📷 CC BY-SA 4.0 · AntanO · via Wikimedia CommonsBreakfast · Sri Lanka · Colombo
Kiribath (Sri Lankan Milk Rice) 🍚
The first slice on every Sri Lankan table at a new year, a birthday or a house-warming: rice cooked until it collapses into thick coconut milk, then set, cooled and cut into diamonds that hold their shape but melt on the tongue. Eaten plain with a jagged spoon of homemade chilli paste, or dunked in cane sugar and coffee at the teashop corner. In Sinhala, kiribath is also the word for 'nourishment' — the dish and the concept share a name.
Method
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1
Boil the washed rice in water with the pandan knot until the grains are fully swollen and every drop of water is gone — lid on, lowest flame, about 15 minutes.
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2
Pour in the coconut milk with the salt; stir slowly and persistently as it returns to a simmer — 10–15 minutes until the rice loses its edges and the pot leaves a clean trail behind your spoon.
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3
Lift the pandan, pour into a square dish lined with a barely-wet cloth, level the top with the back of a spoon and press flat.
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4
Cool completely (a warm kiribath crumbles; patience is an ingredient) — an hour at room temperature or 20 minutes chilled.
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5
Turn out and cut into parallelograms with a clean, slightly wet knife; slide onto plates without polishing the tops.
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6
Serve at room temperature with a rough smear of chilli paste and a cup of strong Ceylon tea; the sugar-and-coffee version is for breakfasts you want to remember.
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