Turn Ordinary Roasted Carrots into a Show-Stopping Dish with One Sri Lankan Ingredient
Kithul Roasted Carrots
I’ve been thinking about the recipes I will write and publish this year.
I want to create recipes that are easy to make, with a few ingredients, and are a hybrid of the cultures I coexist within while putting the flavours of Sri Lanka on your plate.
I’m starting this year off with a simple roasted carrot recipe that has been graced with garlic, red onion, cumin and a touch of chilli. Oh yes and some kithul treacle.
If you open my larder you'll always find a bottle of kithul treacle. It’s become a staple in my house. I can’t live without a bottle of this dark brown elixir.
There’s a palm tree in Sri Lanka, the kithul palm also known as the fishtail palm, kithul palm, toddy palm, wine palm, sago palm and jaggery palm. This treacle is made from the sap from the flower of this palm. It’s tapped and boiled down to a thick, tawny, sweet, syrup.
The art of kithul extraction is ancient, dating back 2000 years. Kithul tappers use techniques passed down through the generations.
Kithul has fewer calories than normal sugar cane and a lot more good stuff: vitamin C, iron, calcium, and phosphorus. It’s used in Ayurvedic medicine and can be a good alternative sweetener for diabetics.
It’s hard to put the flavour into words. Yes, it’s sweet, yet it’s more complex than that - smokey, deep, almost woody with hints of caramel and dates. If normal cane sugar hits a high octave note on the flavour scale then kithul hits down low, think deep base.
Where can you get some of this almost too-good-to-be-true, magical treacle? Beat a path to your nearest Sri Lankan grocery store otherwise, you can buy from various online grocery stores.
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Reference: Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity