Roasted chilies

One time I came home on a light summer evening to see Robert and Aunty Freda standing outside our house. Robert was young and had long hair. Something that Aunty found a little puzzling. She would say, “you have long hair and you like to cook. You are a woman.” She would add that most Sri Lankan men would not cook most of the meals and she would look a little disapprovingly at Robert. But she loved his curries.

I wondered why they were standing outside. Both were coughing. Then I noticed wafting out of the front door, an acrid, throat-catching smell. I learned that they had been roasting chilies. Roasted chilies are a big part in Sri Lankan cooking and add wonderful flavour. Aunty had been giving Robert lessons on how to roast them in a pan.

I was a little surprised that Aunty had been caught out. Then she laughed and confessed that she had actually never done the roasting before. It was normally a job for servants and then it was done outside.

From that day on, Robert found a supplier and bought his roasted chilies.

What is curry?

I had always thought of curry as something spicy and usually hot. So, when I was entertaining a friend who was a very proper elderly Tamil woman from Sri Lanka, I was astonished to hear her compliment our curry. That night we had served Aunty Freda with an Italian pasta.

Aunty Freda had been an inspector of home science in her home in Jaffna in the North of Sri Lanka. She often travelled the country to ensure schools were up to standard in their cooking classes.

"Curry?" Robert nearly dropped the spoon he was winding the pasta onto. "But Aunty, this is an Italian dish."
"I know that, she chided, rolling her head and her eyes. "Curry comes from the Tamil word Kari. It simply means sauce!"

We were duly corrected.