Jaffna Recipes

Idicha Sambol

Idi Sambol

Idi sambol is the pounded sambol of Jaffna, and it is the one cooks talk about the way they do here: good enough to get through a hundred plates of plain white rice. Everything goes into hot oil first, and everything goes in separately. Red onions until they turn golden, then garlic, then dried red chillies, then nai miris or kochchi, and last a handful of dried sprats fried just to the point of crisp. All of it then goes into a stone mortar and gets pounded until the pieces break down and the flavours run into one another. Sugar, chilli flakes, salt and lime juice go in at the end and get pounded through as well. It comes out coarse, dark and properly fiery, and in Jaffna homes it gets made almost every day.

Jaffna Kathirikkai Sambal

Kathirikkai sambal, wambatu sambol in Sinhala, is the Jaffna way with eggplant: you fry cubes until golden, then crush them in a bowl with roughly chopped onion, coriander leaves, chilli flakes, salt and two spoons of thick tamarind water. No cooking after the frying, no coconut, no gravy. In Jaffna homes this is breakfast, eaten with plain white rice, and it is sour and salty and hot enough that rice and this alone is a meal. Tamarind is what makes it taste right. Lime works and gives you a different, brighter sambal, and a spoon of Maldive fish or dried shrimp takes it somewhere else again.

Mooru Miris

Moru Miris

Moru miris, known in English as curd chillies or buttermilk chillies, are whole green chillies soaked in salted curd, sun-dried over several days until leathery, then deep-fried crisp to serve. The slow soak-and-dry cycle is what makes them special: the chillies drink up salt and the gentle tang of moru, dry to a dark, savoury crackle, then puff and shatter in hot oil. A small handful turns a plain plate of rice and curry into something you keep reaching for.

Jaffna Isso Curry

Jaffna Prawn Curry

Jaffna prawn curry, or Jaffna isso curry, is plump prawns simmered in a dark, fiery gravy built on heavily roasted Jaffna curry powder and tamarind. This is the Northern Tamil style: deeper, hotter and far more roasted than a standard Sri Lankan prawn curry, with a tangy red gravy that clings to the shellfish. You'll see it called Jaffna shrimp curry or just isso curry. It's intense and unapologetically spiced, balanced by the natural sweetness of the prawns and the sour lift of tamarind.

Kakuluwo Curry

Sri Lankan Crab Curry

Sri Lankan crab curry, known as kakuluwo curry, is whole mud crab cooked in a rich, dark and properly fiery coconut gravy built on dark-roasted Jaffna curry powder and soured with goraka or tamarind. It's the legendary Jaffna crab curry, the one people drive across the island for. Messy, intense, and meant to be eaten with your hands, cracking the shells and sucking every last drop of gravy from the claws. Use whole crab so the shells flavour the gravy, and serve it with string hoppers, rice or bread to mop up the sauce.