Roasting spices
Sri Lankan spices are used both roasted and unroasted. As a rule of thumb, roasted spices are used with meats […]
Recipes
Turmeric (Curcuma longa)
In its dried powdered form, this rhizome of the ginger family is one of the main flavourings in Sri Lankan […]
Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)
Related to parsley, and so to coriander and cumin, it’s the seeds of the sweet sort of this Southern European […]
Cumin (Cuminum cyminum)
Cumin (Sinhala sududuru) is the dried seedlike fruit of a herb member of the parsley family thought to have originated […]
Coriander (Coriandrum sativum)
Known from Sanskrit writing from as early as c.600 BC, coriander (Sinhala kothamalli) is a relative of parsley and cumin […]
Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum)
Cardamom pods are the dried fruit of this tuberous plant related to ginger and is indigenous to Southern India and […]
Jaggery
When I first went to India I had a parrot choose my fortune for me on a Calcutta sidewalk – […]
Goroka (Garcinia gummi-gutta) (formerly cambogia)
‘The fruit is as big as an apple, and deeply ridged. In some trees it is yellow, in others red. […]
Curry Leaf (Murraya koenigii)
It’s hard to imagine Sri Lankan cuisine without karapincha/curry leaf, that green frond tossed into oil along with onions as a […]
Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum)
The cinnamon which is so much esteemed in Holland and a pound of which is sold at such remarkable prices, […]