"It was after a long time that Aunt from Kalawana came to our house. It's her habit to bring something from the village for both of us when she visits. This time, she brought a bottle of the best Kithul treacle and handed it to me. Kithul treacle is Bimal's and my favorite, so I decided to make some Kurakkan Helapa with the Kithul treacle for us to enjoy during evening tea. After deciding this, I plucked some leaves from the Kenda tree at the neighbor's, washed them, cleaned them, and set them aside.
First, I grated the coconut and set it aside. I put a pan on the stove, as our mother used to do, and added cloves, cardamom, and fenugreek seeds, frying them until brown. Then, I ground the roasted spices in a stone mortar until they became a fine powder and set it aside. After preparing all of this, I poured about half of the Kithul treacle into a pan and put it on the stove. While the treacle was boiling, I added the grated coconut and mixed it well. After that, I mixed in the powdered spices, a pinch of salt, and vanilla essence into the coconut mixture and took it off the stove.
Next, I took a packet of Kurakkan flour, put it in a bowl, added red raw rice flour and some salt, and mixed it well. I also added the sweet coconut mixture to the flour mixture. Then, I mixed everything while adding a little bit of hot water until it became a non-gluey dough.
From the dough, I took small portions and shaped them into balls. I placed them on the Kenda leaves, which I had lightly smeared with coconut oil, and pressed them flat by hand. After that, I folded the Kenda leaf in half so the dough was thin and flat, and then placed the folded leaves in a steamer on the stove. After letting them steam well for a while, I removed the Helapa from the stove, placed them in a wattiya, and served them to my Aunt to enjoy with her evening tea. She was surprised to see that I made the Helapa all by myself. She was excited to try it and said "yummy" after her first bite! I felt a little proud of myself because this was my first attempt at making Helapa all alone, and it was more successful than I thought."
Love,Sujani ❤️