Ceylon olives (Veralu) grows in each city in Sri Lanka as it’s a very common fruit in their season. Ceylon olives are usually can be seen fallen on the ground under any home grown or even under huge wild trees in the forests as well. It was a common sight to see people picking up the fallen olives on the ground whenever they pass by the trees in every village. Sri Lanka boasts of various sized large numbers of Ceylon olive varieties with different authentic tastes, grown in many parts of the country. The Ceylon olive tree that has grown in our garden is located way beyond the field, is a different variety that has very big and plump and tasty fleshy olives. The tree is still a young and growing tree, but it has grown into a big and wide tall tree with its branches spreading in every direction.
I think people's taste buds varies from different personalities as some prefer to ripen ceylon olives which are fresh and fallen from the tree than the fully ripe fruits. Most of the pregnant women in our country crave for the tangy and sour taste of the raw olives for the first trimester of their pregnancy.
Since Grandmother loves ceylon olive juice, I went under the ceylon olive tree to pick some ripe fallen fruits for this tasty juice. To my surprise our brother was also had climbed to the tree and was plucking ceylon olives into a big basket and this silly boy truly frightened me by shaking the big tree branches. I was happy to see the tree was laden with a heavy harvest of ceylon olives and the branches had bended so low with the fruits and made my task easier to reach and pluck those plump and juicy ripe fruits.
Brother had picked such a load of ceylon olives to make one of his delicious Achchaaru (chilli mix) to our elder aunt’s place. I can’t imagine that the numbers of ceylon olives that brother had plucked will be enough for the big crowd that lives at elder aunt's house. This shrewd silly brother of mine nicely tricked me into making the Achchaaru (chilli mix) and he took over the juice making task. I ended up in boiling a large pot of ceylon olives and made the Achchaaru after making lunch as well. In our country, the traditional way of making this yummy Ceylon olives Achchaaru is very much different to other different kinds of Achchaaru (chilli mix) making methods. First the ceylon olives must be boiled and incorporate with ground mustard, salt, sugar and chilli powder and cook them for the second time. This divinely delicious "Veralu Achchaaru" really tingles the taste buds of people who had only tasted "Veralu Achchaaru" at least once in their lifetime.
While I was making the Achchaaru (chilli mix), brother came with a glass of his delicious Ceylon olive juice. Of course, unlike brother, I wouldn’t be bothered to cut and add sugarcanes to the drink at all. It was good that brother made it by himself in his own way with colourful sugercade sticks to stir the drink as the nature of the ceylon olive juice is settling the pulp in the glass when you keep it for sometime. The natural sugarcane syrup and ceylon olive taste was indeed a well match.
After making the Achchaaru, I put the rest of the 'veralu in salted water. After 2-3 days these salt pickled ceylon olives gives an unmistakeable rich nutty taste. Can you remember that our Mothers used to preserve bilimbi, sour mangoes which were coated in salt and dry them under hot sun? Our traditional Mothers then used those sun dried seasonal fruits to enhance the flavour of various curries. Just like the same way, salt pickled ceylon olives can also be used to enhance the flavours of dishes. So I added the salted Ceylon olives to my prawns dish which I have made for morning breakfast. It truly adds a appetising extra flavor to the prawns giving it a more rich taste.
Since brother was leaving very early morning to prepare the ground for his new vegetable garden, I pounded, some bird eye chili and made a coconut sambol to go with the prawn fry. I packed two lunch packs for brother Lahiru as well as he is my brothers assistant! if my darling brother gets a packet of hot yum red rice with fried prawns and coconut sambol, even without any work, he would definitely go to the paddy field everyday.
Love you All!
Nadee
乡村烹饪 cuisine de village गाँव का खाना बनाना cucina del villaggio طبخ القرية Dorfkochen 村の料理 dorp koken 마을 요리 pagluluto ng nayon деревенская кухня cozinha da vila ഗ്രാമീണ പാചകം cocina del pueblo গ্রাম রান্না vesnické vaření landsby madlavning ចម្អិនអាហារតាមភូមិ kylän ruoanlaitto गाउँ खाना पकाउने masakan desa கிராம சமையல் masakan kampung หมู่บ้านทำอาหาร gotowanie na wsi köy pişirme làng nấu ăn ရွာချက်ပြုတ် μαγειρική στο χωριό villa coctione
Music - Traditional Me ©
My life journey (web) - www.traditionalme.life
FACEBOOK : / traditionalm. .
#villagecooking​​​​​ #srilankanfood​​​​​ #traditionalme​​​​​ #village​​​​​ #villagelife​​​​​ #villagefood​​​​​ #nadee​​​​​ #countryfood​​​​​ #dessert​​​ #srilankancooking