Lamprais is a complete meal in a banana leaf: rice cooked in ghee and meat stock, a rich curry of several meats, frikkadels (spiced meatballs), a sharp dried-prawn blachan, sweet-hot seeni sambol, a tangy brinjal moju and fried ash plantain, folded into a parcel and baked so the flavours and the scent of the leaf run together. It is the best-known dish of Sri Lanka's Dutch Burgher community, and for many families it is food for Sunday lunch, a celebration or a gathering rather than an everyday meal.
The name is usually traced to the Dutch lomprijst, loosely a packet or lump of rice. It is a long cook, since every component is made separately before the parcels are assembled, but most of it can be done a day ahead. The card below makes six parcels.
How to make lamprais
- Makes 6 parcels
- Prep: 1 hour
- Cook: 2 hours 45 minutes
- Difficulty: Challenging
For the lamprais curry and stock
- 1 kg mixed meat, such as 400 g chicken thigh, 300 g beef and 300 g pork, cut into 2 cm pieces
- 1.5 litres water
- 3 tbsp ghee
- 1 large red onion, 4 garlic cloves and 2.5 cm ginger, finely chopped
- 1 sprig curry leaves, 5 cm pandan (rampe) leaf and 1 lemongrass stalk, bruised
- 5 cm cinnamon stick, 6 cardamom pods and 6 cloves
- 2 tbsp roasted Sri Lankan curry powder, 1 tsp chilli powder and 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 400 ml coconut milk
- 1 tbsp lime juice and salt to taste
For the ghee rice
- 600 g (3 cups) suduru samba or other short-grain white rice, washed and drained
- 60 g ghee
- 1 red onion, thinly sliced
- 6 cloves, 8 cardamom pods, 10 black peppercorns and 5 cm cinnamon stick
- 5 cm pandan leaf and 1 sprig curry leaves
- 1.2 litres meat stock (from the curry, topped up with chicken stock)
- 1 tsp salt
For the frikkadels
- 400 g minced beef
- 1 small red onion, 2 garlic cloves and 1 tsp ginger, very finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp each ground cinnamon, ground fennel and black pepper, and 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 30 g fresh breadcrumbs, 1 tsp lime juice and 3/4 tsp salt
- 2 eggs (1 for the mix, 1 beaten for coating) and 60 g dry breadcrumbs
- Oil, for shallow frying
For the blachan
- 100 g dried prawns
- 1 tbsp chilli flakes
- 4 shallots, 2 garlic cloves and 1 cm ginger
- 2 tbsp lime juice, 1 tsp sugar and salt to taste
For the brinjal moju
- 500 g aubergine (brinjal), cut into 5 cm strips and rubbed with 1/2 tsp turmeric and 1 tsp salt
- 10 shallots, peeled, and 4 green chillies, slit
- 1 tsp mustard seeds, ground and mixed with 3 tbsp vinegar
- 1 tsp chilli powder and 2 tsp sugar
For the seeni sambol, plantain and parcels
- 500 g red onions, thinly sliced, 1 tbsp chilli flakes, 1 tsp tamarind paste, 2 tsp sugar, curry leaves and salt
- 2 ash plantains (green cooking bananas), sliced into rounds and rubbed with turmeric and salt
- 6 eggs, hard-boiled and peeled (optional)
- Oil, for frying
- 150 ml thick coconut milk
- 6 pieces banana leaf, about 40 cm square, plus foil or string
Method
- Make the stock. Simmer the beef and pork in the water for 25 minutes, add the chicken for 10 minutes more, then lift out the meat and keep the liquid as stock.
- Cook the curry. Heat the ghee over a medium heat and fry the onion, garlic, ginger, curry leaves, pandan, lemongrass and whole spices for 5 minutes. Add the powdered spices and the meat, stir for 3 minutes, then add the coconut milk and 250 ml of the stock. Simmer uncovered on a low heat for 45 minutes, stirring now and then, until the meat is tender and the gravy is thick. Finish with lime juice and salt.
- Cook the ghee rice. Fry the onion and whole spices in the ghee for 5 minutes until golden, add the rice, pandan and curry leaves and stir for 2 minutes. Pour in 1.2 litres of hot stock and the salt, bring to the boil, then cover and cook on the lowest heat for 20 minutes, until the stock is absorbed.
- Make the frikkadels. Mix the mince with the onion, garlic, ginger, spices, fresh breadcrumbs, lime juice, salt and 1 egg. Roll into 12 balls, dip in beaten egg, roll in dry breadcrumbs and shallow-fry over a medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes, turning, until browned and cooked through.
- Make the blachan. Dry-roast the prawns in a pan over a medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes until crisp and fragrant. Pound or grind them with the chilli, shallots, garlic and ginger to a coarse paste, then mix in the lime juice, sugar and salt.
- Make the brinjal moju. Deep-fry the aubergine in hot oil in batches for 3 to 4 minutes until golden and drain. Fry the shallots and green chillies in 2 tbsp oil for 2 minutes, add the mustard-vinegar, chilli powder and sugar, simmer for 2 minutes, then fold in the aubergine.
- Make the seeni sambol and sides. Fry the onions with the curry leaves in 3 tbsp oil over a medium-low heat for 25 to 30 minutes until deep golden, then add the chilli flakes, tamarind, sugar and salt and cook 5 minutes more. Deep-fry the plantain slices until golden, and fry the eggs, if using, until blistered.
- Soften the leaves. Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan). Pass each banana leaf briefly over a gas flame or hot plate until it darkens and turns supple.
- Assemble. Put about 1 1/2 cups of rice in the middle of each leaf and spoon 2 tbsp thick coconut milk over it. Arrange a portion of curry, 2 frikkadels, a spoonful each of blachan, moju and seeni sambol, a few plantain slices and an egg around and on top.
- Wrap and bake. Fold the leaf into a tight oblong parcel, secure it with string or a sheet of foil, and bake on a tray for 20 to 25 minutes, until the parcels are piping hot and the leaves start to brown. Rest for 5 minutes and open at the table.
Where does lamprais come from?
The Dutch controlled Sri Lanka's coastal regions from 1658 until the British took over in 1796, and the Burghers, a community descended from European settlers who married into local and Portuguese-descended families, grew out of that period. Lamprais developed in Burgher kitchens as a mix of European ideas, such as stock-cooked rice and frikkadels, with local rice, spices, coconut milk and the banana leaf; it is sometimes linked to the Indonesian lemper, a rice snack wrapped in banana leaf. One of the earliest printed recipes is in Hilda Deutrom's Ceylon Daily News Cookery Book of 1929. The Dutch Burgher Union in Colombo is still closely associated with it. Another dish whose name is traced to the Dutch era is kokis.
What goes into a traditional parcel?
- Rice fried in ghee with whole spices such as Ceylon cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and black pepper, then cooked in meat stock.
- Lamprais curry, the heart of it, traditionally made with several meats: chicken, beef and pork, and in many older recipes mutton as well.
- Frikkadels, crumbed meatballs of Dutch origin.
- Blachan, a pounded relish of dried prawns, chilli and lime.
- Brinjal moju and seeni sambol, which bring sourness and sweetness, and fried ash plantain.
- A fried boiled egg, which many cooks now add, although older recipes leave it out.
How do you plan the cooking?
Spread it over two days. On the first, cook the curry, blachan, moju and seeni sambol, which all keep well in the fridge and taste better for resting. On the second, make the frikkadels, rice, plantain and eggs, then assemble and bake.
Are there other versions?
Chicken-only lamprais is common, as is a fish cutlet in place of the beef frikkadels for anyone who does not eat beef. Vegetarian versions replace the meat curry with a vegetable or jackfruit curry and leave out the blachan, which is made with prawns.
How do you store and reheat lamprais?
Baked parcels keep in the fridge for up to 2 days. Unbaked parcels, wrapped tightly in foil, can be frozen for up to 1 month; thaw them overnight in the fridge and bake at 180°C for 30 to 40 minutes, until piping hot in the centre.
