Whatshot
Foodie - Pol Sambol (Sri Lankan Coconut Sambol)
Foodie - Pol Sambol (Sri Lankan Coconut Sambol)
Date: 2018-01-25
Cooking for the Sri Lankan consul general, Lal Jayamaha and his wife Jackie and the delegation from Sri Lanka, what a privilege to show off my Sri Lankan culinary skills and to cook with a cool chef like Yudhi Pather.
We went a little crazy with all the preparation and it was not all Sri Lankan. I was so keen to impress my guests, I just did not know when to stop. In hindsight I should have listened to my mom's wise advice, when I asked her what I should make for the lunch she looked at me with this look of disbelief, shook her head and said; "Just make them your famous Paneer Makhani. You will see how much they will love it."
Ok, I could not just make one preparation. We made so much food that I invited my whole distribution team the next day and there was even some left overs for the Sunday snack for us.
The menu included, ochra lightly fried in coconut oil, jackfruit curry, gadra bean curry, moong dhal, my famous Paneer Makhni, raw peanut chutney, fresh coconut sambol, ooh and many other little tit bits. It looked really yummy but both Yudhi and I would never know because after such intense cooking we couldn't eat a morsel.
This week we shall make coconut sambol Sri Lankan Style:
Ingredients
* 200g freshly scraped coconut (or 200g desiccated coconut, pour 6 tbsp. hot water over the top)
* 5 shallots, peeled
* 1 green chilli, roughly cut
* 3 tsp crushed red chillies
* 1 cup chopped coriander
* 1 cup chopped chives
* juice of 1 lime
* salt and sugar, to taste (about tsp each)
* chilli powder
Instructions
1. Place shallots, green chilli, crushed red chillies, coriander and chives into a blender and blend to a thick paste.
2. Add coconut and continue to blend until all the coconut has mixed with all the ingredients.
3. Squeeze over the lime juice and add a bit of salt and sugar to taste.
It's really simple and is the perfect accompaniment for almost any curry.