Chargrilled Octopus and Orange Salad

I thought I’d try an ingredient I’d never worked with before and enthusiastically picked octopus as without any particular recipe in mind for this post. Having returned from the fish shop, I flipped frantically through my cookbooks for a while without much success. Thank goodness for Google, which yielded this recipe for a salad of char-grilled baby octopus and orange – what did we ever do without it?

Chunky Avocado and Tomato Salsa

It’s avocado season in Sri Lanka, and I am in heaven… the avocado trees at my parents in laws’ property in Kandy have borne a bumper crop this year, and I’m a very grateful beneficiary. Perfectly jumbo teardrop-shaped, these fruit are luscious, creamy and, packed as they are with nutrients, can be consumed with a clear conscience.

Candied Orange and Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’m a very risk-averse person. Maybe it’s something to do with being a lawyer, but I’m overly cautious and any risks I do take are usually heavily calculated towards producing good results. Which is a long-winded way of saying I need to be a bit more adventurous… with life in general, and cooking in particular. I do believe, truly, that in cooking, as in life, the biggest failure is to be so crippled by the fear of it that one does not try anything new at all. And so, here I am, valiantly trying to stand up with the courage of my convictions and not let the fear of a badly chosen recipe or (even scarier) making up a recipe, stop me.

Pineapple and Ginger Marmalade

 

I’m quite new to the whole jam-making thing. I’ve made tomato chutney for years and have become pretty adept at that process, simply because I refuse to eat rice and curry without some form of condiment or the other, and this is my favourite. And I always have a bottle of homemade pineapple jam in the fridge, but this is little more than pineapple stewed until sticky. I hadn’t ventured towards other forms of preserves until I came across a recipe for pineapple and ginger marmalade in David Lebovitz’s wonderful book, Ready for Dessert. This looked interesting because: pineapple. And also: candied ginger. Not to mention: rum.

Jambalaya

"Creole and Cajun cooking, the food of New Orleans and the surround countryside, is one of the most vibrant and exciting cuisines in the world today. French in its origin and accents, this spicy and sometimes fiery tradition also embodies elements of Native American, Spanish and African cooking… The Creole cooks of New Orleans created a sophisticated and complex cuisine that blends French techniques with local products and traditions… Cajun cooking is the earthy, flavourful and sometimes fiery cooking of the southern Louisiana countryside.”

– Denis Kelly, ‘Creole & Cajun Cooking’

This jambalaya is an amalgam of two recipes – one from Denis Kelly’s book and another from my grandmother’s old cookbook. This was the book that she started compiling when she took cooking lessons (as young ladies of the time did) and was one she added to throughout her life. Aachhi was a formidable cook and some of my earliest memories are of helping her in the pantry.  Her book is yellowed, tattered and generally a bit worse for wear, but I got it re-bound with a lovely leather cover and it is one of my favourite cookbooks, full of recipes accumulated over the years, many of which I have enjoyed at the ancestral dining table. I love the book as much for the memories it holds as for its recipes.

Rhubarb crumble ice cream

So I have an admission to make: I have not always been a fan of rhubarb. Growing up, I could never quite see what the fuss was all about, and I staunchly steered clear of any and all rhubarb dishes. Was I missing out or what? Alas for this recent convert, rhubarb is not always easy to find in Colombo and even when I have managed to stumble upon it, it looks tired, woody and not at all inspiring.

My family and I spent a lovely long weekend in the misty, mountain town of Nuwara Eliya. At an elevation of 1,868m above sea level and nestled among emerald green tea plantations, Nuwara Eliya takes you back in time to an era when the British would escape the stiflingly hot confines of Colombo and the South for some much needed respite in the cooler climes of the mountains. Although today, the illegal buildings mushrooming everywhere have robbed the town of much of its old world charm, there is still a wistful, nostalgic feel about the place as if it is remembering better times.