Rice and Flours
Suwandel Rice
The fragrant white heirloom, once reserved for temple offerings and milk rice.
- Fragrant as it cooks, gently and milkily
- A traditional variety grown in small lots
- The classic rice for kiribath and new year
- Soft grain that takes coconut milk well
- Milled white, unlike the red heirlooms
Available to pre-orderSKU: CC-RCE-SUW
Size: 1kg
- Carefully packed and shipped to your door
- 14-day replacement on damaged items
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Description
Suwandel means fragrant, and it earns the name. This is a traditional Sri Lankan white paddy with a soft, milky scent that fills the kitchen as it cooks. It is the rice families keep for kiribath, for temple offerings and for a new year table, rather than for a Tuesday.
There is a category of Sri Lankan rice that never really belonged to everyday cooking. Suwandel is the best known of them: a fragrant white grain grown in small quantities and saved for the occasions that mattered.
The scent is the whole point, and it comes out during cooking rather than from the raw grain. Lift the lid ten minutes in and it is unmistakable, gentle and milky rather than the sharp perfume of a basmati.
It is the traditional rice for kiribath, the milk rice cooked for the new year, for a first day at school, for a birth in the family. Cooked in thick coconut milk and cut into diamonds, it is the taste of every Sri Lankan celebration.
How to Use
- Cook into kiribath with thick coconut milk
- Serve plain so the scent is not covered
- Use for a new year or festival table
- Cook with a pandan strip and nothing else
Cook with It
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Frequently Asked
Different rather than weaker. Basmati has a sharp, almost floral perfume that you can smell in the raw grain. Suwandel is softer and milkier, and it really only announces itself once the pot is going.
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