Cooking Sri Lankan Style

I have a neighbor and friend here called Sally who is from Sri Lanka and makes the absolute best food ever. Her curry in particular is amazing. (I’d never really eaten curry before coming here, but have discovered a deep love for the stuff and really wanted to learn how to make my own before I leave.)

Last night, she invited me and another friend, Laura, to her home to teach us her culinary secrets. We started by cubing the raw chicken, then crushing slices of garlic and ginger in a pestle to release the flavor. Then I heated a clay pot, added some olive oil, and set the garlic/ginger mash to roast, which smelled so wonderful. Next I chopped tomato and onion, and added to the pot. Next came the best part – adding Sally’s homemade curry powder, made from coriander, cumin, and other things I don’t remember. We added some more stuff, simmered, stirred, and eventually had a beautiful pot full of deliciously curried chicken.

While I was doing this, under Sally’s supervision, she was making dhal. She also made some amazing vegetable dish and steamed brown rice.

Laura was desperately trying to write everything down so we could try and re-create the meal on our own another time, but Sally only uses her eyes to measure things so we had a tricky time working out measurements. I think we got it mostly down, and I can only hope I can make it as well again.

I also loved the amount of fellowship time we had while things were simmering. I learned so much about Sally’s background I had never heard, and appreciate even more now what an incredible and strong single mother she is, and how she has really survived a lot of challenges to be the person she is now.

It was a great night of cooking and spending time together. As many may know, I’ve discovered a love for cooking while I’ve been in Hong Kong. This is probably the most complicated dish so far, but I can’t wait to make it when I am home for people and bring a little bit of my Hong Kong life back to Texas.