Coming to my rescue is my Maldivian friend N.I glad I came to know her wonderful person that she is she says she isn't a great cook but her mom certainly is. I had a chance to eat their bread/roti Roshi ( roti's made of maida)with a spinach salad called kuhlha filafiath. Since I cannot pronounce it right I will prefer to stick to call it Spinach salad.
That was a delicious combo and I had to try it for dinner. Since I didn't have the ingredients for the spinach salad... she suggested a Srilankan seeni sambol dish as accompaniment. Both are so simple to make and delicious to eat.
Here is a picture of my plate.
Roshi with Seeni Sambol
This is a staple dish, most people eat Roshi for breakfast and dinner . This was a super hit on my dinner table. This Roshi looks more like our own Roomali roti but I guess easier to make.This goes with any kind of dal or curry, dry or gravy ones.This can be a easy substitute to the tortillas to make delicious wraps.
Ingredients1 cup plain all purpose flour (Maida)
3 small spoons of sunflower oil
salt to taste
and boiling hot water ( about 1/3 cup).
METHOD:
Take the clean sifted flour into a large bowl, add a pinch of salt (to taste).Make a mixture of it by adding oil. The make a large hollow in the centre Add boiling hot water , little at a time mixing with a metal spoon. Once there are clumps stop adding water and let it cool a bit , not to hurt your fingers. Then knead the dough well as soon as it is cool enough .Work around till you get a nice pliable dough, which is not sticky yet is soft.Make this dough into equal sized balls.
Roll out each ball into a round , thin flat roti, dusting it a little with flour to avoid sticking.
Meanwhile heat a flat pan or tava and cook them like normal chapatis or roti's but without any oil.Flip on both sides till both are cooked evenly and serve hot with any side dish of your choice.
It is through practice I think we get the perfect thin and round roti's. Mine were decent enough to get her nod!!! even though one went in the shape of my country showing my patriotism.
SEENI SAMBOL:
A traditional caramelised onion relish from Srilanka,, which she said I could make without one of the ingredients (Maldive fish) in it to suit my veggie needs. This is a typical combination of sweet and hot condiments, a traditional accompaniment to this is a thin flat bread called Roti,but can be served with any kind of bread actually. The name coming from Seeni as in sugar and Sambol a combination of spices. I here give N's recipe.
Sliced Onions - 4
Ground dry Red Chilly - 1 tbsp
Coconut Milk - 5 spoons
Sugar - 2 Tbsp
Cinnamon powder ( can use the bark if powder is not at home, remove the bark after cooking)
cardamom beans (few from one pod is enough)
Salt oil to saute
sprig of curry leaves
(Maldive fish ( for the non vegetarian variety))
In a heavy skillet add two to three spoons of oil. Saute the curry leaves and sprig of curry leaves. then add the onion and salt to taste. Let the onions saute and then add sugar, red chilli powder cardamom beans and cinnamon powder. Let the onions caramelised without getting burnt. The trick is to keep it a bit moist all along.
Then this dish is ready to be served..
( Mine wasn't as caramelised because I did not add a lot of sugar.I preferred it spicier to sweeter, and I used dry red chillies instead of the powder).
I am sure this will be a tasty variant for you all to try out and give me a feed back which will encourage me to try out more of her recipes.
