Well, what do you expect in a place where the most frequently cooked meal is pasta with Tesco value stir in sauce?
I should have known better. When I was asked to cook a Sri Lankan style curry in the Latymer Court kitchen, it should have been obvious that I’d also have to provide the necessary equipment. But in my mind, every kitchen comes with a pestle and mortar and at least four decent sized pans that aren’t covered in rust.
So cooking the curry turned out to be a LOT more difficult than expected. The pan problem was easily sorted out by cooking two things at a time and using the oven to keep things warm. The spice grinding problem was a little more tricky.
Freshly ground roasted spices are the most important ingredient in a Sri Lankan curry. They’re what makes the flavour so distinctive and without them I think there’s little point in bothering. So the lack of pestle and mortar was causing me some serious issues. I went to use the blender but, in the shock of being used for the first time in 8 years, it immediately blew a fuse.
We ended up resorting to making Goon grind the spices with a wooden spoon and a ceramic breakfast bowl. 
Needless to say, the curry powder was a little more chunky than usual but at least the flavour was still good.
The next problem was stopping the ingredients from walking away. The Latymer Court kitchen is small and cluttered and, to make it worse, someone had obviously been tidying when I wasn’t looking. My coriander vanished without a trace and never reappeared.
So the lamb curry was on the chunky side and the breadfruit curry was a bit plain from the lack of coriander. Luckily breadfruit is fantastic on its own because of its amazing gooey texture which made it one of my favourite treats as a child.
At least I can say that the mung-atta kiribath went without hitches.
I’m sure I’ve posted about this before but possibly back in the days when absolutely no one read my blog. Kiribath is a traditional Sri Lankan dish of rice cooked in coconut milk. This coconut makes the rice sticky so it can be formed into a ‘cake’ and cut into pieces to serve, It can be made sweet or savoury and has lots of variations. My favourite way to have it is with loads of garlic and black pepper added. I also add mung beans to give a more interesting texture.
So, we got there in the end and had Sri Lankan style lamb curry with mung-atta kiribath and curried breadfruit. Here is the sri lankan lamb curry recipe.
Well, what do you expect in a place where the most frequently cooked meal is pasta with Tesco value stir in sauce?
I should have known better. When I was asked to cook a Sri Lankan style curry in the Latymer Court kitchen, it should have been obvious that I’d also have to provide the necessary equipment. But in my mind, every kitchen comes with a pestle and mortar and at least four decent sized pans that aren’t covered in rust.
So cooking the curry turned out to be a LOT more difficult than expected. The pan problem was easily sorted out by cooking two things at a time and using the oven to keep things warm. The spice grinding problem was a little more tricky.
Freshly ground roasted spices are the most important ingredient in a Sri Lankan curry. They’re what makes the flavour so distinctive and without them I think there’s little point in bothering. So the lack of pestle and mortar was causing me some serious issues. I went to use the blender but, in the shock of being used for the first time in 8 years, it immediately blew a fuse.
We ended up resorting to making Goon grind the spices with a wooden spoon and a ceramic breakfast bowl. Needless to say, the curry powder was a little more chunky than usual but at least the flavour was still good.
The next problem was stopping the ingredients from walking away. The Latymer Court kitchen is small and cluttered and, to make it worse, someone had obviously been tidying when I wasn’t looking. My coriander vanished without a trace and never reappeared.
So the lamb curry was on the chunky side and the breadfruit curry was a bit plain from the lack of coriander. Luckily breadfruit is fantastic on its own because of its amazing gooey texture which made it one of my favourite treats as a child.
At least I can say that the mung-atta kiribath went without hitches.
I’m sure I’ve posted about this before but possibly back in the days when absolutely no one read my blog. Kiribath is a traditional Sri Lankan dish of rice cooked in coconut milk. This coconut makes the rice sticky so it can be formed into a ‘cake’ and cut into pieces to serve, It can be made sweet or savoury and has lots of variations. My favourite way to have it is with loads of garlic and black pepper added. I also add mung beans to give a more interesting texture.
So, we got there in the end and had Sri Lankan style lamb curry with mung-atta kiribath and curried breadfruit. Here is the sri lankan lamb curry recipe.
