Mom's Kitchen

My mom is an excellent cook. I think she has a special touch, because no matter how much I try, I haven't been able to replicate her recipes. 😊

Mom's potato curry

In her kitchen you would still find traditional Sri Lankan kitchen equipment, that's almost non-existent in  new homes.  She makes all her spice mixes at home, grinds rice flour and very rarely buys canned products except for condensed milk for a dessert.

Grinding stone. Mom uses this to make curry pastes.

Coconut milk is a must in most Sri Lankan recipes. I buy canned coconut milk because it's very difficult to find fresh coconuts where I live. Mom has a coconut tree in her backyard. She hires a tree climber once a month or so to pick coconuts. Then she removes the husk and stores coconuts in the garage. When needed, she breaks a coconut using the blunt side of  a large knife and uses a coconut scraper to grate flesh off the shell. Breaking a coconut into two nice halves is an art - I know because I've tried a couple of times with not so spectacular results. 😉

Coconut scraper

Mom used to make coconut oil at home like her mom did, but now she buys oil from the store.
She makes thick and thin coconut milk by adding different amounts of water to grated coconut. Strained coconut milk is then added to curries.  She uses leftover shells as firewood. She has a two burner gas stove that is at least 30 years old and a traditional woodstove.  Most things in her kitchen are very old, but in very good condition as she maintains them well.

Almost all pots and pans in mom's kitchen are made of clay. She has different pots for different purposes. For example, she has a specific clay pot for fish, another for making porridge etc.

Mom's pots and pans

At the very beginning, there was a huge built in cupboard in the kitchen. Mom didn't like it because it was very deep and hard to clean, plus it took so much space. So dad removed it and built cement countertops, and several wooden shelves. He also built a small spice rack for her. This is where she keeps frequently used spices.

Dad built this spice rack. Mom reuses glass jars to store spices.



She keeps onions and potatoes in racks under the countertop.

Mom cooks daily. No matter how much I ask her to make larger quantities of food and freeze to save time, she doesn't want to do that.  I remember as a teenager I used to wonder how mom did it daily, waking up so early to make breakfast, then lunch and later on dinner for us. My sisters and I used to help in the kitchen, but mom rarely let us cook a meal by ourselves. She enjoyed having us in the kitchen while she cooked. So dad, my sisters and I used to sit in the kitchen, peeling vegetables or onions or simply chatting. It's one of my fondest memories.

I love coming home - though it's not the same now without dad. Still, sometimes I feel that he never left us.
There's no other place like home, and there's nothing like mom's cooking. 💖