Tomato and Onion Sambal
2 large brown onions - sliced.2 ripe tomatoes - diced. (the riper the better)
1 teaspoon red chilli flakes
1 teaspoon paprika (if you want a milder dish substitute chilli with paprika)
1/4 teaspoon of turmeric
handful of curry leaves
juice of 1/2 a lime or a half teaspoon of tamarind paste dissolved in 2 teaspoons of water
1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of salt
In a nonstick pan, with a teaspoon of oil, on low-medium heat slowly fry the onion, tomato, chilli, paprika, turmeric, curry leaves and cinnamon. Stir continuously to prevent burning.
As the onion cooks and becomes soft and translucent add the salt and lime juice.
The dish is finished when the onion is soft and the tomato has broken up. Taste test and add further salt and lime juice if necessary.
Coconut Sambal
-Sri LankaThis sambal should be made with freshly grated coconut and usually contains maldive fish chips. This amended recipe substitutes the fresh coconut with dessicated coconut and a little coconut milk, and simply leaves out the fish. Remember to decrease the amount of chilli if you are not accustomed to eating quite hot food.
It is best to use a mortar and pestle, which allows the ingredients to be pounded releasing more flavour. However, you can use a food processor, if a mortar and pestle are not available.
1 cup dessicated coconut
1 small red onion - diced
2 teaspoons of red chilli flakes
1 teaspoon of salt (rock salt is better than table salt)
Juice of half a lime
1 teaspoon of coconut milk
Use a large mortar and pestle. Pound the onion, chilli and salt together until the onion is all broken up.
Add the coconut a little at a time and continue to pound the mixture. Allowing the coconut to turn a beautiful shade of vermilion red, as it is pounded into the onion and chilli.
Once all the coconut has been pounded into the onion/chilli mixture add the lime juice and stir through with a spoon. Check the texture and add the coconut milk only if the mixture seems dry.
Taste test and add a little more salt and lime juice if necessary.
If it is too hot (keeping in mind that sambal is eaten in small quantities with rice or bread and other curries), pound in some extra dessicated coconut, salt and lime juice.
Mixed Vegetable Pickle with fried eggplant
-Sri Lankan1 eggplant
oil for frying
2 cups white vinegar
2 cups 2 taother vegetables - carrot, zucchini, green beans, red onion, fresh chillies, green pawpaw,
2 tablespoons black mustard seeds
handful of curry leaves
dry red chilli - whole or flakes - to taste
2 inches of ginger
4 cloves of garlic
salt to taste - approx 2 teaspoons
Chop all the vegetables into similar size strips e.g. 1cm by 5cm strips. Keeping the eggplant separate from the other vegetables.
Fry the eggplant until golden and set on papertowels to drain.
Heat the white vinegar in a pot to a gentle simmer(I use corningware for this so that the acid doesn't react with my steel pots). Boil the vegetables and chillies in the vinegar for a minute and then set aside.
With mortar and pestle crush the ginger, and garlic together. Then add mustard seeds and crush all together.
Mix all the ingredients together in a glass or corningware pot or pickling jar (something with a lid)- fried eggplant, boiled vegetables, ginger, garlic, mustard, chillies, curry leaves and salt.
Squash all the ingredients down and add a little of the vinegar (which was previously used to boil the vegetables) to make sure all the ingredients are covered with the liquid. You want there to be just enough vinegar to cover all the vegetables. You do not want there to be gaps between vegetables just full of vinegar!... so make sure everything is packed down tightly.
Leave in the fridge for a couple of days before eating.
As this is a pickle... it tastes better the longer it is left before eating! The boiling definitely expedites the pickling process.
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