In Jaffna and other parts of Sri Lanka traditional kitchen equipments are still in existence. In some villages people still use these equipments on a day to day basis. Other than these equipments the fire stove which is used to cook food is called “aduppu” which is made out of clay. Normally fire wood (mango wood, Neem (azadiracta indica) etc) is collected from the backyard us used. Dried coconut leaves are also used make fire. Some people use coconut leaves especially when boiling water. The smoke released when burning coconut leaves gives a smoky flavor/smell to the water when drunk. Normally Clay pots and wooden spoons are used to cook food on aduppu. But now these have been replaced with saucepans and other metal vessels and electric and gas stove.
Some of the traditional equipments still in existence are follows:
Idiyappam making equipment
Idiyappam is a very important food that’s consumed for break-fast and dinner. Traditionally Idiyappam is made with an equipment called “Idiyappa ural”. The idiyappa ural is made out of wood and the tray where the Idiyappam is steamed is normally made out of palmyrah tree leaves or coconut tree leaves. The idiyappa ural has two parts as shown in the picture below. The dough is placed into the mould and then pressed by the upper part by using both hands.
When pressed with both hands in a rotating motion, the Idiyappam which looks like noodle comes out through the bottom of the idiyappa ural is collected on the idiyappam making tray.
Image below shows an idiyappam on an idiyappam making tray.
Now these traditional idiyappam making mould has been replaced with stainless steel ones and the trays are replaced with plastic ones. Following is a modern idiyappam making equipment
Pittu making equipment
Pittu is another important food consumed for break-fast and dinner. Traditionally Pittu is made in an equipment called “Neethu peddi” which is made out of Palmyrah tree leaves or coconut tree leaves. An image of pittu making equipment is shown below.
Pittu mixture is placed in this equipment and placed over a small mouthed pot with boiling water ( this equipment will go into the pot about one-third) and covered with a lid and steamed until Pittu is done.
Now this traditional pittu making equipment is replaced with stainless steel ones. Following is a modern pittu making equipment
picture of pittu made from the above equipment which is called “kulal pittu”
Grinding stone and roller (Ammi and Kulavi)
This oblong grinding stone (Tamil name “ammi”) and the roller (Tamil name “kulavi”) which looks like a rolling pin are made out of slate. In the traditional Tamil cooking dried ingredients such as coriander, cumin, and black pepper are placed on the heavy stone and pulverized with the roller. The slate stone has carved ridges to hold the ingredients in place. Traditionally coconut sambol, chutneys, curry pastes are also made with this equipment. When grinding with ammi and kulavi, spices, coconut are placed on the base stone and the top roller (kulavi) is moved back and forth. When using this apparatus, very less water is used. But in modern days this has been replaced with food processor.
Aatu Kallu
There is another kind of grinding stone which is used to make dosa batter, idly batter, Vadai batter etc. In Tamil this is called “aatu kallu” Here the middle of the base stone is cup shaped where lentils are placed with water and ground with the roller. The roller is moved in a circular manner with one hand. When grinding this way, the lentil and water would normally come outside the cup onto the base stone. So the person who grinding will frequently push the lentil and water into the cup. Using this apparatus to grind lentils does take a lot of time. Normally 2 cups of lentils will take about 20 minutes or so to make into a batter.
Rice pounding equipment (Ural & Ulakkai)
Traditionally rice is pound with this equipment to make rice flour. This equipment is very similar to mortar and pezzle but much bigger than mortar and pezzle. In Tamil the mortar like equipment is called “ural” and the pezzle like equipment is called “ulakkai”. Normally “urall” is about 3 feet tall and the “ulakkai” would be about 4 – 4.5 feet tall. Traditionally rice is washed and then let dried a little bit in the sun. While the rice is damp, it’s placed in the “ural” and pound using the “ulakkai”. Then the pound rice is placed in a sifter and sifted to get the flour. When sifting the rice the particles which are collected in the sifter would be put into the “ural” again and pound to make the rice flour. This equipment is now replaced with electric equipments. The pound rice flour is then roasted on fire to remove any dampness and stored in air tight containers.
Separating the lentil from the whole beans (Thirukai kallu)
I am not so sure the name of the equipment used for this process. I have heard this is called “thirukai kal” and now a days this is very rare and I haven’t seen it. This equipment is made out of slate and very heavy. Normally whole beans such as whole mung beans, whole urad dhal etc would be put in the base of this equipment and using a top slate it’s turned round and round and the husk of whole beans would separate and the split beans would be collected.
Coconut scraper
Traditionally coconut is scraped using and equipment called “thiruvalai”. The traditional thiruvalai is a wooden long rectangular board with small legs. On one of the elongated side of the board, a mettal or wooden handle is attached and a blade is attached to that handle. This equipment is placed on the floor and a person will sit on the board and scrapes the coconut (see picture below).
Below is a side view of the traditional coconut scraper:
Below is the enlarged view of the traditional coconut scraper blade:
Later on this equipment is replaced with a portable small thiruvalai. Here the equipment is placed on a table and the person stands and scrapes the coconut. Blade is inserted into the coconut half and the handle is rotated. Scraped coconut is collected in a bowl which is placed right below the blade. The equipment can be attached to the table with a screw or now a days with air sucking mechanism. It’s easily removable for storage.
Following are pictures of portable thiruvalai
Dosa and chapthi griddle
This is either made of iron. Traditionally this griddle is placed on the stove top or fire stove and dosas and chapathis are cooked.
April 8, 2010 at 11:44 am
[...] Traditional Kitchen Equipments [...]
February 25, 2011 at 9:17 am
oh! Great story!It makes me imagine all sorts of things about daily life in Sri Lanka!….maybe in the old days…?
February 25, 2011 at 6:48 pm
They are still in existence in Sri Lanka, especially in the villages. People still use them.
May 29, 2011 at 11:06 am
Hi ! Am seeking for idiyapam making ural for a business purposes .
Kindly advise me on the pricings and shipments asap.
AM from malaysia .
thanks .Aruna
June 5, 2011 at 11:07 pm
Hi Aruna,
You can buy them in the Indian Stores. But I am not sure about Malasian stores etc. I live in US. So when I came from Sri Lanka, I got one from my mother. The traditional version is made out of wood. But the modern ones (which are sold in most Indian stores) are made out of stainless steel which is also easy to use. Check the pictures under the equipments section of this site: http://thefeastforall.com/traditional-kitchen-equipments/
I am not sure about the prices since I bought them about 7 years ago. But the stainless steel one I have is around $19.99 at that time.
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December 9, 2011 at 8:38 am
Dear Sir/Madam
i want to buy a best iddiappa ural
can u please advise where i can buy
i am in ireland
Thanks
Baskaran
December 11, 2011 at 9:32 am
I live in the United States. So I am not so sure about Ireland. But you can buy the stainless steel version of the idiyappa ural in any Indian or Sri Lankan stores. But I have not seen the traditional one any where other than Sri Lanka. Also there was a post under Traditional Kitchen Equipments in my blog where some one is selling Idiyappa ural. It looks nice buy very expensive. Please check out at http://thefeastforall.com/traditional-kitchen-equipments/ and the name of the poster is Oritha.
Hope this helps!
January 31, 2012 at 5:51 pm
do you know which specific varieties of red unpolished rice were boiled and eaten with a meal on a daily basis?
samba, pachchaperumal etc.?
i was wondering if they use to not boil the rice, but steam it in a basket like they do in thailand?
January 5, 2012 at 12:17 am
how was unpolished red rice like a samba rice traditionally cooked? pittu is made from ground red rice powder, but was was red rice ever eaten whole and how was it traditionally cooked? please personally email me the answer if you know i don’t check back to this site often.
January 31, 2012 at 5:51 pm
Well, traditionaly in Sri Lanka the way my mother cook is: you first boil water in a pot. Once the water is boiling, add washed rice to the pot and cook on medium flame. You can cover the pot. But that makes foam forming at the top and over flow. So normally if I have to cook in the traditional way, I cook uncovered.
Also if you add a lot of water, you have to make sure you check out whether the rice is cooked or not. Once its cooked immediately drain the water.
When it comes to red rice there are 2 types: one is called “patchai arici” (this is quite red and long thin rice) which is used to make red rice flour. The other one (which is a lighter version and more rounded) is used to cook thr rice.
March 28, 2012 at 12:27 pm
do you soak the rice and for how long prior to cooking?
then do you use soaking water for cooking?
i too cook it uncovered, it prevents spill overs….
January 5, 2012 at 7:47 pm
why the rice is ground up for puttu, do they ever use whole grain rice unground? i can never understand why they grind the rice or ragi, i always get lumps.
how do they cook whole unground unpolished samba rice do they steam it whole using the same puttu makers as well?
January 31, 2012 at 5:47 pm
I think you are adding too much water. For pittu, of course you have to use the flour. You can buy the flour readily in the store. If you grind the rice at home, make sure its ground into a fine powder and dry. Then you can add hot water to make the pittu
January 31, 2012 at 5:57 pm
in thailand i have seen them steaming the red rice in a basket just like our pittu basket. so i wondered if the thai people are doing this why not us, we use the same basket? i have also seen them steam the whole grain rice in a bamboo just like our pittu bamboo, so i wonder why we don’t do that, we grind instead.
do you know of the specific rice variety names that we ate on a daily basis?
what you mentioned are generic terms, pachai arasi usually means raw rice. but it helps to know that this thin one was the pittu rice i always thought the fat one was. and you are saying fat one is for eating, that must also be our idli rice too.
February 3, 2012 at 10:20 pm
Well, mostly “chamba” is consumed which is also used for idlis. There is also white rice which is similar to the long thin red one, but this is white. This is also used for idlis
January 31, 2012 at 6:06 pm
that is how i cook my rice too, i agree with your mom, foaming comes which is why uncovered is better. phew, i’m glad i’m following your mom.
so did you boil and eat red rice daily with meal? like once, twice, three times a day? like how many times a day you ate?
here’s what i mean by rice varieties. i think some rices were eaten daily some not. so i’m trying to figure out which was the daily meal rice high in iron which is safe to consume.
February 3, 2012 at 10:24 pm
It depends on your preference. Some people eat only the white rice and others prefer the red one. I think specifically people from Jaffna, prefer the red one.
Of course, in Sri Lanka every one eat rice at least once a day as a meal. But I know some people eat rice for lunch and dinner.
January 31, 2012 at 6:07 pm
http://ranketha.org/ricevar.htm
April 17, 2012 at 2:45 pm
Though present generation is using electric equipments, these traditional equipments are really nice and
easy to use, clean etc.
Brings back old memories of home kitchen back in Ceylon.
December 14, 2012 at 12:58 pm
So much information. Thanks for this awesome site. Loved this post.
February 20, 2013 at 2:33 am
I thought these stone devices were made from granite not slate. Are you sure it is from slate? Where is part 2 of this article on more to come?