Hi, I’m Ranji, join me in a culinary journey as we explore Sri Lankan food
I write recipes, take photograph and write about Sri Lankan food. I’ve you’ve never tried Sri Lankan food. ,
If you love Sri Lankan food, have been to Sri Lanka and want to create the recipes at home. Or you want to discover a new cuisine. You are in the right place!
Here on my Substack, you will find home-cooked style Sri Lankan recipes based on the food I grew up with it’s the food I love to cook for family and friends.
It’s the food I passionately and enthusiastically want to share.
If you’ve never cooked Sri Lankan food. Download my free guide. It will start you off with an overview of cooking ingredients, my list of essential equipment and two super easy and super tasty recipes to try.
I’m on a mission to get you hooked on Sri Lankan food!
Subscribe to my Substack and you’ll get:
A weekly email about Sri Lankan food - stories, a recipe, a review, a recommendation, a write-up, a roundup, and even a podcast and access to my publication archives.
Why do I write about Sri Lankan food?
Good Sri Lankan food is a balance of flavour, this comes from the ingredients we use and how our dishes are cooked.
As well as our hot curries that will make your cheeks glow, we have mild creamy coconut milk-based curries that make you want to scrape your bowl clean! We’ll often complement our meals with pickles and sambols to add a shot of flavour, texture and colour to our plates.
Our food is influenced by the island’s colonial history, past and present trade routes, and stories of migration as a new generation of Sri Lankans from the diaspora set forward and mark their identity through food.
Food connects us to our heritage
I always took home-cooked Sri Lankan food for granted.
My parents cooked, and I devoured, unquestioningly. Their cooking was instinctive. Ingredients added on the spur of the moment, or made do with what was available. Their recipes were always changing. And why write anything down when all you had to do was open the cupboard and you just knew what to do?
Then my father passed away.
His pork curry was a dish I’d never taste again. That loss was more than just not being able to eat my Dad’s pork curry. I had lost a connection with my heritage.
I now possess my parents’ cookbooks. My most treasured is their 1960s edition of the Ceylon Daily News Cookery book (it travelled with them to England). Armed with this, and their cookbook collection I’m exploring Sri Lankan stories of culture, migration, and personal histories through food.
My Substack is about celebrating Sri Lankan food, our people, our diaspora and our story
Here’s what people say about my recipes and writing
“Love your emails and your recipes”
“Had friends over the other night and made your dhal. The food was so good!”
“I’m loving learning more about Sri Lankan food. I tried your vadai recipe and it was a real hit with the family so thanks for sharing it.”
“I just made your mango lassi using some Alphonso mangoes I got in Tooting! Delicious.”
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