VegPlanet — October 2017

Wonderous White Curry

Sri Lankan fare is anything but mild, save this coconut milk dish.

Recipe by Sudarshani, writt en and photographed by Rob Atkinson

across asia

INGREDIENTS

½ teaspoon fenugreek seed

2 pieces of Ceylon cinnamon stick, 1 inch

(2.5 centimeters) long

235 milliliters coconut milk

1 small red onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

2 sprigs of curry leaves (about 24 fresh leaves)

½ teaspoon black mustard powder

½ teaspoon turmeric powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 tomato, chopped

METHOD

• Heat pot over medium heat. Add whole spices
  and dry roast for 3 minutes. Then, remove
  from heat. Stir spices regularly to keep from
  burning.


• Pour coconut milk into the pot. Add red onion,
  garlic, and curry leaves. Bring coconut milk
  to a slow-rolling boil. Then, stir in the dry
  roasted spices. Simmer for 10 minutes. Stir
  constantly to keep coconut milk from curdling.


• Add tomato. Cook for 5 minutes more.
  Continue to stir constantly. Add salt to taste.

Milking a coconut in the outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka requires strength of mind, strength of body, and steel tools.
The process begins with an unwavering yearning — a want for coconut foodstuff s so relentless as to send men
scaling coconut palms without safety gear. Yes, some members of the community free-climb the Cocos nucifera!
And they do so to heights upwards of 100 feet. Once in the palm’s crown, climbers pluck coconuts and send
them crashing to the jungle fl oor below where village women collect the harvest, then take it home for processing.
Processing completed, coconut milk fi nds its way into a variety of local curries, such as kiri hodi. A mild dish that
adds contrast to an otherwise spicy Sri Lankan meal, kiri hodi is little more than coconut milk cooked together
with curry leaves and a few other spices. Named “white curry,” turmeric actually colors the dish a vibrant yellow.
According to Sudarshani, Sri Lankan mothers wean their infants with this curry. Served over rice, kiri hodi is a
healthy transition to solids, and it provides the foundational fl avors on which a child’s traditional diet is built.

Yield: 4 servings

Prep time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 20 mins

Globally, women and girls in resource-

constrained communities lack access to the

time, tools, resources, opportunities, and

choices needed to realize their human rights,

live empowered lives, and rid their communities

of poverty’s multiple expressions. Many do,

however, have access to heritage foods. At

Recipes for Change, we transform food

traditions into opportunities for women and

girls. Using a hybrid recipe publication website

and a crowd funding platform, we source

recipes from marginalized communities. In turn,

those recipes are used to fund projects, which

advance the rights, priorities, and capacities of

women and girls. To learn more about our work

and to support current campaigns please visit

us at http://www.recipeschange.org.