The culinary corner: December 2013

Sri Lankan Oil Cakes (Konda Kavum)

Oil cake is a very authentic and a traditional sweet that made out of rice flour , treacle, and coconut oil. After mixing the ingredients leaving the dough to rest makes this sweet forms the konde or like a knot done to womens hair. The person has to be little skillfull to make them. I was trained from my child hood by my grand mother. After making oil cakes she gives me the last bit to try. That gave me the ability to make them nicer. You need to be patient when cooking them, as well as it takes time and have to cook them on low flame. Traditionally they use husks and leaves of coconut tree to cook them,as the flame is not very stronger. If you make them bigger you need to cook them longer, if not the middle of the Kavum can be raw.

People use to put the cooked Kavum in big pots of treacle and tie around the pot tightly and hang them in a corner of the kitchen. After several months after the new year they took them out to have with a cup of tea. Still its happening in villages. Those dipped in treacle tastes awesome. I still can remember when I was working in a remote village, the lady at my boarding house used to serve me with them for my afternoon tea.

When adding the mix in to the oil make sure you add them slowly, and stop it and then pour the mix then on to the top. An eakle or a wooden skewer inserted in tothe middle of the kavum will help to get the konde and also it helps hot oil to go through the kavum to cook it evenly.

This sweet is a must on a new year day or for any other traditional or ceremonial event. Trying to do this is the first step and you will be successful in few attempts.