Sambols, Chutneys, Pickles and Condiments Recipes

Pol Sambola

Pol Sambol

Pol sambol is freshly grated coconut pounded with red chilli, lime, onion and a little Maldive fish. You might know it as coconut sambol or Sri Lankan coconut relish, but it is the same thing: bright red, fiercely hot and ready in ten minutes flat, with not a single pan involved. Smeared on bread, piled onto hoppers or spooned next to rice and dhal, it goes with absolutely everything.

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.

Lunu Miris Sambola

Lunu Miris

Lunu miris, written lunu miris sambola or salt chilli sambol, is the no-coconut cousin of pol sambol. Dried red chilli, raw onion, a little Maldive fish and lime, pounded into a dark paste that is salty, sour and properly hot all at once. A little goes a long way. This is the red smear you spread on a plain hopper or string hopper at breakfast, the one that wakes the table up.

Seeni Sambola

Seeni Sambol

Seeni sambol, sometimes written seeni sambola or onion sambol and known in English as sweet onion relish, is slow-cooked caramelised red onion spiced with chilli, soured with tamarind and rounded out with a little jaggery. Dark, sticky and sweet-hot, it's the famous filling in seeni sambol buns and the calm, sweet contrast on a rice and curry plate. It takes patience to cook down, but a jar keeps for ages and, honestly, it only gets better as it sits.

Sudu Pol Sambol

Sri Lankan White Coconut Sambol

Sri Lankan white coconut sambol, or sudu pol sambol, is freshly grated coconut tossed with green chilli (or fiery little kochchi), red onion, lime and salt. It's not the dark red pol sambol you might know; it skips the chilli powder, so it stays pale and zingy instead of smoky. People call it kochchi sambol too. This no-cook coconut relish takes minutes and it goes with rice, bread and hoppers.

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.

Sri Lankan Chilli Paste

Sri Lankan chilli paste, known as miris paste, is a thick, deep red cooked condiment. Onions, dried red chillies, chilli powder, garlic, tamarind, sugar and salt get slow cooked in oil until the mix darkens and the oil separates. That's the famous fiery chilli paste you get beside fried rice, string hoppers and bread: jammy and concentrated, not raw and runny. Add a little Maldive fish for savoury depth, or leave it out to keep the chilli paste fully vegan.

Katta Sambol

Katta sambol, also known as dry chilli sambol, is the fiercest of all Sri Lankan sambols. Dried red chillies, red onion or shallots, salt and lime get pounded into a dry, crumbly, blazing-hot relish. The name 'katta' points to that sharp, biting heat. Unlike the moist, paste-like lunu miris, katta sambol stays dry and rust-red, made for tiny fiery pinches with rice and curry, string hoppers, pittu, kiribath or a slice of bread.

Ambarella Chutney

Also called golden apple chutney, though my grandmother just called it 'the sour one'. Ambarella chutney, or June plum chutney, is what a Sri Lankan kitchen makes when the tree drops more fruit than anyone can eat raw. You peel the hard green ambarella, carve the flesh off its spiky seed, and simmer it slowly with sugar, vinegar, chilli and ginger until it sets into a dark, sticky relish that is sour and sweet at once. It keeps for weeks in the fridge and, if anything, tastes better after a few days. A jar of this means even the saddest Tuesday-night rice and dhal has something bright and bracing beside it.

Sri Lankan Mango Chutney

Sri Lankan mango chutney, or amba chutney, is mango simmered slowly with sugar, vinegar, chilli, ginger, garlic and a few warm spices until it sets into a thick, dark relish. You taste sweet first, then sharp, and the chilli heat lands at the end. The sugar and vinegar are what preserve it, so a sealed jar keeps for weeks in the fridge and settles as it sits. Use it next to rice and curry, on bread, or with a wedge of sharp cheese.

Malay Achcharu

Sri Lankan Malay Pickle

Sri Lankan Malay pickle, Malay achcharu, is a sharp, sweet and fiery mixed pickle from the island's Malay community. Carrot, beans, cauliflower, shallots and green chilli get blanched, then packed into a thick paste of ground mustard, vinegar, chilli and sugar. A handful of dates or raisins gives it that sweet-sour Malay lift, the thing that sets it apart from a plainer achcharu. A jar keeps for weeks and brightens biryani, rice and curry, and lamprais.

Sinhala Achcharuwa

Sinhala Achcharu

Sinhala achcharu, the everyday Sri Lankan pickle, is a sharp, crunchy, pepper-hot tangle of raw papaya, carrot, small onions and green chilli. It's salted and dried, then tossed in a freshly ground dressing of mustard, black pepper and vinegar, with just enough sugar to balance it. Where the Malay version leans sweet with dates, this Sinhala achcharu is fresher, sharper and built around pepper, the note that marks it as the classic village pickle. A jar keeps for weeks and brings a fiery, sour crunch to any rice and curry plate or festive table.