“A BLESSED VEGETABLE” – by Des Kelly
It was just about time. A video about my favourite vegetable, I remember them as Ladies Fingers or Bandakkas, which came to us in Ceylon, in plenty, only you had to snip off the pointed little end of each one to find out if it was either ‘lappati’ or ‘morala’. The lappati ones were tender, the others were rough and not fit for cooking. Like a lot of experienced cooks, my dear mum was considered an excellent one, and would cook twenty or thirty of these little lappati, punchi bandakkas simply boiled in creamy gravy c/w a variety of spices, ending up in a most delicious vegetable curry, OR would first fry them in good old coconut oil, then cook them. We called this lot simply bandakka-thel-dhala, and my mouth waters, just thinking about this vegetable.
The manner in which I describe it. will have my readers think that I am also an excellent cook. Yes, I am.
Even today, at 86, I cook rice in my little electric rice- boiler, and this is the sum total of my cooking abilities. I still have my plate of Rice & curry every evening, but the curries are cooked by someone else, and she too, is a wonderful cook. No names, or pack drill, but this Lady who supplies me with my favourite Ceylon food, cooks the choicest bandakkas & other curries just as well as mum did.
My thanks go out to Chris. Lawton for this video on a blessed vegetable, now proving that it is even more valuable than was previously known.
Desmond Kelly.
(Editor-in-Chief) e’Lanka.
