Cooking with Bless: Milk Rice and Spicy Caramelized Onion Sambol

Having milk rice (kiribath) for breakfast on the first of the month is a custom I like to follow.  My favorite accompaniment with milk rice is a spicy caramelized onion dish we call seeni sambol.  "Seeni", by the way, does not mean onion, it means sugar!  It is called seeni sambol because we add sugar to this spicy onion dish!

Yesterday, being the first of the month, I decided to open my new bag of rice and make milk rice and seeni sambol for breakfast.  Since I often mention these two dishes in my posts and some have asked how I make them, I thought I will take some photos and do a post. 

First of all, I don't measure anything, so all measurements are approximate!  

Milk Rice:

1 cup rice

1 1/2 cups water

1/2 - 3/4 cups milk (coconut or dairy; I haven't tried any other types of milk for this dish)

1/2 teaspoon salt

I am using basmati rice, here, but, any rice should be fine.  I like to rinse my rice a couple of times, but, it is not necessary.  I used a medium sized saucepan to cook my rice, on the stove top.  I added enough water to cover the rice to a depth of about one inch.

This is how I was taught to check if there is enough water when cooking rice to have perfectly cooked rice - rest the tip of your finger on top of the raw rice and the water should come up to the first line of your middle finger:  

Measuring the depth of water

Bring to a boil on high heat and then, simmer on medium to low heat until all the water has been absorbed and the rice has cooked:

Rice being simmered

Once the rice has cooked, add the milk and salt to taste, give it a stir, and continue to cook on low heat, stirring often to prevent it from scorching, until all the milk has been absorbed.  The rice should be soft and cooked through.  If not, add a little more water or milk and cook a bit longer.  It should be the consistency of thick porridge, I'd say, or a thick rice pudding:

Milk Rice 

The above amounts make enough milk rice for at least two servings.  It makes enough for about four servings for me.  I keep it in the fridge and warm up a portion when needed.  I have not tried freezing it.  Some people make milk rice in their rice cooker, but, I have not tried that.

Seeni Sambol:

This is less of a recipe than a how to!

But, ingredients include:

1-2 onions

cloves (powdered is OK)

cardamom pods (or seeds or powdered)

curry leaves (can substitute a bay leaf or two)

pandan leaf (a piece or two) optional - pictured below

salt

chili powder or crushed chili pieces (1/2 - 1 tsp. depending on how spicy you want it)

Maldive fish pieces (optional) - pictured below

tamarind (or lemon or lime juice) - pictured below

cinnamon (a few pieces, or powder)

lemon grass (optional; I don't have any, so didn't add it!)

oil for sauteing

sugar

Maldive fish is a type of dried fish used as a condiment; it is optional.

Maldive Fish 

Maldive Fish Pieces

Pandan leaves are optional, too.  I don't have fresh pandan leaves; I use frozen leaves that I bought from an Asian grocery store:

Frozen Pandan Leaves

I buy tamarind pods as they are available in the ethnic grocery stores, here, but, one can use lemon or lime juice, instead.  The pods need to be peeled before using.

Tamarind Pod

Tamarind Pod, Peeled

Ideally, one should soak the tamarind in a bit of water, scrape the softened pulp off to add to the dish, but, I am lazy, so I just add it as it is to the dish.  However, tamarind pods include seeds, which should be removed; nothing will happen if you cook them, but, they don't taste good if you bite into them, and, in this particular dish, it is easier to remove them before cooking.

Tamarind Seed 

In Sri Lanka, shallots are the preferred type of onion for this dish and they are finely sliced.  I use regular brown onions and I chop mine into small pieces, but sliced is fine, too:

Chopped Onions

Add enough oil to the saute pan to cover the bottom of the pan and a little bit more:

Saute Pan with Oil

Add the chopped onions, salt, curry leaves, and spices (but not the sugar).

Onions with curry leaves, cloves, cardamom pods, and cinnamon sticks

Add chili powder

I opened a new packet of chili powder and added a heaping teaspoon, but a level teaspoon would have been fine, because that chili powder was HOT!

Saute the onions on low heat, stirring often to make sure it all cooks evenly and nothing gets burned:

Half-way through cooking

I like my onions to be well cooked and and the seeni sambol to be more dry than wet, so I cook this for about 15 to 20 minutes.  At the end, when it is almost done, I added some sugar, about 2 heaping teaspoons:

Add sugar

Then, cook it for a few more minutes and the resulting seeni sambol is both sweet and spicy!

Seeni Sambol

I served myself a plate of milk rice and seeni sambol for a late brunch:it 

Brunch: Milk Rice with Seeni Sambol

The rest of the seeni sambol has been put into a glass jar and put in the fridge.  It can be eaten with bread or practically any other starch.

By the way, milk rice can be eaten with jaggery (palm sugar) or any other type of sugar, as well.  I like to eat it with brown sugar, if I don't have jaggery, but, my daughter prefers white sugar. 

Hope you enjoyed this "Cooking with Bless" post.  Hope you might like to try making milk rice and/or seeni sambol.