Indulge and be merry

Chef Publis’ message this Avurudu

By Nizla Naizer

Put all your troubles aside this New Year and enjoy the scrumptious delights of Avurudu without any worries, is the message from world famous Chef Publis Silva who is the Director of Culinary Affairs and Promotions at The Mount Lavinia Hotel this season. “These days, people are so worried about cholesterol and diabetes that they don’t eat anything at all throughout their life. The Avurudu season has food containing a lot of oil and a lot of sugar, enjoy the dishes, but for the rest of the year eat healthy food as a policy.”
By healthy food, Chef Publish asks the people of Sri Lanka to take advantage of the natural remedies the island has already been blessed with. “There are 350 types of vegetables nature has given this island apart from your imported carrots, leeks and beans. Items like goraka, tender temple flower leaf (araliya dalu), tender cadjun leaf (kadju dalu), Jack tree leaves, Arecanut flowers (puvak mal), val kohila and lette kochchi, have herbal properties as well. We need to start the habit of diversifying our menu and eating these healthy vegetables to negate the harmful effects of oil and sugar.” Explaining that the Cadjun fruit (kadju puhulan) is good to negate the effects of sugar and oil, goraka is ideal to help reduce cholesterol he added that eating smart is the best way forward.
“When man evolved, the most important element in his life was food. He needed food to survive and continue. Now food is the last priority. Housewives these days say they are too busy to find time to cook and buy food from outside. They are too busy to cook but they are not too busy to spend four hours at the doctors afterwards when the outside food causes illnesses.”
He discouraged people from using artificial flavours and colouring stating that nature has given us all the flavour and the colour needed for a delicious meal. “These artificial mixtures are so dangerous we should stop using them altogether. For colour, take the shoe flowers or our fruits and vegetables
If you want a beautiful green for example, take the outer skin of the watermelon and finely grate at and strain it. We have 42 different natural flavours too, from coriander to pepper. Why do we need artificial ones?”
Chef Publis states that changing the mentality of the people now is the only way to ensure that 50 years from now, the children born in Sri Lanka will be disease free and healthy. “We must make this change for our future and move away from the ‘supermarket baby’ version of our children.”
He implored people to realise that happiness is at home. “There are no difficult recipes. Everything is in your mentality. This Avurudu, along with our traditional dishes add more variety to your table. Why can we not have an Avurudu table that represents all communities, united as how we should be as a country?”
With this thought, Chef Publis’ simple and delicious recipes for the season include not only the traditional Kavum but also the non traditional Bonda and Moru Miris, which Chef Publis assures, will add flavour and diversity to the Avurudu table and be a favourite among all.

Aasmi

Ingredients:
Rice 250g
Cinnamon (Davul Kurundu) 500g
Salt ¼ tea spoon
Oil 1 ltr
Sugar 100g
Thick coconut milk
Soak the rice for an hour.
Then grind the rice or blend it.
Sieve the blended rice five times. Preferably, take a voile (mal piece) cloth and sieve the rice.
Take thick coconut milk and grind the davul kurundu with it.
Strain with a cloth and mix with the rice powder.
Keep mixing until it’s a liquid that does not stick in your hand.
Meanwhile, heat the oil.
Pierce a coconut shell or metal cup and pour the mixture onto the oil similar to the way you make string hoppers.
As soon as the mixture comes up, fold it and take it out.
Leave for two days and then fry again. It then becomes nice, white and crispy.
Heat the sugar, mix with beetroot colouring and pour over it.

Mun Kavun

Ingredients:
Green gram 250 g
Rice flour 100 g
Salt ½ tea spoon
Sugar rock (Sukiri) 50 g
Sugar 250g
Water 1 ½ cups
Oil 350 ml
Rice flour 50g
Egg
Turmeric ½ tea spoon
Water or coconut milk ½ cup
Fry the green gram and grind it. It’s ok to have pieces in the powder.
Fry the rice flour and mix it with the green gram.
Add the sugar rock which must be broken into smaller pieces to the rice flour and gram mixture.
Mix the ½ cup water and sugar and heat it up.
Take it out of the stove and then pour it to the mixture of flour and green gram.
Stir it until it is firm and doesn’t stick onto your hand.
Flatten and cut according to desired shape.
Take the egg, flour, turmeric and water or coconut milk and make a batter.
Heat up the oil, wrap the cut mixture in the batter and fry.

Bonda

Ingredients:
Potatoes 250g
Onions 15g
Green chili 2
Curry leaves 1 tea spoon
Ginger garlic paste ½ tea spoon
Mustard 1 tea spoon
Lime juice 1 tea spoon
Salt ½ tea spoon
Turmeric ½ tea spoon
Oil 1 table spoon
Gram flour 100g
Salt ½ tea spoon
Egg (If necessary)
Turmeric
Boil the potatoes with the skin and then peal it and mash it.
Keep the oil on the stove and as soon as it heats, put the mustard.
When mustard pops add the onion and curry leaves and let it fry.
Then add the chili, ginger garlic paste, turmeric, salt and the potatoes.
Take it off the stove and add the lime juice.
Taste for flavour and then turn the mixture into small balls.
Take gram flour, salt, turmeric and egg and make a thick batter. Put oil on the stove and cover the balls with the batter and fry.

Kavun

Ingredients:
Flour 500g
Treacle 1 ½ cups
Sugar 50g
Cumin
Oil 2 cups
One ekel (spine of the coconut leaf)
Mix flour with sugar and honey and add cumin.
Mix till it is thick and sticks on your finger.
Heat up the oil though not too much.
Take a cup of the flour mixture and pour into the oil.
Take ekel and swirl it in the mixture that is frying.
Pull up the raw flour that is inside to the top. That becomes the ‘konde’.

Moru Miris (Curd Chili)

Ingredients:
Green Chili
Curd
Take the chili and cut it through the middle without splitting it completely.
Mix in curd and leave for a day.
Then keep it out in the sun to dry.
After it dries well, deep fry the chili till it is a golden brown colour.