Making Sri Lankan roti & coconut sambol

Yep, I have just been to Sri Lanka! (Surprisingly close to Singapore, and from my brief experience there - a really wonderful country.) Anyway, we did many fab things there, and among them was a rural village visit, with a local cooking lesson from a friendly Grandma. In fact she was both friendly, and extremely strong - as a lot of the daily cooking chores appeared to require quite high amounts of muscle-power! 

So, we were shown some basic domestic techniques such as how remove the husks and make rice flour, make rope from coconut husks.. Followed by how  to make a local roti (flatbread) and coconut sambol (a kind of dipping chutney). 

The Roti
Was made with millet (fluffy, three-pronged 'flowers' which required work in a heavy-duty mill to create flour). Added to the flour was water, seasoning, and coconut milk (made from a fresh coconut, and again requiring some efficient break-in work to access the nut using a scary-looking metal prong!) The dough is quite sloppy, but kneaded, spread flat between two banana leaves (which are soaked in water in advance, so that they don't combust during cooking) and put over a small toasting fire for about 5 minutes. 


 The Sambol
Fresh grated coconut, chilli, salt and pepper, a small reddish onion (I think that's all?) were then ground under a large rolling-pin style pestle and mortar, and served in dipping bowls to be consumed with the freshly baked roti. 

The meal was delicious, actually! The cooked  roti is a sort of dense pancake with a strong creamy-coconut flavour to it, which went really nicely with the spicy chutney.