Thursday, January 28, 2010

SpiceZ

For Christmas this year, my supervisor gave me a spice kit for a Sri Lankan vegetable curry. Her sister makes them, mainly from spices she grows up in north Queensland.

The kit includes a pouch of whole spices, a pouch of the secret family blend of ground spices, and the family recipe with instructions on how to make a Sri Lankan curry.

The flavours are mostly familiar, but include things like pandanus and rumpii leaves which I've never used before.

We cooked ours up with sweet potato, carrot and zucchini, and at the end added some tofu chunks, and served over rice.

It was really delicious -- Sri Lankan curries have a distinct and full flavour that isn't too spicy but is complex with flavour bursts in every bite. I highly recommend this, although they are such a boutique company the product may be hard to find (though, in Australia you may see CurrieZ, which is a rip-off of this idea by a former family friend... I will be staying away from that brand on principal).

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

is pandanus the same as pandan leaf? probably. i love that stuff, it's used so much in vietnamese cooking (esp desserts!) and lends such a great green color

Hannah said...

Oh, isn't it wonderful when supervisors understand and share food passions? My Honours supervisor would give me his homemade tea blends (one of them, with dried chocolate mint and cinnamon, was heavenly), and I baked him dark chocolate brownies with white chocolate, cranberries, and walnuts in return.

Golly, now I really want to do a PhD with him...

Do you have any pandanus left over? I've often wanted to find that, so as to make pandan coconut rice puddings or cupcakes!

Mike K said...

I've never tried a Sri Lankan curry, and the exotic ingredients in the spice mix sound intriguing - the result looks delicious!

dreaminitvegan said...

I've never heard of this curry either but it sounds wonderful!

Theresa said...

moretolife - I think it is, I just use the botanical name rather than the foodie name because I'm used to it as a garden plant! Having pandan in the pantry is a bit new to me.

hannah - choc mint cinnamon tea sounds divine. This gift was in exchange for homemade mango-pineapple jam. But unfortunately we used all the pandanus up. I will have to have a look for it in the asian grocery next time I'm there...

x said...

I think that product is such a good idea, I will keep an eye out for it!

Vaala ◪ said...

That spice pack looks (and sounds) awesome. Wonder if we have anything like that here...will have to look.

Hannah said...

Okay, you're convincing me - academia is the life. :P