Rice and Curry and Carrots?

  I have been guilty of something! I have found yet another great cookbook and I have kept this news all to myself. 

Well, today Ihave decided to come out and confess, before you find out and tell me that I do not share. In fact, I have been cooking a lot of seasonal carrots and the excellent Carrot curry recipe in this book, tipped the balance and promted me to finally begin talking about the book.

I got a copy of Rice and Curry over this summer. Rice and Curry, is a wonderful book on the cuisine of Sri Lanka, written by fellow Hippocrene author Skiz Fernando. 

The lovely island nation of Sri Lanka has been on my list of places to visit, but it is unlikely that I shall be visiting the island anytime soon. At this time this book is the closest that I can get to experience and taste this lush tropical island. However, this book with its detailed introduction that offer you a good visual and cultural orientation to the island.

I met Skiz at the IACP blog and book fair in NYC earlier this year and loved the way he talked about his book and knew that I would definitely enjoy reading it.

It has been an integral part of my kitchen since I got it. The book is written in thoughtful prose, that is vivid without being overly sentimental. It interjects a picture of Skiz’s family thereby bringing to life the life in Sri lanka as well as family annecdotes that are narrated with a sense of humor. The cuisine is close enough to Indian cooking, for me not to have to add several additional spices to my already overflowing spice shelves, however there is enough differences for me to add diversity to out dining repetoire.

  The nicely illustrated pages show you spices, colorful scenaries and offer a personal perspective to Skiz’s take on Sri Lankan cuisine. He attributes recipes to family members, I found the story of their 80 something family maid Leela who had been with the family for over 32 years, beautifully presented and  very touching. I have marked Leela’s Chillaw Curry as something to try out sooner rather than later. 

I have tried a few of these recipes and they all work well, over time you shall see these featured on this blog.

Skiz, emphasizes the essence of the cuisine in the form of two curry powders, a lighter raw curry powder and a stronger roasted curry powder. The is an extensive use of coconut in the cuisine of the island to use up the the fruit of the coconut tree that grows in prolific abandon all around the island. Since, the cuisine is generous in its use of cayenne pepper powder the coconut offers a good balance of depth and richness to balance the heat.

This post shares, the raw curry powder recipe as well as the carrot curry recipe that I have been making a lot, recently. Yes, you guessed it, there are still a lot of carrots that we dig up as we need them from the garden. The raw curry powder, being a lighter blend has been used in this recipe.