Milk rice

This simple dish has strong cultural significance and is mostly reserved for special occasions, and in particular, for Sinhalese New Year’s Day, on April 14. Served at breakfast time, it is a symbol for abundance, prosperity, harvest, and good fortune. My grandmother’s milk rice was prepared in a clay pot (muttiya) over an open hearth with red rice and fresh coconut milk. Th e kernel of the coconut would be scraped and then pressed for several extracts of milk, with the fi rst extract being the thickest and the following extracts being increasingly thinner. Th e rice would be cooked fi rst with the thin milk and fi nished with the fi rst press of thick milk. In Sri Lanka, a short-grain red rice (kakulu hal) is typically used for the preparation of milk rice. Kakulu rice is unmilled rice. For this recipe, I suggest using jasmine rice for its naturally sticky texture and faster cooking time. Milk rice is often served with relish-style accompaniments—for example, lunu miris sambol (page 153), and seeni sambol—or with beef curry (page 115) and pol sambol (page 152). And if you are able to acquire them, milk rice is also often eaten simply with sweet treacle (palm tree syrup) or jaggery (unref i ned palm tree sugar) and a side plate of baby (sugar) bananas (seeni kesel).

Unbalanced

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Step 1

• Wash the rice and place it in a large pot. Start with adding 3 cups water and the salt. Place the pot of rice over medium-high heat and bring the rice, uncovered, to a boil. Turn down the heat to medium-low and let cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until the rice grains are cooked completely through. To test for doneness, try biting a grain of rice; it should not be mushy but rather fi rm and cooked through. Add water if needed.

Step 2

Once the rice is cooked, and the water is gone, turn down the heat to low and add the coconut milk and additional salt (if needed) to the rice and stir gently with a wooden spoon to combine. Let cook until the milk is completely absorbed, about 10 minutes. Th e milk rice should be the consistency of thick porridge.

Step 3

Pour out the milk rice in the centre of a large round or oval serving dish.

Step 4

It should almost fall out of the pot in one lump. Spread and smooth the rice into a round or oval (match the shape of the dish you’re using) using the back of a broad spoon (or spatula), about an inch from the edge of the dish. Smooth the edges of the milk rice.

Step 5

Using a sharp knife, neatly cut criss-cross lines across the rice to create a diamond pattern. Serve with suggested accompaniments.