A mild, soupy coconut-milk gravy stained gold with turmeric and sharpened with lime, onion and green chilli. The everyday Sri Lankan sauce ladled over string hoppers, hoppers and rice.
Kiri hodi — literally 'milk gravy' — is the humblest and most essential sauce in the Sinhalese kitchen, a way of turning little more than coconut milk and pantry spices into something to moisten a plate of string hoppers. Found in every home from the hill country to the coast, it is the backbone of countless breakfasts.
Silky and barely-there, like a warm savoury coconut broth perfumed with curry leaf and pandan. Turmeric gives earthiness, the lime a clean sour edge, and a single chilli a whisper of heat.
Adding the thick coconut milk only at the end and never hard-boiling prevents the emulsion from splitting into oil and curds. Fenugreek and turmeric infuse the thin milk first, where prolonged simmering does no harm.
Variations
Egg kiri hodi with poached eggs, fish kiri hodi, mango kiri hodi, with drumstick pods
On the Palate
Where Kiri Hodi sits in the Sri Lankan flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
8 steps · 10 min
- 15 min
Thinly slice onion, green chilli and garlic, and pound a little fresh ginger.
- 22 min
Place them in a pot with curry leaves, a pandan leaf, turmeric and fenugreek seeds.
- 32 min
Pour in thin coconut milk and bring to a gentle simmer.
- 410 min
Cook for about ten minutes until the onion softens and the spices infuse.
Watch outSimmer the thin coconut milk gently for about ten minutes to soften the onion and steep out the fenugreek and turmeric — the thin milk takes long cooking fine.
- 52 min
Stir in thick coconut milk and warm through without letting it boil hard.
Watch outStir in the thick coconut milk and only warm it through — the moment it hard-boils the emulsion splits into oil and curds.
- 61 min
Season with salt and a pinch of ground black pepper.
- 71 min
Turn off the heat and squeeze in fresh lime juice to brighten.
Watch outSqueeze the lime in after the heat is off — the fresh acid brightens the pot; boil it and the lift is gone.
- 83 min
Rest a few minutes and serve warm over string hoppers or rice.
