Kiribath

Kiribath is coconut-milk rice associated with Sri Lanka. Roshani Wickramasinghe describes it as a breakfast in her family’s birthdays and Sinhala and Tamil New Year celebrations; this selected recipe uses the offered basmati-rice option.

The rice is washed and drained, then cooked in the selected rice cooker with the main water and part of the salt. Thick canned coconut milk is mixed separately with the remaining portion of the same salt.

The salted coconut milk is added as soon as the rice finishes cooking. Mixing breaks the grains down until the rice and coconut milk stick together; the rice cooker can cook the same mixture briefly again if the author’s described raw coconut-milk smell remains.

While still hot for shaping, the rice is transferred to a cleaned banana leaf. A second piece of banana leaf presses the rice firmly into a flat shape so the broken grains hold together.

The knife is wrapped in plastic wrap and lightly wetted with the selected separate water before cutting diamond-shaped pieces. The pieces cool a little to make separation easier; this selected presentation uses ready seeni sambol alongside.