4 stars
Murdoch Books, £20
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If you’ve holidayed in Sri Lanka, your memories will most likely be of iconic excursions: a visit to the temple of the tooth (Gautama Buddha’s, so the legend goes); a dawn hike up Adam’s Peak (7,300ft above the jungle), or a trip to Negombo’s caramel-coloured beaches. My memories, because my father is Sri Lankan, are more mundane: chasing chickens around granny’s backyard, enduring cheek-pinchings from passers-by, or picking chillies for the seemingly endless succession of dishes being prepared. Sri Lankans, you see, are Feeders. If you’re not permanently eating something, they think there’s something wrong with you.
This book is one of the first to successfully capture the essence of everyday Sri Lankan cooking. It’s a beautifully-shot travelogue and recipe collection from Aussie-based photographer and storyteller Bree Hutchins.
Hutchins journeys around the island, meeting war widows and street food vendors, picking up recipes along the way, from ‘short eats’ (street snacks) and curries to sambols (relishes) and puds. Many of these dishes are seldom seen in London, unless you’re in a Sri Lankan’s home.
I cooked the egg curry, which quite rightly called for plenty of creamed coconut and unapologetic spicing: the dish transported me to my granny’s kitchen. Equally evocative and traditional (if a little richer than usual) was a pudding of watalappan – a ‘set’ coconut custard made with jaggery (dark, intensely sweet palm sugar) and sweet, aromatic spices. It’s so deeply moreish, you might do as I did and sneak down in the middle of the night to eat it straight from the fridge. There was, however, a serious error in the method: the instructions skipped a step (mixing the melted jaggery into the cream).
I’d also have liked to have seen a recipe for idiappa (‘string hoppers’) – the savoury ‘pancakes’ of steamed rice noodles which are a staple of Sri Lankan cooking. But if you’re seeking culinary enlightenment, this book is a good place to start.
