Name: Vegetable Patties
Yield: Makes 32
Cuisine: Sri Lanka
Ingredients: ½ teaspoon ground turmeric; 4 dried long red chillies*, chopped; 200 g (7 oz) cabbage, thinly sliced; 1 tablespoon coconut oil*; 600 g (1 lb 5 oz/4 cups) plain flour; 1 teaspoon roasted chilli powder*; 1 tablespoon coconut oil*, plus 2 tablespoons extra; vegetable oil, for deep-frying; 250 ml (9 fl oz/1 cup) full-cream milk; 6 small pink Asian shallots*, finely chopped; 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda; 1 kg (2 lb 4 oz) potatoes, boiled, peeled and mashed; 1 teaspoon salt, dissolved in 1 tablespoon warm water; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 sprig curry leaves, leaves picked and roughly chopped; 6 cm (2½ inch) piece rampe (pandanus) leaf*, chopped; 1 teaspoon fennel seeds

Preparation info

Makes
32

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Hidden Kitchens of Sri Lanka

By Bree Hutchins

Published 2013

About

Sri Lankan patties are unlike the ones I’m used to; these are deep-fried pastry parcels filled with curried vegetables, similar to a samosa. Vigneshwaran wrapped up a few patties for me to eat on the drive back to Jaffna, but we only made it down the road before they were all gone.

Ingredients

Filling

1 tablespoon coconut oil*
200 g (7 oz) cabbage,

Method

To make the filling, heat the coconut oil in a wok or deep frying pan over medium heat. Add the cabbage, dried chillies, shallots, fennel seeds, chilli powder, turmeric, curry leaves and rampe; cook for 5 minutes, or until the shallots are golden brown. Add the salty water and remove from the heat. Stir in the mashed potato until well combined. Set aside to cool to room tempera