Pol sambol

Ingredients

• Grated coconut — fresh or thawed250 g
• Chilli flakes2 tbsp
• Red onion — very finely chopped1
• Maldive fish2 tbsp
• Lime — juiced1
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Pound the chilli flakes with the salt and the Maldive fish to a rough paste.

   4 min

2. 2

   Add the onion and keep pounding: it should give up its juice and stain the paste.

   3 min

3. 3

   Work the coconut in by hand, rubbing the mixture between your palms until it turns evenly red.

   5 min

4. 4

   Add the lime juice, mix and taste. The sambol should be hot, sour and salty at once.

   3 min

About the dish

The coconut has to be fresh or frozen grated, never desiccated. Dried coconut drinks all the lime juice and stays as sand: in a pol sambol the coconut should be moist.

It is worked in a mortar or by hand rather than in a blender. A blender reduces everything to a uniform paste, and what is wanted is a texture where both the coconut and the onion are still visible.

Maldive fish — dried tuna — gives a salty umami depth. Without it the sambol works, but becomes simply a spicy coconut relish.

Worth knowing

• — Frozen grated coconut from an Asian shop works perfectly. Thaw it completely and do not squeeze it out.
• — The sambol is good for an hour or two. By the next day the onion turns sharp and the coconut loses its freshness.
• — Maldive fish can be replaced by a teaspoon of fish sauce or dried prawns ground to a powder.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

240 kcal

Protein

5 g

Fat

21 g

Carbs

9 g

More from Sri Lanka

• Kottu roti — Godamba roti chopped on the griddle with vegetables, egg and curry, worked with two cleavers.