Watalappan

What The Watalappan?

Watalappan - one of Sri Lanka's yummiest desserts! It's one of Juho's favourite and the funny thing is that until I came to Finland I never dreamed of making it. Why? Because I thought it was super flipping hard! But noooo. One quick demonstration by my super mum and voila! Now I've got the hang of it. Hoorah!

For those of you who are not Sri Lanka, you need to try this! You will love it! There's abit of a drawback here. You need jaggery. Now you can make this without it and I personally haven't tried but one of my Canadian friends living here in Finland made a WONDERFUL Watalappan for us and she did it without jaggary so full points for her!! :D However the recipe I am about to present to you is one with jaggary...try and enjoy!

Ingredients:

400g of Jaggery
8 eggs
2 cups thick coconut milk
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Cashew nuts, halved, for decoration


Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 F / 190 C.
2. Break/ grate the jaggery into small pieces.

3. Put into a saucepan with 1 cup of water and cook under medium heat till the juggery has completely dissolved. Stir constantly.

4. Remove from fire and add the coconut milk.

5. Beat the eggs till frothy.

6. Add the coconut-juggery mixture to the eggs, little at a time, while beating continuously. Make sure not to add the whole mixture to the eggs all at once, since this will curdle the eggs.

7. Transfer to a heat-proof dish or pan.

8. Cover the bowl with aluminum foil. Set in a larger pan with water about 1 inch high.

9. Bake for an hour. (When it's about 40 minutes done, then scatter the cashew nuts on the top of the watalappan for decor)

And that's that! It's best served cold so pop it in the fridge overnight before serving. Hope you like it!

Love,
Keshi

Sri Lankan Fish Patties

Well hello there! Today being a fine sunny day and all (at least here in Helsinki!) what could be a better day to make the famous Sri Lankan Patties!

For those of you who are not from Sri Lanka, this is a classic little munchie in Sri Lanka and they are quite the yummy treat. I particularly missed these when I came to Finland so I found an excellent recipe for them and here I am sharing it with you from the goodness of my heart!

The pattie looks sort of like a brown sea shell. It's got a soft outer layer and the filling is pretty much optional. You could make fish patties, vegetable patties, beef patties, chicken patties. It's really up to you! I went with fish patties...and here's the recipe!

Ingredients:

Patties:

2 cups flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
120g butter, cut into small pieces
5-6 Tbsp milk

Fish filling:

370g tuna (two small cans)

4 boiled and mashed potatoes

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

salt & pepper to taste

½ tsp lime juice 

For the filling, just mash everything up and mix it using your hands. Keep it in the fridge for about 15 min before you use it.

 

Instructions:

1. Combine well the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a bowl.

2. Add the pieces of butter to the flour mixture 

3. Add the milk, one tablespoon at a time, and mix well by hand until it can be formed into a ball.

4. Flatten out the dough on a well floured surface and roll out into thin sheets.

5. Using an inverted cup, make medium sized circles on the sheet and cut them out.

 

6. Put a small amount of filling (Eg: Table spoon) on to the middle of the round shaped dough.

7. Pull one side of the circle over the other forming a half-circle shape.

8. Seal edges by pinching with a fork.

 9. Repeat with the rest of the dough and fillings.

10.  Arrange the Patties on a lightly greased tray and brush the tops with egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tsp milk).

11. Bake in oven for 15 minutes at 190 C. Remove and serve either warm or cold and they are perfect to dip in some sauce.

So be daring and try this and enjoy a little taste of Sri Lanka!

Love,

Keshi

Godhamba Roti and Spicy Chicken Curry

Spice Spice, Baby!

So after coming to Finland, one of the things I craved for was Spicy Chicken curry and Godhamba Roti. For those of you who are not Sri Lankan, this is probably one of the things you HAVE to try because it's just DELICIOUS! Especially if you like spicy food!

We've made this twice already and here are the ingredients for both...

Godhamba Roti

 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt 
• 3-4 teaspons olive oil
• 1-2 cups warm water
• Extra olive oil 

Instructions:

• Mix the salt & flour well in a large bowl.
• Add 3-4 tbs olive oil. Mix well.
• Add warm water gradually while mixing the flour to form a dough that does not stick to the sides of the bowl.
• Knead the dough for a few minutes until soft.
• Make into small balls, according to the number of roti you desire to make
• Slightly flatten the balls and generously coat with olive oil, leaving it in the mixing bowl.
• Cover the bowl and let it stand for about an hour.
• Grease a frying pan with a little oil and heat.
• Meanwhile, take each ball of flour and flatten it to a thin circle or square. (the thinner, the better)
• Put it on to the hot frying pan and cook, turning on both sides.
• Serve with hot curry. 

Anddddd guess who made the Chicken Curry? JUHO. Yes, the Finn made the spicy curry which was quite up to standard, I must say! So here is Juho's recipe for it :)

Chicken Curry

 

Ingredients:

• 400g of chicken
• 2,5 dl of water
• 1 tbsp of olive oil
• 4-6 gloves of garlic
• 2 medium onions
• 1-2 cm of fresh ginger
• 1 tsp of turmeric
• ½ - 1 tsp of dried chillie flakes
• ½ - 1 tsp of cayanne pepper
• ½ - 1 tsp of roasted curry powder
• ½ tsp of red chillie powder

 Instructions:

• Chop the onions, garlic and ginger into fine, paste-like structure and fry it on a hot pan together with the olive oil.
• Add the chicken and fry until the chicken is properly done.
• Add the spices and mix well.
• Pour in the water and keep mixing until the water boils. Turn the heat low and let simmer for couple of minutes before taking off the heat. Best if served immediately.

And there you go! Have fun spicing up your life ;)

Love Juho&Keshi

Omelette Curry

Omelette...curry. Wait what?

So it's Saturday and I was craving for something Sri Lankan, spicy and yummy. We didn't have much in our fridge (basically, nothing -_-) except a few eggs. And I wanted to do something different with eggs so I looked up a recipe for Omelette Curry. Now for those of you who are not Sri Lankan, you must know that we Sri Lankans love to make curry out of everything but you need to try this. I mean it's ridiculously easy to make and it's filling and quite healthy. Not to forget, it's delicious!

So here's the recipe!

Ingredients:

For the Omelette:

5 Eggs
1 Onions, finely chopped

A bunch of Green Onions

3 cloves of Garlic

100g of Mushrooms
1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp cayanne pepper

Salt to taste

* You can really add anything you want, like ham etc. This is not set in stone :)

For the Curry:

1 Tomatoes, sliced
1.5 Cups of Fresh Milk
1 teaspoon of Salt
1/2 tsp of Turmeric (Kaha kudu)
1 tbs of Red Chillie Powder
2 tbs of Roasted Curry Powder

Instructions:

Omelette:

1) Beat the eggs until frothy in a bowl. 

2) Add all your ingredients and mix well. 

3) Heat the oil in a frying pan, pour the egg batter when oil is heated enough

4) Lower the heat to medium and let the batter cook. 

5) Fold the omlet into three (flip one side to the middle and flip the opposite side over the fold) let it cool. 

6) Cut into squares of your desired size.

 Curry:

 

1) Put the oil in a saucepan and cook the tomatos.

2) After a minute add the chillie powder, turmeric and salt and cook for a few minutes.

3) Then add the milk and curry powder

4) When it starts to bubble add the omelette pieces, salt to taste and let it simmer for awhile and serve. 

 It's great with rice and once the curry is drained out, it's even yummy in a sandwich. So go into your kitchen and do this right now! And enjoy!

Love love love,

Keshi