Banana Peppers & Potatoes in Coconut Curry Sauce

Have you ever got excited over a vegetable or an ingredient. I have, specially over banana peppers, because it reminds me of delicious curries made with them back home. My mom used to make different kind of dishes with them. Apart from this curry, she makes a stir-fry with banana peppers and potatoes and made a filling for toasts, then the other type is a starter i.e. deep fried stuffed banana peppers.

Banana peppers has a strong peppery flavor hence it's also good for quick Chinese stir fries. You can stir fry them with tofu or use it with other vegetables when making noodles. Added benefit is banana peppers are rich in Vitamin C.

 

My husband would just munch them raw along with carrots. But that is for a spice lover. I make a salad with carrot, banana peppers and yogurt.  It's a good side dish to serve when you make a rice and curry meal.

My mom mostly made banana peppers in this method. Potato cubes  and banana peppers are cooked until they are soft in a curry sauce. Pepper boiled in curry sauce slowly infuses pepper flavor to this curry. You can serve it with rice, roti, pittu (Sri Lankan couscous with rice flour) or even bread.

Print Recipe here

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

To Make the curry sauce

3 tbsp canola oil

1 tomato

1 onion

handful of curry leaves

3 cloves of garlic

1" piece of ginger

Spices

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

pinch of fenugreek seeds

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

2 tbsp curry powder

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp garam masala

4 Banana Peppers - 2" pieces sliced diagonally

3 medium potatoes cut into cubes

Salt to taste

100ml coconut milk

50-100ml water (increase or reduce water depending on how much gravy you prefer, I like it a bit dry)

Method

Coarsely grind tomato, onion, garlic, ginger and curry leaves using a food processor. Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan add ground mixture, salt, mustard, cumin, fenugreek seeds and turmeric powder. Stir well close the lid, cook till oil separates for few minutes. Stir occasionally.

When you see oil separating add curry powder and chili powder, potato cubes and peppers. Stir well till spices are mixed well, cook for 1-2 more minutes. Pour coconut milk and water mix well, close the lid and cook for further 5-10 minutes till potatoes are soft. Add garam masala and turn off heat.

I served this curry with saffron flavored rice.

Spicy Noodles with Multi Colored Vegetables & Tofu in Spiced Corn Flour Sauce

Noodles has always been on our weekly dinner menu. But method of making noodles is evolving. My mum made it very simple, she served noodles tossed with stir fried leeks and carrot to add some color. I tasted different varieties of noodles when I lived in Southeast Asia. Some of these mouth watering varieties are mee goreng, hokkien mee, chow mein, lo mein, pad thai etc., Each of these varieties has its own unique ingredients and sauces.

The Beauty of Broccoli

Coconut Sambol (Grated Coconut Salad with Chili)

This is a staple dish in Sri Lanka. This salad is served with most of the main meals. Sri Lankans eat lot of rice and food made with rice flour. Typical Sri Lankan main meals are rice, bread, pol roti (flat bread made with wheat flour and grated coconut), string hoppers (steamed rice noodles), pittu (steamed rice couscous with grated coconut) and hoppers (half moon shaped pancakes made with fermented rice flour)

Although coconut is not as big as Ceylon Tea plantations it is also one of the main agricultural crop in Sri Lanka. Hence coconut is used liberally in Sri Lankan cuisine along with locally available spices. All our curries are made with coconut cream and we add grated coconut to our vegetable stir fries and raw vegetable salads to add sweetness and texture.

Sambol is made with freshly grated coconut and is blended along with onion, curry leaves and chili powder. Traditionally it is blended using a mortar and pestle. It is believed that using a stone pestle to blend them gives a special taste.

Pumpkin Risotto

 

Best Wishes for the New Year everyone. (I know it's late, but better late than never) I've gone missing for sometime, But I'm back invigorated from my holidays back home in Sri Lanka. It's always great to be back with your loved ones, someone to pamper with all good food cooked with love and mere company of my parents. It's never enough and always feels very difficult to get back to routine in this foreign land.

You may wonder if I had cooked all the recipes in this blog. Some of these recipes are my experiments, whereas most of the others are regular food I make and there are also some that I have made purely for blogging. Today's recipe is also one of them. I tasted this at a Swiss home and thought I have to share this with my readers.

Pan Fried Eggplant with Curry Powder

I'm sure all of you know by now that eggplant is my favorite vegetable. This is one of my favorite method of cooking eggplant. Its Jaffnese method i.e. northern Sri Lankan way of cooking eggplant. Typically I grew up eating this with Pittu for dinner. Pittu is made with red rice flour and steamed with grated coconut. It looks like couscous but in brown color. In North we also use Sri Lankan sesame oil to cook this dish. Sesame oil has a very strong nutty flavor that gets infused to eggplants. Some may not like strong flavor of sesame oil in which case you can use canola or sunflower oil. I would say it is an acquired taste.

Roasted Butternut & Yellow Split Peas Soup

Its getting cooler by the day,  we had our first snow last weekend. This icy cold weather is making me crave for steaming hot soups or very spicy food. I have cooked pumpkin curry many times and its one of my favorite curry to have with rice. Making soups with pumpkin  is a relatively new experience. I have tried this soup few times and has been a hit in our small nest.

Pomegranate and Walnuts Salad

Back then we would eagerly wait to go to our grandma's house, so that we could meet all our cousins and play endlessly. There was a big garden in front of the house with lots of flowers and fruit trees. I fondly remember eating these red pearls (pomegranate) with my cousins.

Mushroom Biryani - Fragrant Basmati rice cooked with Indian Biryani spices & Button Mushrooms

 

When my friends visited here recently we had endless stories to share. Part of our conversation also involved about our new foodie experiments. We were together in Sri Lanka and eventually we all moved into different directions. One girl came from Australia and other from UK. Never in our dreams we thought we would have our re-union here, in the most beautifully landscaped but land locked country.

Ingredients for Mushroom Biryani

Seeni Sambol (Caramalised Onion with Ceylon Spices) & a Brief Note about Popular Sri Lankan food

 Seeni sambol, pol sambol, hoppers, string hoppers, kottu & chinese rolls are some of the popular Ceylon (Sri Lankan) food. Sri Lankan cuisine has many similarities with Kerala cuisine. We use lot of coconut milk, grated coconut and spices which are locally available ingredients. However even within Sri Lanka, there are minor differences among Jaffnese, Sinhalese, Muslims & hill country cuisine.

My origins are from Jaffna, we eat red parboiled rice and make string hoppers and pittu with red rice flour. Also we use tamarind and coconut milk to make tangy hot and sour curries. Sinhalese use lot of wheat flour to make their food and also white rice & red raw rice is popular. Hence you would find bread, different variety of  rotis (flat breads) and   ingredients like goraka (Gambooge), lemon grass being used to flavor curries. In Muslim cuisine you would find dates and influence of Malay cooking in their food. In hill country where tea plantations are, tea pluckers eat lot of rotis. Sri Lankan rotis are made with wheat flour and grated coconut.

Bircher Muesli - Healthiest Breakfast Ever

Bread with butter, marmite and another slice with jam is what I used have for breakfast regularly. Its definitely not the most healthy way to start your day. When we moved here, we often came across this breakfast meal named Bircher Muesli. We were curious try it out, as it was a popular Swiss breakfast sold everywhere from cafes, bakeries, super markets to office canteens.

Bircher is the name of the Swiss physician who introduced this  in 1900s. It was introduced to his patients as a part of therapy which included diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables. (Source Wikipedia) Its a mixture of uncooked rolled oats, fruits, nuts and yoghurt.

First my husband tried it, he felt it was a filling and delicious breakfast. Most importantly its the most healthiest way to start your day,  with nourishments from rolled oats, yoghurt, fresh fruits and nuts. It has protein, essential vitamins, minerals and good fat from nuts. Yoghurt has more nutritional benefits compared to milk. At this point I can't think of a better breakfast than this in terms of its health benefits.

Roasted Vegetables Pasta

My relationship with baking is similar to meeting a good old friend after a long break. I have childhood memories of mom's baked goodies. She would bake buns, cookies and cakes. I still remember mom's lemon cake aroma gradually enveloping the whole house. We would just wait till the oven bell rings to grab and eat.

Few years later, I started baking and became an avid baker of eggless cakes. But when we started moving, we never wanted to incur additional expense to buy an oven. However here I got an inbuilt oven in the kitchen. Its only been 3 months since I started baking, but I already feel like I cannot cook without an oven.

Baingan Bharta (Roasted eggplant with Indian spices)

My love affair with this vegetable began more than two decades ago. It was introduced to me as "katharikai Poriyal" i.e. stir fried eggplant. Since then I'm in love with this vegetable and our affair continues with many new experimentations ;)

Markets around the World

As a foodie, I'm always excited to see markets in new countries. Be it a farmers market, a regular day market or even spice market. I'm intrigued by new vegetable or spices and I end up buying basket full of vegetables and fruits every time I visit these markets.

I recently got a chance to visit Mullhouse Market which is in eastern france and an hour away from Basel. In addition to fresh fruits and vegetables from Alsace region there were also Moroccon and Chinese traders. I bought the best oranges, bundles of coriander and mint leaves from a Moroccon trader and some tapioca and papaya from a Chinese trader. I invite you to take a virtual tour of the Mullhouse market.

Guacamole- Avocado Dip

Finally after six long months, I'm happy to have my own space. I have my own utensils and a well stocked cupboard with spices and Sri Lankan ingredients. My kitchen smells so good :)

Today's recipe is a result of me trying to incorporate Omega 3 & 6 i.e. good fat into our diet. As vegetarians this is one of the nutrient we may be lacking. We all know fish is one the main source of good fat, which is good for our brain neurons function. Some vegan sources of good fats are olive oil, walnuts, almonds & avocado.

We used to have avocado (we call it as butter fruit) tree in Kandy, in our backyard. We usually blend it with sugar granules and milk powder, refrigerate and have it as dessert. I was surprised when I initially heard about having avocados for salads and sandwiches.

Learning to make Apple Tarte & Pear Tatin

Even though I have to wait for another few months, before I can cook and start shooting in my own kitchen space. I have been cooking, sharing and learning different types of food here. Something that I've bookmarked to try is 'Tarte'. I learnt to make tarte dough and to make both sweet and savory tarte's. Best part is if you don't have patience (like me) to make dough at home, you can buy tarte dough from store and add your preferred vegetable or fruit to make freshly baked delicious tartes.

Also I have plans to try baking Indian samosa's / Sri Lankan patties with store bought tarte dough. Stay tuned for more wonderful cooking experiments in near future.

Meanwhile I'll share this recipe to make tarte dough, which I learnt from a 'wonderful Swiss lady'.