happy new year!

sri lankan new year that is - actually, it was sri lankan new year over a month ago but i didn't get a chance to write about this because of all the hoopla with my cat. anyway, i'm not entirely sure about the history behind sri lankan new year but i believe it has something to do with the end of the harvest and the movement of the sun from the House of Aries to the House of Pices. monsoon season also begins around this time of year which symbolizes regrowth and renewal.
it's a pretty holiday in sri lanka and i'm sure the towns are decorated with laterns and lights and the people are all eating the numerous new year's treats.

i know that i have spoken of kiribath before. it is a heavenly combination of rice and coconut milk with a touch of salt added for flavour. kiribath translates directly from sinhalese to milk (kiri) rice (bath - pronounced 'buth') and it is made on auspicious occasions such as new year's day and the first day in a new house. we wanted to make this all those weeks ago when we thought Mac would be home from the hospital to celebrate new year's with us. well, that obviously didn't happen, and so we had to wait for the next best occassion to make it - another 'new year' celebration.

Wesak is the Buddhist name given to the full moon day in May. this is the day that the Buddha is believed to have become enlightened. it is a very special day for Buddhists around the world and it is certainly considered to be an auspicious occasion, similar to new year's. Wesak this year fell on Friday, May 8th. Mac returned home a week earlier. the rice was washed, the coconut milk purchased, the stars were aligning - it was finally time, for kiribath.

kiribath is best when made with starchy rice so that it thickens up well. use 1 part of short grain white rice to 2 parts liquid. i use half coconut milk and half water. add a pinch of salt and cook over medium heat until the mixture is thick and the rice is tender. kiribath is really just a very thick rice pudding, so once most of the liquid has been absorbed, remove the pot from the heat and let it stand for a few minutes to cool. after about 10 minutes, spread the mixture onto a plate or a platter. it should be about 1 1/2 inches thick. once it has cooled completely, cut it into squares.
kiribath is typically served with lunu miris and hakuru (palm treacle/syrup that has been formed into a hard ball - think about the best brown sugar you have ever had and then imagine in a million times better!).

it is honestly one my favourite things to eat, in the world. i could live off of this stuff...

comfort food

so i've been sick. it started out last wednesday as a little tickle in my chest which i definitely aggravated by going for a run that evening. by the time thursday rolled around i was down for the count and i've been basically dead to the world for about 4 days - meaning no going outside, no internet and (gasp) no eating. well, that's a lie. i've been eating toast. and rice. and i've been drinking lots and lots of gatorade. but today i feel a bit better - despite the relentless and deafening pounding in my head - and my appetite is slowly coming back, thank goodness. as my luck would have it, today was the perfect day for the return of my ability to eat because my mom decided to make some roti with the fresh new coconut she picked up last week!

granted, my appetite for anything that has much flavour has still not returned and i'm only really interested in dry, plain, cracker-like things, but that's why the roti was so perfect. plain flour, fresh coconut, salt and water mixed together to form a soft dough which is then flattened and cooked on a heavy skillet. so simple, so plain, yet so good.

i have no real recipe to give you - just mix equal parts all purpose flour and fresh coconut meat. add enough water to form a soft dough and season with salt to taste. form dough into balls that fit in the palm of your hand. flatten the balls into disks about 1/4 inch thick. cook on a skillet over medium heat for about 5 minutes per side. you don't need to worry about greasing the skillet because the coconut has enough fat in it to keep things in check!

you can really eat them with anything - most of the people in my family go for lunu miris...

but i prefer them hot off the grill with butter on the side.

i'm so glad that my appetite returned for this.

speaking of coconuts

i just wanted to introduce you to the Sri Lankan way of handling coconuts. when i lived in Sri Lanka, coconuts were a major staple in my life (who am i kidding, they still are). besides the fact that our house was completely surrounded by coconut trees, we had an entire room in our kitchen that was dedicated to coconuts. it was literally called 'the coconut room.' in fact, we still call it that even though it is now filled with piles of old books that belonged to my beloved late grandfather.

anyway, coconuts would either fall or be plucked by our gardener from high atop the skinny, disproportioned trees that lined our gardens and then, their husks would be furiously pulled off by hitting them against some sort of sharp, metal rake-like instrument that was anchored into the ground. (i remember sitting on a bench in our expansive garden one day when i was little when i heard a large thud on the ground beside me. i looked down, and there was a perfect coconut just sitting there, waiting to be consumed. i picked it up and carried it into the house to show my parents. said parents, scared that i could have been hit by the falling coconut, proceeded to get mad at me for sitting under a coconut tree. this was silly - the garden is housed under a canopy of coconut trees and there is no real way to avoid them. this, however, did not deter my parents from yelling at me.) the de-husked coconuts would be placed in their designated room until it was time to use them. and then they were cut open, like this:

to get the succulent white meat out, we would use a fancy scraping tool, like this:

clearly, my house in canada is not surrounded by coconut trees and therefore, we don't really have the need for a coconut room, but every once in a while, we will go to Longo's and pick up a cute little coconut. we either use the meat just as it is:

or we extract coconut milk from it by soaking it in hot water and then squeezing it out. i'm not really sure how anyone else goes about scraping coconut. i honestly can't think of any other logical way to do it. and there really is no substitute for freshly grated coconut; it's so rich and plump and perfect and dried coconut just pales in comparison. i don't know what Sri Lankan food would be without the coconut. it is in virtually all of my favourite foods, in a variety of different forms from coconut oil to coconut vinegar to coconut milk. among my favourites: pani pol - thin, crepe-like pancakes filled with a mixture of fresh coconut and palm treacle; pol sambol - any combination of fresh coconut, salt, lime and fresh chilies (green chilies are my favourite); and kalu dodol - an interesting Sri Lankan sweet made with coconut milk, hakuru and cashew nuts. coconuts are just everywhere in Sri Lanka. we even use them as a conditioner for our hair and we use coconut husks for hanging orchids and other plants. so now you know a little bit about the life of a coconut in a Sri Lankan household. just in case you were ever wondering ;)

experiment: coconut flour

one of my favourite places to shop is Bulk Barn (or any bulk food store). i love wandering through the aisles and gazing into the big, clear, plastic bins that are filled with luxurious mountains of chocolates, nuts, grains, cereals, candies. it's so much fun to just be able to see these things as they are with no boxes and no fancy labels, just the innocent little ingredients, dressed down and fully exposed. i love the smell too; somehow it brings back memories from my childhood, and i'm literally like a kid in a candy store there. bulk stores are a baker's dream. they are stocked with all of the hard to find, rare ingredients that pop up from time to time in recipes for fancy pastries and desserts. and honestly, there is something about being able to buy something in any quantity you like that is really appealing to me. see, you don't have to commit to anything at Bulk Barn. i don't like committing to things.

anyway, you are probaby wondering, why the opinion piece about Bulk Barn, right? well, i'm getting to my point. while perusing the aisles like a kid in a candy store one day, i stumbled across a bin filled with coconut flour. i read the label and was immediately intrigued. in Sri Lanka, we love our coconuts and we eat them in just about any form we can, but coconut flour? i had never seen this before. the flour itself looked inconspicuous. it was beige. almost the colour of soft whole wheat flour. i read the ingredients: pure coconut meat. i stared at the dusty, pillowy pile in wonder. if all it is is coconut meat, then surely it should smell just like pure coconut. so i opened the bin and scooped up a bit. the aroma was divine. i knew that i had to buy some. i checked the label and the price was right (77 cents for 100g!) so i put some into a bag and proceeded down the aisles. i rushed home to tell my mom and sister about my amazing find. have you heard of coconut flour? i asked them. they hadn't. i was excited, i was enthusiastic, i was...confused. what does one do with coconut flour? after some research i discovered that coconut flour is a much loved ingredient among celiac disease sufferers and low-carb dieters alike. coconut meat is dried and its oil is extracted. the fibre that remains is then ground into a very fine powder. the flour is (obviously) gluten free and is etremely high in dietary fibre but low in carbohydrates (apparently) and since the coconut meat is defatted before it is dried, the amount of fat that remains in the flour is minimal. and for those of you who care about this sort of thing, the calories in coconut flour are pretty on par with those in regular, all purpose flour.

so, time for the experiment. my sister was not feeling well and needed some TLC, and my aunt, pregnant cousin and niece were scheduled to come and spend the day at our house on the weekend. to be honest, i had started concocting some ideas for recipes when i was still waiting in line to pay for my goods, and while it would have been fun trying to use some of this indulgent flour in a cool bread recipe, i was still just beginning my slow journey back to bread baking after a very traumatic experience. the label at Bulk Barn provided a recipe for some cinnamon sugar cookies, and that seemed like a fantastic first experiment for a sunny, "get well soon," family-filled weekend.

Cinnamon-Sugar Coconut Cookies (recipe courtesy of Bulk Barn)

3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup coconut flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

preheat oven to 375 degrees (F). combine butter, eggs, sugar (reserving 1 tablespoon) and vanilla. mix until well combined. add coconut flour. stir until smooth. let mixture sit for 5 minutes until it becomes thick. comibe cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl. form dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and roll in cinnamon-sugar. place cookies on a greased or parchment lined baking sheet about 1 inch apart. flatten cookies slightly with the back of a spoon. bake for about 15 minutes. makes 24 cookies.

i debated only making a half recipe in case people didn't like the cookies, but luckily, i made the whole thing. the cookies were devoured. they are incredibly soft and airy and the coconut flour gives them a unique, nutty flavour. if you look closely at the flour, you can tell that there are little coconut fibres throughout it and it has a distinct, gritty texture. the dough never really becomes hard enough to handle easily. forming the balls and rolling them in the sugar was certainly a messy task, but it was definitely worth it.

i don't think that coconut flour would be a good substitute in any bread recipe, but i would imagine that it would do well in any kind of bar or cookie. it might also work in a cake recipe but i would probably combine it with regular flour if i was going to use it. all in all, coconut flour = awesome new find. i still have some left and i'm already dreaming of what the next experiment will be.