pandan leaves (rampe)

a handful of chopped coriander leaves (Cilantro) optional

a few peppercorns

1 tsp ground mustard seeds

tamarind pulp or tamarind

100 g green chillies

 

 

List 3: My to do's list

Two days before

□  grocery shopping

One day before -

□Marinade chicken pieces

□ peel and cut carrots finely, cut leek leaves into tiny pieces and keep in fridge

□ top and tail beans, wash and cut into pieces and place in fridge

□ peel onions and garlic and keep in fridge in a plastic bag

□ Make caramel puddings and chill

□ Make biscuit pudding and chill

□ make cutlets and chill

day of dinner -

□ Make chicken curry

□ Soak cashews and hour before cooking curry

□ make cashew  curry

□ make fish dish

□ cook rice and let cool

□ cook the beans

□ cut veggies for salad and keep in fridge

□ fry poppadums and put into a plastic bag and tie it up

□ fry rice

□ unmould crème caramels onto serving dish, cover and chill

□ decorate biscuit pudding and chill

□ lay the table

□ fry cutlets and wades and drain

 

 

Filled godamba rotis - Sri Lankan street food

I need to make some Sri Lankan finger food for a gathering. I usually make my tried and tested fish buns or maalu paan for it but this time around someone else has agreed to make it and I wanted to make something that is not too difficult and decided to try my hand at making filled godamba or gothamba rotis.

For those of you who are not too familiar with Sri Lankan food, godamba rotis probably have their origin in Malaysia or Singapore or thereabouts as I have come across similar roti tissues in that part of the world. However, as we do, we Lankans have adopted this item and made it our own. We fill the tissues with fiery fish, meat and vegetable fillings and call them maalu roti (fish roti), mas roti (meat roti) or elavalu roti (vegetable roti).  They are a popular street food and it is common to see them in many a street food stall or roadside tea house to be washed down with a cup of hot sweet plain tea.

I learnt how to make godamba roti from our Appu (cook) Arunasalam and he could whip up a batch of these rotis in no time. He painstakingly showed me how to flip the rotis on a flat griddle to create gossamer thin, translucent tissues by the flick of his wrist. I mastered the art then but with a fractured wrist that has become weak, I am not able to achieve this anymore. However, I can make passably good roties by flattening them down on a normal cutting board.

Ingredients:

 4.5 cups of plain or all purpose flour (250 g x 4.5 =  gms)
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp cooking oil ((I used rice bran oil)
Cold water (approximately ml)
an extra half cup of oil to soak the dough balls

Place the sifted flour in a large bowl and make a hole in the middle. Add salt and oil and bind with water to make a stiffish dough adding sufficient water. Knead well for 5 minutes or until the dough is springy (like bread dough).

Make into small balls and place in a bowl with the oil and swirl around to coat the dough balls with oil. Cover with cling wrap and leave for at least half a day or overnight.

Meanwhile make a filling using flaked canned or cooked fresh fish/mince or finely chopped chicken or a vegetable filling.

Basic veggie filling:

Boil 3 potatoes, peel and mash roughly. Saute about 2 chopped onions, a couple of green chillies, a few curry leaves in a tablespoon of oil. Add some ginger garlic paste and stir fry for a minute. Add your choice of chopped vegetables such as chopped leeks, parboiled and grated carrot, finely shredded cabbage leaves etc. and stir fry. Season with a little ground turmeric, unroasted curry powder and season with salt and pepper. Add the boiled potato lastly and mix well. You can add some Worcestershire sauce or tomato sauce if you like.

You can add cooked flaked fish or cooked meat to this mixture to create a fish or meat filling too or chopped hardboiled eggs.

Heat a griddle or a flat bottomed frying pan on medium heat and grease with melted butter or oil when heated.

Take one of the dough balls and using your oil smeared hands flatten each ball out into a thin tissue on a work surface or board. Place a heaped tablespoon of filling and fold the sides to envelope the filling and create a square, oblong or triangular shape and tucking the ends in. Place on the hot griddle and cook until lightly browned and turn over.

Repeat with all the balls and cook all 4 sides of the rotis, stacking them as you go.

Once cooked serve them on their own or with a sauce on the side.

I didn't take photos of my end product so borrowed this photo from the Pearl of the Indian Ocean Facebook page. Thank you for that.