Recipe: Sothy
Sothy (pronouned like 'so-dy' said quickly -
the 'th' in sothy is a 'd' sound) is a delicious Sri Lankan dish.
If you're familiar with south Indian dishes you'll see the resemblance. It uses coconut cream (or coconut milk), fenugreek, tumeric, onion, tomatoes, chilli, curry leaves. You can also add potatoes and carrots.
Traditionally, it's eaten with Idiyappam* but you can also eat it with rice.
Thanks to Mangalam for providing the recipe and showing me how to make it (and answering all my questions about why this bit is done that way and so on).
.
The idea is to make something fairly soupy, so the liquid is above the level of the vegetables in the pan (if you're using them), and when you serve it, you can 'drown' the rice in the liquid. If you don't end up with enough liquid in the pan just add some more water.
To get into specifics, the coconut milk 'broth' flavours the rice, and then you have the chunks of tomatoes, potato and carrot to eat along with it. I like chopping the onions up fairly small -- into thin 'quarter moons' in the recipe -- so they don't look too messy. And you want to make sure you don't overcook the coconut cream/milk so it doesn't separate and make the broth look to messy, either (it doesn't look anywhere near as appealing when that happens).
Fry
Cook in liquid
If it's not sour enough for your tastes, add some lemon juice.
Eat with hot rice.
Cooking notes. You can speed up the process by boiling the carrots and potatoes in a separate pan while you're sauteing the other ingredients, and then combine them later into a single pan.
Variations
only small fish. Small fish, coz bigger fish have more fat, and the fat doesn’t go so well with coconut cream/milk. and so coconut milk flavour can penetrate it better. and fried, so they don't disintegrate into the liquid.
if just bones - still put it in at end, so flesh doesn't come off bones and so don't overcook that flesh.
Would you use 2 toms if use egg? Is sourness ok with that?
[*] Idiyappam - also spelt without the 'y', and also known as string hoppers. See a video of them being made here (3 mins). I mentioned rice as an alternative to eat Sothy with - I've also seen recipes suggest having it with rice sticks.
If you're familiar with south Indian dishes you'll see the resemblance. It uses coconut cream (or coconut milk), fenugreek, tumeric, onion, tomatoes, chilli, curry leaves. You can also add potatoes and carrots.
Traditionally, it's eaten with Idiyappam* but you can also eat it with rice.
Thanks to Mangalam for providing the recipe and showing me how to make it (and answering all my questions about why this bit is done that way and so on).
.
The idea is to make something fairly soupy, so the liquid is above the level of the vegetables in the pan (if you're using them), and when you serve it, you can 'drown' the rice in the liquid. If you don't end up with enough liquid in the pan just add some more water.
To get into specifics, the coconut milk 'broth' flavours the rice, and then you have the chunks of tomatoes, potato and carrot to eat along with it. I like chopping the onions up fairly small -- into thin 'quarter moons' in the recipe -- so they don't look too messy. And you want to make sure you don't overcook the coconut cream/milk so it doesn't separate and make the broth look to messy, either (it doesn't look anywhere near as appealing when that happens).
- coconut cream, 270ml can, 1
options - a 400ml can instead for a creamier result.
or using coconut milk instead - perhaps a 400ml can and a 165 ml can. - onions, 2
- tumeric, 1 tsp
- fenugreek seeds, 1 tbsp
- tomato,
2
- fresh chillis, green or red, 2 or 3
- curry leaves, approx 8 (don't worry too much if you can't get
any)
- salt
- optional
- potatoes, 2
- carrots, 2
- if the tomatoes don't add enough sourness for your taste, you can add some lemon juice at the end.
- potatoes, 2
- Peel & chop
- onions - chop in half, slice into thin half moons, then in half again to
make quarter moons.
- chillis - chop in half lengthways and remove seeds.
- carrots and potatoes - peel then cut into approx 1 inch chunks.
- tomatoes - cut each into six or so wedges.
- onions - chop in half, slice into thin half moons, then in half again to
make quarter moons.
- fenugreek - saute in oil until slightly browned.
- onion - add and saute until slightly brown.
- chili & curry leaves - add, and just fry for a little bit, say 10 seconds
- carrot and potato - add, if using
- water - add enough to cover vegetables; if not using them, still add about
1/2 cup to thin out coconut cream. ???
- gently boil - until carrot and potato soften.
- coconut cream, tomato, tumeric and salt (to taste) - add.
- bring to boil then take from heat.
Do not allow to simmer as the coconut cream would 'tread'.
Cooking notes. You can speed up the process by boiling the carrots and potatoes in a separate pan while you're sauteing the other ingredients, and then combine them later into a single pan.
Variations
- You can add eggs to the dish. Either a pre-cooked hardboiled egg, or you can
cook an egg with the dish.
- Hard boiled egg - add it to the dish at the end. Before adding, make a slit
in the egg. Slit it so coconut milk flavour gets into the yolk
- Cook with the dish. At the end, when the dish is boiling, make some space at the center of the pot, i.e, move the veges to the side. Break an egg and DO NOT STIR. The egg will cook and form an omelet. The egg white at the edges would form tread in the dish to thicken it. After each egg is cooked, add more egg as required. Wait until each egg is cooked before adding the next egg.
- Hard boiled egg - add it to the dish at the end. Before adding, make a slit
in the egg. Slit it so coconut milk flavour gets into the yolk
- can also put fish bones in to add some of that flavour.
- chili paste, i guess like sambal oleck
- i use normal green chillis, but apparently the smaller green ones are better.. stronger flavour and more heat. you can get them from asian groceries.
only small fish. Small fish, coz bigger fish have more fat, and the fat doesn’t go so well with coconut cream/milk. and so coconut milk flavour can penetrate it better. and fried, so they don't disintegrate into the liquid.
if just bones - still put it in at end, so flesh doesn't come off bones and so don't overcook that flesh.
Would you use 2 toms if use egg? Is sourness ok with that?
[*] Idiyappam - also spelt without the 'y', and also known as string hoppers. See a video of them being made here (3 mins). I mentioned rice as an alternative to eat Sothy with - I've also seen recipes suggest having it with rice sticks.
