A Feast of Serendib Mary Anne Mohanraj (recipe book)
This is wonderful cookbook of recipes from Sri Lanka. A country I loved when
visiting and the food is delicious so this was a perfect match when I was asked
to review it. the books is divided into sections from appetisers and snacks ,
eggs poultry and meat, vegetable, accompaniments, grains, drinks and sweets.
There is a nice personal introduction of how the book came into being and tips
such as not buying shredded coconut in the baking aisle (more than likely it
will be sweetened). There are menu suggestions from a brunch with friends to
a royal feast (which will feed two hundred or so). The recipes are easily set out
with a highlighted list of ingredients. My only criticism (and this may have been
done for a reason) is that the recipes are in imperial units and I prefer for
accuracy to work with metric. Easily converted so not too much of an issue
especially with savouries. Cakes and baking would be a different matter! For
both the savoury dishes and desserts there is a description of each dish at
the beginning of the recipe which is useful when presented with an unfamiliar
dish name. There is even a recipe to make your own Chai which I can’t wait to
try.I look forward to cooking and sampling these wonderful dishes very shortly.
My mouth is watering just looking at some of them.
A truly authentic cookbook and one I have been looking for for a while.
A proper Sri Lankan curry.
For more reviews please see my blog http://nickibookblog.blogspot.co.uk/
or follow me on Twitter @nickisbookblog
A Feast of Serendib Dark roasted curry powder, a fine attention to the balance of salty-sour-sweet, wholesome
red rice and toasted curry leaves, plenty of coconut milk and chili heat. These are the flavors
of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka was a cross roads in the sea routes of the East. Three waves of colonization—
Portuguese, Dutch and British—and the Chinese laborers who came with them, left their
culinary imprint on Sri Lankan food. Sri Lankan cooking with its many vegetarian dishes
gives testimony to the presence of a multi-ethnic and multi -religious population. Everyday classics like beef smoore and Jaffna crab curry are joined by luxurious feast
dishes, such as nargisi kofta and green mango curry, once served to King Kasyapa in his
5th century sky palace of Sigiriya. Vegetable dishes include cashew curry, jackfruit curry, asparagus poriyal, tempered
lentils, broccoli varai and lime-masala mushrooms. There are appetizers of chili-mango
cashews, prawn lentil patties, fried mutton rolls, and ribbon tea sandwiches. Deviled
chili eggs bring the heat, yet ginger-garlic chicken is mild enough for a small child.
Desserts include Sir Lankan favorites: love cake, mango fluff, milk toffee and
vattalappam, a richly-spiced coconut custard. In A Feast of Serendib, Mary Anne Mohanraj introduces her mother’s cooking and
her own Americanizations, providing a wonderful introduction to Sri Lankan American
cooking, straightforward enough for a beginner, and nuanced enough to capture the
flavor of Sri Lankan cooking. Purchase Links: http://serendibkitchen.com/shop/ https://a-feast-of-serendib.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders Author Bio –
Mary Anne Mohanraj is the author of Bodies in Motion (HarperCollins), The Stars
Change (Circlet Press) and thirteen other titles. Bodies in Motion was a finalist for
the Asian American Book Awards, a USA Today Notable Book, and has been translated
into six languages. The Stars Change was a finalist for the Lambda, Rainbow, and
Bisexual Book Awards. Mohanraj founded the Hugo-nominated and World Fantasy Award-winning speculative
literature magazine, Strange Horizons, and also founded Jaggery, a S. Asian & S. Asian
diaspora literary journal (jaggerylit.com). She received a Breaking Barriers Award from
the Chicago Foundation for Women for her work in Asian American arts organizing,
won an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Prose, and was Guest of Honor at WisCon.
She serves as Director of two literary organizations, DesiLit (www.desilit.org) and
The Speculative Literature Foundation (www.speclit.org). She serves on the futurist
boards of the XPrize and Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. Mohanraj is Clinical Associate Professor of English at the University of Illinois at
Chicago, and lives in a creaky old Victorian in Oak Park, just outside Chicago, with
her husband, their two small children, and a sweet dog. Recent publications
include stories for George R.R. Martin's Wild Cards series, stories at Clarkesworld,
Asimov's, and Lightspeed, and an essay in Roxane Gay’s Unruly Bodies.
2017-2018 titles include Survivor (a SF/F anthology), Perennial, Invisible 3
(co-edited with Jim C. Hines), and Vegan Serendib. http://www.maryannemohanraj.com Social Media Links – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj Twitter: https://twitter.com/mamohanraj Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maryannemohanraj/ Website: http://www.maryannemohanraj.com Serendib Kitchen website: http://serendibkitchen.com
A Feast of Serendib Dark roasted curry powder, a fine attention to the balance of salty-sour-sweet, wholesome
red rice and toasted curry leaves, plenty of coconut milk and chili heat. These are the flavors
of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka was a cross roads in the sea routes of the East. Three waves of colonization—
Portuguese, Dutch and British—and the Chinese laborers who came with them, left their
culinary imprint on Sri Lankan food. Sri Lankan cooking with its many vegetarian dishes
gives testimony to the presence of a multi-ethnic and multi -religious population. Everyday classics like beef smoore and Jaffna crab curry are joined by luxurious feast
dishes, such as nargisi kofta and green mango curry, once served to King Kasyapa in his
5th century sky palace of Sigiriya. Vegetable dishes include cashew curry, jackfruit curry, asparagus poriyal, tempered
lentils, broccoli varai and lime-masala mushrooms. There are appetizers of chili-mango
cashews, prawn lentil patties, fried mutton rolls, and ribbon tea sandwiches. Deviled
chili eggs bring the heat, yet ginger-garlic chicken is mild enough for a small child.
Desserts include Sir Lankan favorites: love cake, mango fluff, milk toffee and
vattalappam, a richly-spiced coconut custard. In A Feast of Serendib, Mary Anne Mohanraj introduces her mother’s cooking and
her own Americanizations, providing a wonderful introduction to Sri Lankan American
cooking, straightforward enough for a beginner, and nuanced enough to capture the
flavor of Sri Lankan cooking. Purchase Links: http://serendibkitchen.com/shop/ https://a-feast-of-serendib.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders Author Bio –
Mary Anne Mohanraj is the author of Bodies in Motion (HarperCollins), The StarsChange (Circlet Press) and thirteen other titles. Bodies in Motion was a finalist for
the Asian American Book Awards, a USA Today Notable Book, and has been translated
into six languages. The Stars Change was a finalist for the Lambda, Rainbow, and
Bisexual Book Awards. Mohanraj founded the Hugo-nominated and World Fantasy Award-winning speculative
literature magazine, Strange Horizons, and also founded Jaggery, a S. Asian & S. Asian
diaspora literary journal (jaggerylit.com). She received a Breaking Barriers Award from
the Chicago Foundation for Women for her work in Asian American arts organizing,
won an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Prose, and was Guest of Honor at WisCon.
She serves as Director of two literary organizations, DesiLit (www.desilit.org) and
The Speculative Literature Foundation (www.speclit.org). She serves on the futurist
boards of the XPrize and Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. Mohanraj is Clinical Associate Professor of English at the University of Illinois at
Chicago, and lives in a creaky old Victorian in Oak Park, just outside Chicago, with
her husband, their two small children, and a sweet dog. Recent publications
include stories for George R.R. Martin's Wild Cards series, stories at Clarkesworld,
Asimov's, and Lightspeed, and an essay in Roxane Gay’s Unruly Bodies.
2017-2018 titles include Survivor (a SF/F anthology), Perennial, Invisible 3
(co-edited with Jim C. Hines), and Vegan Serendib. http://www.maryannemohanraj.com Social Media Links – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj Twitter: https://twitter.com/mamohanraj Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maryannemohanraj/ Website: http://www.maryannemohanraj.com Serendib Kitchen website: http://serendibkitchen.com
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