The new veganCurryWant new ways with veg? Look to Sri Lanka’s curries for inspirationOne of my favourite cookbooks is a Sri Lankan one called The Exotic Tastes Of Paradise, by Felicia Wakwella Sorensen. The cover is exactly how I imagine culinary paradise to look: piles of coconuts, bananas and pineapples, with fronds of palm trees coming into view. Inside, the recipes are just as evocative: you could have Coconut Fantasy, Orange Temptation or Fireworks Lime Sambol.
Until recently, this paradise was lost: civil war ravaged the island and in 2004 the Indian Ocean tsunami ripped through the south and east coasts. Today, it is getting back on its feet, with tourists returning in droves. Sri Lanka is once again a dream holiday destination, and the greatest souvenir travellers take home with them is a love for the food. The island’s most famous dish is “rice and curry”, though “curry” is a bit of a misnomer. Order this for lunch, and you’ll get a smorgasbord of curries: leek, cashew, beetroot, jackfruit, pumpkin, pineapple, even entire heads of garlic, cooked until soft and sweet. Often, these curries are heavily spiced with cinnamon, fenugreek, chilli and pepper, and smothered in coconut milk, to soften the blow.
On the side, you can expect the most fantastic little meal-brighteners, from raw relishes (sambols) made with chilli, lime and coconut, to quickly cooked greens (mallums) and crisp poppadoms. It makes for one of life’s great feasts.
Today’s recipes are an introduction: an earthy beetroot curry with unexpected depth of flavour and a super-quick, zingy green bean mallum. Add rice, coconut yoghurt, pickle and poppadoms, and you’re on your way to your own taste of paradise.
Sri Lankan beetroot curry and green bean mallum
Don’t let beetroot’s propensity to ooze pinkness bully you: rub a piece of cut potato on to pink fingers, and most stains will disappear. Serves four as a main course.
For the beetroot curry
3 tbsp rapeseed oil
6 fresh curry leaves
1 large red onion, peeled and diced
4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1½ green finger chillies, very finely chopped
1½ tbsp tomato puree
2 tsp ground cumin
800g beetroot, peeled and cut into 0.5cm half-moons
1¼ tsp salt
400ml tinned coconut milk
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
For the green bean mallum
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
300g green beans, topped, tailed and cut into 1.5cm pieces
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
½ green chilli, very finely chopped
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
⅓ tsp salt
3½ tbsp desiccated coconut
Start with the beetroot. On a medium flame, heat the oil in a wide frying pan for which you have a lid, then fry the curry leaves and leave them to crackle and pop for a minute. Stir in the onion, garlic and chilli, cook until the onions turn translucent and soft (around six minutes), then add the tomato puree and cumin, and cook for another five minutes.
Add the beetroot, salt and six tablespoons of water, pop on the lid and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally; if the curry looks a bit dry, add more water, a tablespoon at a time. Take off the lid, stir in the coconut milk and simmer for 10 minutes, until the beetroot is tender and the sauce has reduced. Finally, stir in the lime juice and turn off the heat while you get on with the beans.
In another wide frying pan, heat the oil for the beans on a high flame. Once it’s hot, add the beans, stir to coat in the oil, then leave for three to four minutes, stirring once, until they blister and char. When the beans have got some blackened bits on them, but are still bright green in colour, stir in the garlic, chilli, lime juice and salt, and cook for a minute. Finally, add the coconut, stir-fry for a minute, then take off the heat and serve with rice and poppadoms.
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