Learning  to Cook.

See, touch, smell and taste the aroma of the  numerous spices that are used in cooking Sri Lankan food. See the many different varieties of vegetables, fruits, and the many types of fish. savor a few hours making them and  then tasting  them.

Sinfull chocolaty chocolate cake

Ingredients
1 + 1/2 cup (170 g) all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup (220 g) sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
3/4 cup (1.8 dl) milk
3/4 cup (170 g) melted butter
2 eggs
200g dark chocolate
200g milk chocolate

Method
1. Preheat oven to 350 deg F (Gas mark 4 or 180 deg C
2.Grease a 9 inch (23 cm) cake tin.
3. Melt the chocolate and set aside.
4. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, sugar and vanilla essence in a bowl.
5. Melt the butter at low heat and add to the dry ingredients. Also add milk, melted chocolate and eggs.
6. Mix everything together until smooth, either by hand or by using an electric mixer at slow speed.
7. Transfer to bake tin and bake at 350 degrees until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, approximately 35 to 45 minutes.

Vegetable Roti

Ingredients for dough:
1 Cup flour
About 1/2 Cup water
salt
1 1/2 Cup Vegetable oil

Ingredients for filling:
1/2 lb potatoes boiled and skins removed
1/2 lb leeks
2 onions chopped
salt
pepper

Make dough:
Combine flour, salt. Add enough water to make the dough. The dough should not wet. Make into golf ball size balls and dip in vegetable oil. The balls must be completely covered in oil.

Make filling:
Mash the potatoes. Finely chop the leeks. Stir fry the onions in a pan for about 4-5mins under low heat. Add the leeks and stir fry for a few more minutes.
Add the potatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste.


The dough ball must be soaked in the oil for at least 4 hours, before the next step.

Stretch the dough ball in a plate.

Put the filling into the middle of the roti, according to the shape you desire.

Fold the edges to cover the fillng.

Heat a pan over moderate heat. Cook the roties on all sides, till each side turn a golen brown color.

Serve hot.

Sri Lankan cuisine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfCwJij03z8&feature=related

For the love of cooking

In Sri Lanka and I'm sure all over the world learning to cook is a must to learn. It is a must for mother's to teach their daughters to cook. Sri Lankan cookery is an art in itself and it certainly is or was a long process mostly because of the process of extracting coconut milk but thanks to modern equipment it is much quicker and faster.

Sri Lankan cookery offers an exotic blend of spices, colors and flavors and it can vary in the degree of spiciness influenced by foreign traders and colonist. The main staple food being rice, accompanied by a variety of vegetable curries, a good old coconut sambal ( Pol sambal) and if it is available fish or a meat. But Sri Lankan cuisine is a heaven for vegetarians. This is my attempt to bring out Sri Lankan and non Sri Lankan tasty treats that I love to make.