ArchiveApril 2025

It’s a super exciting time of the year for cooks and gardeners.

The hungry gap is almost over. We’ve been rewarded with a bumper garden rhubarb harvest this year after we piled on a generous mulch of compost last autumn. 

The soil has warmed up so we’re sowing seeds as fast as we possibly can. The ground needs to be between 6-10C before seeds will germinate but of course you can scatter salad leaf seeds into a seed tray on your windowsills or radish seeds into a mushroom chip. (The latter need a greater depth of soil) and will be ready to enjoy, 3-4 weeks from now depending on whether they are grown inside or outside. Make sure to enjoy the fresh leaves also, just add them to a salad of fresh spring greens.

It’s also a terrific time of the year for foraging for ‘weeds’ and edible flowers. We’ve been adding the tender, young leaves of hawthorn into our green salads too. That may sound crazy, but they are scientifically proven to be hugely beneficial to our cardiovascular system, so go and have a nibble, check it out…

Both hawthorn and blackthorn are Irish natives, the leaves come first on the May bush (hawthorn) and the flowers come later and the haw fruits ripen in autumn to the delight of the birds.

The fruit of the blackthorn on the other hand are sloes. The fluffy white flowers come before the leaves in May so make a mental note of where you spot a shrub so you can harvest sloes in early September in time to make a batch of sloe gin for Christmas. 

Asparagus spears are loving this warm, sunny weather, they’ve been popping out of the ground with gay abandon for the past few weeks. Enjoy the Irish crop while it’s in season, Bradley Putz’s asparagus from Lisheen Greens can be found at his stall at Skibbereen Farmers’ Market. Get there early on Saturday morning before it’s all snapped up. It’ll be quite different from the Italian or French asparagus on the supermarket shelves.  

My most recent discovery at our local fish shop is monkfish cheeks. They are about the size of a ‘half-crown’ if that rings bells and can of course be poached, fried in a little sizzling butter or grilled. They are exquisite served with sea kale, asparagus and a buttery sauce – a feast. 

Rhubarb, sea kale and asparagus are really worth growing in your garden. Rhubarb is relatively easy to buy during the season. Irish asparagus is difficult enough to find whereas sea kale is virtually never sold in shops or supermarkets so it’s essential to put the effort into growing your own for its delicate, exquisite taste. It’s even more rare and delicious than Irish asparagus, you’ll need to cover the crowns to protect them from January until April. Traditionally, with terracotta pots which look beautiful in your garden. Apart from costing an arm and a leg, they are really difficult to source but black plastic bins weighted down with a brick or heavy stone works perfectly even though they look far from photogenic.

There are also lots and lots of young spring nettles ready for the picking so next week, I’ll devote an entire column to them.

Meanwhile, try this new recipe for Monkfish cheeks with asparagus and butter sauce.

Sea Kale on Toast

We grow sea kale both in the herb garden and the kitchen garden – it really is the most exquisite vegetable – delicate and precious.  It’s rarely found in the shops so for that reason alone it’s really worth trying to find a space in your garden or flower bed.  You’ll need chimney liners, or plastic buckets or in an ideal world terracotta sea kale pots to blanch the sea kale from November to April.  I’ve got lots of wonderful frost proof pots made by the Whichford Pottery in Warwickshire. The sea kale pots are not exactly ‘given away’ but I was unbearably tempted when I saw them at the Chelsea Flower Show, so I went on a mighty spree and had to hide the evidence for ages. The special sea kale pots with the little lids to enable one to peep into the pots to check the growth, are best.  Even if you don’t grow sea kale, they look great in the garden all year round.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

450g sea kale

50-75g butter

salt and freshly ground pepper

Method

Wash the sea kale gently and trim into manageable lengths – about 10cm.  Bring about 600ml water to a fast rolling boil, add one teaspoon of salt.  Pop in the sea kale, cover and boil until tender – 5 to 15 minutes depending on thickness. 

Just as soon as a knife will pierce the sea kale easily, drain it and then serve on hot plates with a little melted butter and perhaps a few small triangles of toast.  At the beginning of its short season in April, we serve it as a first course on hot toast with melted butter or Hollandaise sauce.  When it becomes more abundant it makes a wonderful accompaniment to fish, particularly poached Wild Irish Salmon or Sea Trout.

Poached Monkfish Cheeks with Asparagus Butter Sauce

This is by far the most popular monkfish dish in our restaurant.  Serve it sparingly for a special occasion and don’t compromise the recipe!

Serves 6 as a main course

Ingredients

675g fresh monkfish cheeks

1.2 litres water

1 tsp salt

Asparagus Butter

6-12 spears of asparagus, depending on length

150g butter (preferably unsalted)

225ml cream

Garnish

sprigs of chervil

Method

Trim the monkfish cheeks if necessary. Sprinkle lightly with salt and refrigerate until needed. 

To prepare and cook the asparagus.

Hold each spear of asparagus over your index finger down near the root end, it will snap at the point where it begins to get tough (use the woody ends for asparagus stock for soup). Some people like to peel the asparagus, but we rarely do.

Tie similar-sized asparagus in bundles with raffia.  Choose a tall saucepan – one can buy specially designed tall asparagus pots with baskets.

Alternatively, cook in about 2.5cm of boiling salted water (1 teaspoon salt to every 600ml) in an oval cast-iron casserole. It’s really easy to overcook because it’ll go on cooking after you remove it from the heat.  or until a knife tip will pierce the root end easily. Cook for 3-4 minutes until al dente and drain.

Put the cream into a heavy bottomed saucepan and gently reduce to about 3 tablespoons or until it is in danger of burning, then whisk in the butter bit by bit as though you were making a Hollandaise sauce. 

Trim off the tips of the asparagus, then slice the stalks. Gently fold both into the butter.  Thin the sauce with a very little of the warm asparagus cooking water if necessary and keep warm. 

Bring the water to the boil and add the salt.  Add the monkfish cheeks and simmer for 4-5 minutes or until completely white and no longer opaque.  Drain well.  Arrange in a warm serving dish or on individual plates. 

Coat the monkfish cheeks with the asparagus butter.  Garnish with sprigs of chervil and serve immediately. 

Myrtle’s Almond Tart with Roast Rhubarb, Strawberries and Sweet Cicely

This was one of the first recipes I learned from Myrtle when I came to Ballymaloe House in the late 1960’s – still a top favourite. I love the contrast of the bittersweet rhubarb and strawberries with the crunchy almond base. Raspberries can also be used or even a blob of homemade raspberry jam and softly whipped cream in a tartlet – irresistible for afternoon tea.

Serves 12, makes 24 shallow tartlets or 2 x 18cm tarts

Ingredients

110g soft butter

110g caster sugar

110g ground almonds

300ml whipped cream

Filling

roast rhubarb (see recipe from my column on March 29^th 2025)

early Irish strawberries (or raspberries in season)

Redcurrant Glaze (optional)

Garnish

sweet cicely

2 x 18cm sandwich tins or 24 tartlet tins

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4

Cream the butter and sugar together, stir in the ground almonds together. Divide the mixture between the two tins. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 20-30 minutes approx., or until golden brown. The tarts will be too soft to turn out immediately, so cool for about 5 minutes before removing from tins. Do not allow to set hard or the butter will solidify, and they will stick to the tins. If this happens, pop the tins back into the oven for a few minutes so the butter melts, they will then come out easily. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Just before serving, arrange the roast rhubarb on the base, top with raspberries. Glaze with red currant glaze. Decorate with rosettes of whipped cream. Garnish with sweet cicely.

Red Currant Glaze

Ingredients

350g red currant jelly

1 tbsp water approx. (optional)

Method

In a small stainless steel saucepan melt the red currant jelly, add 1 tablespoon of water if necessary. Stir gently, but do not whisk or it will become cloudy. Cook it for just 1-2 minutes longer or the jelly will darken. Store any leftover glaze in an airtight jar and reheat gently to melt it before use. The quantities given above make a generous 300ml of glaze.

* If you are using yellow or green fruit, use apricot glaze instead of red currant jelly.

The Americans are ‘shell shocked’ in a myriad of ways at present.

‘Liberation’ Day and its fallout has left them and us reeling with no idea of how the wind will blow next. Ironically, something more mundane has also been causing huge anxiety.

For the past few months, the price of eggs has become a major American obsession. The price has soared, largely due to a bird flu outbreak. Since the beginning of the year, about 30 million birds have been culled and authorities are battling the thriving egg smuggling market which has developed across the border from Mexico where eggs cost $2 per dozen as opposed to $10 dollars per dozen in California…

Who knew that eggs could cause such disruption? For me, though, it’s not surprising. They are by far the cheapest protein, enormously versatile, super easy to cook, can be used in sweet or savoury dishes and there are so many delicious ways to create a nourishing meal in minutes from a couple of eggs.

At present, our flocks of hens are also locked in as a precaution against bird flu. They hate being cooped up, is it my imagination or are the eggs less delicious and nutrient dense?

Here’s hoping, we’ll get the go-ahead, very soon to release them out onto the rich pasture that they love.

Easter and chicks are synonymous in my mind, we’ve been hatching out a variety of traditional breeds in time for the holiday. Such joy and excitement on the children’s faces when they see the newborn chicks pecking their way out of their shells in the Palais des Poulets.

Aficionados of this column will be well aware of how much I love hens and regularly urge readers to think about having even three or four hens in a movable chicken coop on their lawn. Win, win all the way, your food scraps get fed to the hens and come back as eggs a few days later.

The ‘poo’ goes into the compost and back onto the garden to make the soil more fertile to grow even more nutritious vegetables plus you don’t have to pay the council to take away your food waste.

All super important but this is a food column, so we’ll concentrate on the bonus for the cook of having beautiful, fresh eggs to add magic to your cooking, instead of weeks old eggs to cook with. It makes a phenomenal difference to the flavour of dishes; you probably won’t believe me until you taste the difference.

Easter is all about eggs, there’s always lots of fun on Easter Sunday when the children discover that our clever hens have laid eggs with their names when they collect the eggs from the nests before going for an Easter bunny hunt around the garden – this time for chocolate eggs.

At Easter, it’s good to remember that eggs represent and celebrate new life and rebirth, mirroring the resurrection of Jesus in Christianity. During the medieval period, it was forbidden to eat eggs during the forty days of Lent, so everyone enthusiastically tucked into an egg feast on Easter Sunday.

If you haven’t had time to make the traditional Simnel Cake, it’s a bit late now but how about the delicious Easter Egg Cake (see my Easter column published on 9th April 2023), super easy, made in minutes in a food processor. Decorate with Easter bunnies or Easter egg nests or how about this Lemon Meringue Roulade to round off Easter Sunday lunch.

Happy Easter to you all.

Eggs Bhurji

Delicious spicy scrambled eggs from the Sun House in Galle on the South Coast of Sri Lanka.

Serves 2

Ingredients

25g butter

1 tsp mustard seeds

a few small fresh curry leaves

2 spring onions, finely chopped

½ tsp grated ginger

½ hot green chilli pepper, deseeded and thinly sliced

pinch of turmeric

½ tsp cumin

1 ripe tomato, skinned and diced

4 free-range eggs

toast, grilled bread or flatbread

Method

Melt the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat.  Add the mustard seeds, stir once then add the curry leaves and spring onion, stir and cook on a low to medium heat until the onions are soft.  Add the ginger, chilli, turmeric, cumin powder and diced tomato, stir and fry gently for a couple of minutes stirring regularly. 

Add the beaten eggs and continue to stir over a low heat until the eggs are softly scrambled. 

Serve on warm plates with hot toast, grilled bread or flatbread. 

Hot Lemon Soufflé

A tangy melt in the mouth flourless soufflé.  This feather light dessert will knock the socks off your friends and astound you by how easy it is to make something so delicious and impressive. 

For best flavour, use organic or unwaxed lemons if at all possible.  Best to cook in a conventional rather than a fan oven.

Serves 8

Ingredients

50g butter

110g caster sugar – use half with the egg whites

3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice (from about 2 lemons)

4 organic egg yolks

grated zest from 2 organic lemons

5 organic egg whites

icing sugar (for sprinkling)

For the Dishes

25g butter

25g caster sugar to line the soufflé dishes

8 individual soufflé dishes (9cm diameter/100ml)

Method

Brush the inside of the soufflé dishes with melted butter, sprinkle with caster sugar and shake out the excess.

First make the lemon curd base.

In a heavy saucepan, melt the butter with half the sugar and all the lemon juice over a low heat.  When all the butter and sugar are melted, remove from the heat and whisk in the egg yolks one by one. Add the lemon zest. Heat very gently, stirring constantly with a straight ended wooden spoon, until the mixture thickens to coat the back of the spoon. This is lemon curd, so be careful to not let it get too hot or it will curdle.

The soufflé can be prepared to this point, 3-4 hours ahead. Keep the mixture covered at room temperature.

20-30 minutes before serving, preheat the oven to 220°C/Gas Mark 7.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff, preferably in a large stainless-steel or copper bowl. Add the remaining caster sugar and beat for 20 seconds longer or until glossy.  Gently reheat the lemon mixture until hot to the touch, then stir in about a quarter of the egg whites. Add this mixture to the remaining egg whites and fold them together as lightly as possible.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared soufflé dishes, smooth the surface of each with a palette knife.  Bake at once in the preheated oven for 9-10 minutes or until the soufflés are puffed and golden brown on top. Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve at once on hot plates.

Top Tip

This soufflé can be prepared ahead in individual soufflé dishes and frozen overnight or for a few days. Cook straight from the freezer, they will take about 12-15 minutes.

Lemon Meringue Roulade

Making a roulade is another fun thing to do with meringue – cook the meringue lightly so it’s still soft enough to roll. Fill it with lots of lemon curd and softly whipped cream and whatever else you fancy.

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

4 organic, free-range egg whites

225g caster sugar

sunflower oil, for greasing

300ml whipped cream

For the Lemon Curd

50g butter

100g caster sugar

zest and juice of 2 lemons

2 organic, free-range eggs and 1 egg yolk, beaten

For the Crystallized Lemon Peel

2 lemons

150ml stock syrup (see recipe)

caster sugar, for sprinkling

sprigs of mint, lemon balm or sweet cicely to garnish

Method

If making the crystallized lemon peel, peel the lemons very thinly with a swivel-top peeler, being careful not to include the white pith, and cut the strips into fine julienne. Put in a saucepan with 450ml water and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the pan, refresh in cold water and repeat the process again. Put the lemon julienne in a saucepan with the stock syrup and cook gently until they look translucent or opaque. Remove with a slotted spoon and leave to cool on baking parchment paper or a wire rack. When cold, sprinkle with caster sugar. The crystallized lemon peel can be stored in a jar or airtight tin for weeks or sometimes months.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4.

Put the egg whites into the spotlessly clean bowl of a food mixer. Break up with the whisk attachment and then add all the caster sugar in one go. Whisk at full speed for 10-15 minutes until stiff peaks form.

Meanwhile, line a 30.5 x 20.5cm Swiss roll tin with baking parchment and brush lightly with sunflower oil.

Spread the meringue gently over the tin with a palette knife – it ought to be quite thick and bouncy. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Put a sheet of baking parchment on a worktop, turn the roulade out onto it, remove the parchment from the base of the meringue and leave to cool.

Meanwhile, make the lemon curd.

Melt the butter over a very low heat, add the sugar, lemon zest and juice and then stir in the well-beaten eggs. Stir carefully over a gentle heat until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Pour into a bowl (it will thicken as it cools).

To assemble the roulade, spread most of the whipped cream and lemon curd (as much as you like) over the meringue, keeping it 1cm in from the edge. Roll up from the long side and carefully ease on to a serving plate. Decorate with the reserved cream, crystallized lemon peel and fresh mint, lemon balm or sweet cicely leaves, if using. Serve cut into 2.5cm thick slices and drizzle with a little more lemon curd if desired.

Stock Syrup

Makes 825ml

450g sugar

600ml water

To make the stock syrup: Dissolve the sugar in the water and bring to the boil.  Boil for 2 minutes then allow it to cool.  Store in the fridge until needed.

The Happy Pear Boys ‘powered by veg’, are celebrating 20 years in business.

Twin brothers David and Stephen Flynn were just 24 years old when they decided to open a little veg shop in Greystones in Co. Wicklow.

It soon morphed into a café, supper club, a coffee roastery and a production facility for their products. Next step was to buy two farms…

Meanwhile in their ‘spare time’, they gave cooking courses, wrote six best-selling cookbooks, lots of TV programmes, set up a YouTube channel while encouraging everyone they came in contact with to eat more veg and look after our planet. There’s no stopping these lads!

A recent crowd funder raised 2.5 million in less than 24 hours; such is the influence of these supercharged boys.

At first, they were vehement vegans, embracing a strict wholefood plant based diet. Striving for what they felt was dietary perfection. They meticulously followed the advice of every health guru pushing themselves to the extreme. On their own admission, ‘we were annoyingly preachy, those vegans who always turned every meal into a discussion about food and why what was on our plate was better than what was on yours!’

However, when they had children, their food philosophy gradually evolved and can now be summed up in their words – ‘eat more veg and keep well away from UPF’s (ultra processed foods)’.

They are very hot on the need for extra fibre in our diet and the importance of each of us doing our bit to look after the environment and the soil that feeds us.

Their latest book includes a collection of the tried and tested, Flynn Family Favourites, the cafés most beloved and economic dishes and lots of top 20 lists.

20 ways to eat more veg (and to get your kids to eat more veg!).

20 ways to pick yourself up when feeling down

20 things we’ve learned after 20 years

20 learnings from our podcasts

20 dreams we have…

A few recipes to whet your appetite but lots more excitement between the covers of The Happy Pear 20.

*All recipes from The Happy Pear 20 published by Gill Books.

The Creamiest Hummus Ever!

We make literally tons of hummus every week in our factory in Pearville! Over the years, we have explored every trick and hack in search of the perfect hummus. Here are three simple tips to take your hummus to the next level:

1. Boil your tinned chickpeas with baking soda for a few minutes,

then remove the skins – this makes the hummus creamier.

2. Use ice instead of water – it will help make the hummus lighter

and fluffier.

3. Blend for longer – our friend from the Middle East blends his

hummus for 30 minutes in his food processor!

Makes about 800g

Ingredients

2 × 400g tins of cooked chickpeas

½ tsp baking soda

2-3 cloves of garlic, depending on your preference

4 tbsp lemon juice (about 2 lemons)

4 tbsp tahini

3-4 ice cubes

4 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to garnish

1½ tsp salt

1 tsp ground cumin

pinch of sumac or sweet paprika, to garnish

1 tbsp sesame seeds, to garnish

Method

Prepare the chickpeas: Drain and rinse the chickpeas and add to a pot. Add the baking soda, cover the chickpeas with just-boiled water and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes.

Remove the chickpea skins: Drain and rinse the cooked chickpeas. Set a small handful aside for garnish (if you’d like), then soak the rest in a large bowl filled with cold water. Try to get rid of the chickpea skins that came loose during the cooking by rubbing them together, or use a small sieve to help with this. Discard the skins.

Blend: Peel the garlic cloves. Add all ingredients for the hummus, except the sumac or sweet paprika and the sesame seeds, to a food processor and blend till super smooth – we recommend blending for 2–5 minutes, depending on your patience! Taste and adjust the seasoning to your palate. If it’s too strong or too thick, add a little water to thin it out.

Serve: Serve with a glug of olive oil and a pinch of sumac or sweet

paprika and a light dusting of sesame seeds.

Easy 10-Minute Indian Dhal

We have cooked this dish hundreds of times, and it is always well received. It’s richly flavoured and deeply nourishing and ready in just 10 minutes. Here, we serve it with toasted wholemeal pitta bread, but it’s also perfect with wholemeal couscous or a pack of pre-cooked brown rice.

Serves 2 on its own, or 4 with an accompanying grain

Ingredients

3 cloves of garlic

thumb-sized piece of ginger

bunch of scallions

1 × 400g tin of chickpeas

1 × 400g tin of lentils

10 cherry tomatoes

3 wholemeal pitta breads

1 tbsp oil

1 handful of baby spinach

1 × 400g tin of coconut milk

1 × 400g tin of chopped tomatoes

2 tbsp curry powder

1 tbsp tamari or soy sauce

1 tsp salt

½ tsp black pepper

To serve

1 lime

1 fresh red chilli (optional)

small bunch of fresh coriander or other fresh herb of choice

Method

Preparation: Peel and finely chop the garlic and ginger. Finely chop the scallions, removing any limp outer leaves. Drain and rinse the chickpeas and lentils. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half.

Toast the pittas: Put the pitta breads in the toaster at max heat.

Cook the dhal: Heat 1 tablespoon of oil for 1 minute in a large saucepan over a high heat. Add the garlic, ginger and scallions and cook for 1 minute. Add the cherry tomatoes and cook for an additional 2 minutes.

Add the remaining ingredients: Add the chickpeas, lentils, baby

spinach, coconut milk, chopped tomatoes, curry powder, tamari or

soy sauce and salt and black pepper. Stir well and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat and simmer for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Remove from the heat.

Garnish and serve: Finely chop the fresh coriander (including the stalks). Squeeze the juice of the lime over the dhal and add the coriander. Stir to combine. If desired, finely slice the chilli and sprinkle on top for added heat. Cut the toasted pitta breads into soldiers (strips) and serve them on the side of your easy dhal. Enjoy!

Easy Sesame and Coriander Flatbreads

These are surprisingly simple to make, and you can adapt this

basic recipe to virtually any flavour you like. Here we’ve gone

with sesame and coriander, but you could leave those out to

make plain flatbreads.

Makes 4

Ingredients

200g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting

150ml natural soy yoghurt or coconut yoghurt

flour for dusting

3 tbsp black sesame seeds

1 tbsp oil, plus extra for brushing

10g fresh coriander

salt

Method

Make the dough: In a mixing bowl, add the flour and a teaspoon of

salt and stir together. Add the yoghurt and mix well until it’s uniform in consistency. In the bowl, knead the mixture for 5 minutes till you get a soft dough.

Divide and roll out: Cut your dough into 4 equal pieces. Dust your work surface with flour and roll out each piece of dough to about ½cm thick.

Cook: Put a large pan on a high heat. Once it’s hot, reduce the heat to medium. Add a sprinkle of sesame seeds and 1 tablespoon of oil (use sesame oil if you want to increase the sesame flavour) then one of the rolled-out flatbreads. Cook till it starts to turn golden underneath, it may also start to form air pockets. Turn and cook on the other side till golden too. Repeat with the remaining flatbreads.

Serve: Brush with a little oil, then sprinkle with some freshly chopped

coriander and coarse sea salt for one of our favourite types of flatbreads!

All over the world, there are food festivals, some principally focus on food and invite guest chefs from across the globe to share their creativity and skills Others like MAD in Copenhagen (coming up in May) focus on food, farming and environmental issues and try to come up with solutions to remedy your deeply flawed food system.

JR Ryall, pastry chef at Ballymaloe House and I recently travelled to Sri Lanka to participate in the Gourmet Galle festival which is now in its second year. It was originally created by the legendary Geoffrey Dobbs who also initiated the Galle Literary Festival in 2005, so this was my second time to make a guest appearance.

We created a Taste of Ballymaloe Dinner at the chic Charleston Hotel. The menu was a fusion of Sri Lankan and Irish ingredients. A beautiful side of Belvelly Smoked Salmon from artisan fish smoker, Frank Hederman came all the way from Ireland, we served it with a fresh cucumber pickle, devilled eggs and freshly baked, Ballymaloe brown yeast bread. 

There were lots of beets in season, so we made a chilled beetroot soup drizzled with Sri Lankan buffalo curd and fresh coriander, very welcome in the Sri Lankan heat. Main course was roast free-range Sri Lankan pork with crackling, aubergines in the pickling style and rustic roast potatoes sprinkled with fresh rosemary.

Guests particularly loved JR’s sweet trolley and each and every one of the beautiful people tucked into a taste of absolutely everything on offer. Sri Lanka grows wonderful cashew nuts, so the praline ice cream was made with cashew nuts instead of almonds. JR layered up the panna cotta with a Sri Lankan espresso coffee jelly, a huge success. Little coconut meringues were topped with the sweetest Alfonso mango and a spoonful of tangy passion fruit and finally there was a wobbly, gooey chocolate tart. 

All the recipes came from JR‘s Ballymaloe Desserts Cookbook, which we later found on the shelves of a fantastic independent bookshop in Unawatuna called Wild and Sage. It’s also got a sweet little café so put it on your Sri Lankan list if you’re planning to head that way. 

We stayed in The Charleston in Galle Fort for several days, so we had the opportunity to do a bit of exploring. Of course, we visited the fish market on the edge of the lagoon plus the fruit and veg markets and lots of spice shops in the Muslim quarter where we learned how to source the very best Sri Lankan cinnamon, peppercorns, cardamon, nutmeg and mace. 

Out in Tagalle, I watched the fishermen laboriously hauling in their horseshoe nets and sharing the catch. One of the traditional Sri Lankan Orrou boats sustains 8 to 10 families, it was really an honour to observe this time-honoured sustainable practice, most of the catch was whitebait. Occasionally, they caught a couple of sear fish which was like winning the lotto for them – l long to return to Sri Lanka, loved the food, the traditions, the countryside and the warm and friendly people.

A special thank you to Ivo Richli at The Charleston in Galle Fort for sharing these recipes for this week’s column.

Sri Lankan Potato Curry

Curry leaves particularly are an essential ingredient in Sri Lankan cooking. Neither fresh pandan or curry leaves, as yet are available in supermarkets but are now widely accessible in Asian shops. Buy extra and freeze a few.

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 medium potatoes – 600g approx.

3 tbsp onions or shallots, finely chopped

1 large garlic clove minced

3 pieces of pandan leaves (about 10cm each)

1 sprig of fresh curry leaves

1 green chili sliced

¹⁄₄ tsp turmeric powder

¹⁄₂ tsp curry powder * (see recipe)

⁄₈ tsp fenugreek seeds

³⁄₄ tsp salt (adjust to your taste)

225ml water (you may need more or less)

350ml thick coconut milk

3 drops of freshly squeezed lime juice (optional)

Method

Wash and peel the medium size potatoes (a waxy type like Yukon gold potatoes is preferred). Cut them into quarters or to 6 pieces of your potatoes are on the bigger side. Make sure all the potatoes are roughly equal in size. Then put them into a deep saucepan.

Add all the ingredients except the water, thick coconut milk, and lime juice. Then add your water and mix well. You might want to adjust the amount of water depending on the vessel and the number of potatoes you use.

Cook covered until the potatoes are fork-tender. This means you should be able to poke the potatoes with a fork without much resistance. It’s okay to have about 50ml of water left. If you have more water than that then increase the heat and leave the pot uncovered and let the water evaporate. If your potatoes are still not cooked and all your water has evaporated then add some water, cover the pot, and cook until potatoes are tender. Do not overcook your potatoes otherwise, they will become mush. So, keep an eye on them and check the doneness of your potatoes from time to time.

Now lower the heat and add your thick coconut milk. 

Mix gently without breaking your potatoes. Bring the coconut milk to simmer. And then keep gently mixing the curry continuously for about 5 mins without breaking the potatoes so your coconut milk wouldn’t curdle. Make sure you taste the curry and adjust the salt too.

Turn off the heat and keep stirring it gently until the curry cools down a little bit.

Then squeeze a few drops of lime juice. (this step is totally optional) it thickens up the curry just a little bit more, helps to cut through the creaminess.

Sri Lankan Curry Powder

It’s worth making your own batch of Sri Lankan curry powder. It takes ten minutes and will keep in the fridge in a jar for three months.

30g coriander seeds

15g cumin seeds

15g fennel seeds

15g black peppercorns

2 tbsp coconut or vegetable oil

8-10 fresh curry leaves

70g dried Kashmiri or medium hot red chillies

¼ tsp ground turmeric

In a dry pan over a low-medium heat, roast the coriander, cumin, fennel and black peppercorns for 1-2 minutes, stirring regularly, until they begin to be really fragrant, then pour them into a bowl. Add the oil to the pan and cook the curry leaves and dried chillies for 2-3 minutes, stirring often. Remove from the heat and when cool, blitz in a spice grinder or food processor until fine – blitz in batches if needs be. Stir in the turmeric and store in a jam jar.

Ceylon Chicken Curry

Curry leaves are an essential ingredient in many Sri Lankan dishes. Fresh are best but if you don’t have an Asian shop close by, use frozen or dried. In both Sri Lanka and India, sauce is referred to as gravy.

Serves 8

Ingredients

900g whole chicken, cut into small portions

2-3 tbsp coconut oil or vegetable oil

½ onion, diced or sliced

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2.5cm piece of ginger, finely chopped

2 ½ tbsp roasted Sri Lankan curry powder (available in Asian shops)

1 tsp chili powder

1 cinnamon stick (preferably Ceylon cinnamon)

6-7 fresh curry leaves

2 serrano green chili

½ tsp salt plus more to taste

2 medium-sized tomatoes

110ml full-fat coconut milk

110ml water

Prepare the bone-in chicken by cutting it into smaller pieces. Each piece should be fairly small but not bite-sized. The larger the chicken piece, the longer it will take to cook through, so it’s important to keep the pieces fairly similar in size.

Add the coconut oil into a large saucepan and heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until they start to soften. Add the garlic and ginger to the softened onions, and sauté until the garlic starts to soften. Make sure it doesn’t burn.

Add the curry powder, chili powder, cinnamon, curry leaves, and mix to combine. Cook for a few minutes until you start to smell the spices.

Add the chicken, green chili, salt, tomatoes, and mix to coat. Cook for 10 minutes with the lid off, on medium high heat. Frequently stir to make sure the chicken or the spices don’t burn.

Add coconut milk, water, and bring the curry to a boil. If you want less gravy, add less liquid.

Lower the heat and let it simmer with the lid on for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Leave the lid off if you want to reduce the liquid content in the curry.

The chicken should be completely cooked by this point. This will depend on the size of the chicken pieces and the stove you use.

Taste the curry and season with more salt to taste if needed.

If the chicken curry gravy is too thin, or there’s too much of it, uncover and simmer the curry for a further 10 minutes or longer. This step is optional, but it allows the water to evaporate and for the gravy to thicken. If you want more gravy, you can add more water or coconut milk, but you will need to adjust the flavour accordingly.

Turn off the heat and let the chicken cool down slightly. Serve with rice or roti.

Sawborow

These delicious crunchy biscuits were in our room as a welcome treat on our arrival at The Charleston in Galle Fort. Remember sago? It gives a delicious crunchy texture to the Sawborow. Sawborow keep really well in an airtight container for up to 1 month.

Makes 100 approx.

Ingredients

1kg sago

1.4kg freshly grated coconut

1kg sugar                                    

40g breadcrumbs

20g fennel seed

50g coconut butter

Method

Preheat the oven to 120°C

Line a baking tray with parchment paper.

Combine all ingredients and mix with your hands until the mixture sticks together, adding 1-2 tablespoons of water if necessary. The moisture in the coconut will determine if you need the additional water.

Place a cookie/biscuit cutter (7.5cm approx.) on the baking sheet. Add a few tablespoons of the mixture and using the back of a spoon, press down until tight and compact. Carefully remove the cookie/biscuit cutter.

Repeat until all of the mixture has been used.

Bake for 45 minutes until pale golden, turn over and bake the other side for 15 minutes.

Note: When you remove the sawborow from the oven, they will appear to be soft, but they become very crispy as they cool.