Before I tell you about the Sri Lankan spices (or rather spice mixtures), let me remind you about this month’s Eating with the Seasons event that’s hosted here at Maninas. This month, we are celebrating the seasonal ingredients for January, so hurry up and send me your entries on or before 15 January! As always, I look forward to your seasonal tips and recipes!
Anyhow, back to Sri Lankan spices! In my introductory post on this beautiful and aromatic cuisine , I mentioned spice mixtures that are characteristic for Jasmine’s Sri Lankan cooking: Sri Lankan garam masala, Sri Lankan curry powder, etc. What I didn’t tell you then that Jasmine packed me home with a little treasure: stacks of her spices and recipes for how to make them! In addition to the curry powder and the garam masala, I’ve also got a recipe for her tempering spices and rasam powder. Enjoy!
Sri Lankan Garam Masala
Sri Lankan garam masala is very different from what I know as Indian garam masalas (For a wealth of regional Indian recipes, check out Vegeyum’s beautiful and informative post). The most important difference is that the spices not roasted; cinnamon, cardamom and cloves are simply ground together raw, and the flavours of cloves and cardamom are dominant. The masala is used in certain meat and vegetable curries, and the recipe is simple:
INGREDIENTS:
1 tbsp green cardamom pods
1 tbsp cloves
2 cinnamon sticks, about 7 cm in length each
METHOD:
Simply grind all the ingredients together.
NOTE: Proportion of the ingredients can vary. The flavours of cardamom and cloves are dominant, but to what extent? Play around and find your own winning combination!
At first, I found the flavour of raw cloves a little challenging, but I soon got over it, and got used to it. In fact, I started loving it, and craving it!
Sri Lankan Curry Powder
Sri Lankan curry powder is roasted, and not ‘raw’: the spices are roasted and then ground, which gives them a seductive nutty flavour. The curry powder is often added to the dishes at the final stages of cooking, to finish off the flavours. There are numerous versions of the recipe, and it’s usually homemade. This is Jasmine’s:
INGREDIENTS:
200 g fennel seeds
100 g cumin seeds
1 tbsp green cardamom pods
1 tbsp cloves
2 cinnamon sticks, about 7.5 cm in length each
a handful of curry leaves
pandan leaves, 7 cm piece (optional)
METHOD:
All the ingredients are roasted briefly together, and then ground.
Jasmine’s Tempering Spices
Jasmine uses this spice mixture for tempering her delectable dhals and vegetable preparations.
INGREDIENTS:
Brown mustard seeds
cumin seeds
fennel seeds
METHOD:
Equal amounts of these spices are simply coarsely ground all together (unroasted).
Jasmine’s Rasam Powder
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup coriander seeds
1 dessert spoon of cumin seeds
1 dessert spoon of fennel seeds
1 dessert spoon of black pepper
a few dried red chillies
METHOD:
The spices are simply ground all together (unroasted).
ALSO: Jasmine keeps at hand a mixture of freshly ground, raw cumin and black pepper, which I think is a great idea as I love both of these flavours.
I don’t have a recipe for Sri Lankan chilli powder (which is a mixture of spices), as she shared with me some of her own, sent to her especially and all the way from Sri Lanka. I really am lucky! 
(A quick note: I’ve noticed she uses chilli powder when cooking meat, and certain vegetable curries, and green chillies in other vegetable preparations and dhal.)
There you go! Now we’re all set to cook Sri Lankan! (Though I appreciate that many of these ingredients may be difficult to find for many people.) More delicious recipes coming next! In fact, I’m going to post a Sri Lankan recipe for a leek and cabbage side dish with coconut for the January Eating with the Seasons, so stay tuned!
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My other posts and recipes on Sri Lankan cooking:
The aroma of curry leaves: Sri Lankan cooking (Introduction)
Varar – Sri Lankan cabbage and leek with coconut
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14 responses so far ↓
The aroma of curry leaves. Sri Lankan cooking « Maninas: Food Matters // 14 January, 2009 at 8:31 pm |
[...] ← Eating with the Seasons: DECEMBER Round-up! Sri Lankan Spices [...]
Sylvie // 14 January, 2009 at 11:42 pm |
Some great spice mixes, thanks for sharing! I don’t think I’ll make this month’s event, but hopefully I’ll be back in for February!
Andrea // 15 January, 2009 at 10:42 am |
Super! Za Garam Masala i Rasam Powder imam sve sastojke tako da ću ih uskoro napraviti.
Čekam ovaj poriluk jer baš je sezona i plac ga je pun, a meni nije ukusan spremljen kao obično varivo.
Maninas // 15 January, 2009 at 8:18 pm |
SYLVIE, Thanks! I look forward to your entries. Hope you had a good break and happy new year!
ANDREA, cool! samo vidi sto sam napisala ispod recepta o garam masali. Eno napisala sam post o poriluku. Probaj ga – cak i bez curry leaves, kombinacija okusa je fantasticna.
Varar - Sri Lankan cabbage and leek with coconut « Maninas: Food Matters // 15 January, 2009 at 8:46 pm |
[...] My Amazon ← Sri Lankan Spices [...]
realfoodlover // 25 January, 2009 at 11:55 pm |
I am a fool! Hitherto I have only used sticks of cinnamon and whole cloves for sweet dishes. I have just realised – thanks to reading your recipe for Sri Lankan garam masala – I can use them in savoury dishes. What a revelation – can’t wait to try…
However grinding them is another matter. I do not have a coffee grounder, only a pestle and mortar. What do you use?
Maninas // 27 January, 2009 at 12:01 am |
Jasmine calls the spices in garam masala ’sweet spices’. Precisely because they’re also used in sweet dishes.
Actually, I use pestle and mortat only. A very heavy duty one, though. But it’s still hard work.
My mother-in-law recently used the food processor to grind some cinnamon (only a few small pieces). I’m talking the big bowl here. If you have a food processor with a smaller bowl, that would be even better. I have a Magimix that has 3 bowls of different sizes, which is really handy for chopping different quantities of food.
realfoodlover // 27 January, 2009 at 12:00 pm |
Ah, sweet spices – that makes sense. And makes me feel better about my ignorance!
As for grinding – I will continue to investigate. I use a pestle and mortar – and my magimix is so circa 1980s…not sure if it is up for grinding.
I think I need a mini coffee-bean grinder!
maninas // 28 January, 2009 at 12:23 am |
I think my mother-in-law’s magimix is about the same age as yours!
thought it might have worked because they were sticks of cinnamon. Not sure what would have happened with say peppercons. Which makes me thing – how about a pepper grinder? That would work, too!
I’d quite like a coffee bean grinder, too. I have one, but I use it for coffee only. It’s truly ancient, but it works a treat. I think it’s from the 70s or something. Let me know if you find a good one!
For the winter blues: Sri Lankan coconut dal « Maninas: Food Matters // 7 February, 2009 at 10:48 pm |
[...] tbsp tempering spices (mixture of brown/black mustard seeds, cumin seeds and fennel seeds – see Sri Lankan spices for [...]
Laurie Ashton Farook // 1 May, 2009 at 10:49 am |
I’m chiming in late with some quibbles and corrections.
Curries, the spices involved, and how they’re used vary tremendously within Sri Lanka based on both ethnic and regional variations. Tamil Jaffna curries are very different from Moor Kurunegala curries, but even within the Tamil Jaffna community, there will still be variations.
Curry powder in Sri Lanka is available both as roasted and as unroasted, and there are some regional offerings, ie Jaffna curry powder.
In our household, we rarely use roasted curry powder, for example. We infrequently use unroasted curry powder, for that matter. For the majority of our recipes, we add the individual spices to each dish as needed rather than using premade curry or other spice mixes. This is how my mother-in-law (Kurunegala Moor) taught me, and it’s how my Sri Lankan cookbooks (sold in Sri Lanka for the Sri Lankan audience) do it.
As well, the chilli powder that’s available in stores here is from a single chilli pepper and is available as both roasted and unroasted. I haven’t yet seen a chilli powder mix – it could be regional to where Jasmine is from or something special that her family does.
I’m looking forward to reading more of your Sri Lankan recipes. I’m always looking for something great that’s new-to-me.
Maninas // 1 May, 2009 at 11:00 am |
Hi Laurie, welcome to my blog!
I’m sure there are many ethnic and regional varieties in Sri Lankan cooking. Heck, spice mixtures vary even from family to family! I did say these are spice mixtures characteristic of Jasmine’s cooking. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.
Thanks for informing me about the chili powder mixture (or not a mixture, for that matter). I didn’t know that.
My friend uses both individual spices, and spice mixtures though.
I borrowed a book from a friend written by Charmaine Solomon (Sri Lankan, Sinhalese I believe) that contains a lot of Sri Lankan recipes. Looks interesting!
I will be sharing some more of Jasmine’s recipes. Stay tuned! And of course, I look forward to reading yours!
Laurie Ashton Farook // 1 May, 2009 at 1:43 pm |
Huh. Whaddya know, I am blind! Yes, you did mention that it was characteristic of Jasmine’s cooking, and yet I didn’t even see that.
Sorry if I provided any more confusion than I usually do. 
I haven’t seen Charmaine Solomon’s cookbook, so I have no idea about her recipes, but I’m looking forward to seeing what you conjure up.
Maninas // 1 May, 2009 at 2:19 pm |
That’s OK, no problem.
It was great to read about your perspective on Sri Lankan food and your community, too.