Sri Lankan Food Safari

1st July 2008 | 05:42 AET

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Food Safari explores the colourful fresh flavours and seductive charm of Sri Lankan cooking. Maeve visits a fragrant spice emporium with top Australian Sri Lankan chef Peter Kuruvita from Flying Fish restaurant who hones in on the essentials. He whips up an elegant prawn curry with a creamy coconut sauce.

We meet caterer, food reviewer and tour guide Paul Van Reyk who demonstrates how to grate a fresh coconut and uses it to make a simple vibrant sambol with a touch of chilli and a delicious fresh green stir fry with a handful of ingredients. Maeve's chef friend Sunil Ranasinghe cooks up the most beautiful pumpkin curry thickened with toasted coconut and ground rice.

Australia's queen of Asian cooking Charmaine Solomon shows some shortcuts and tips on making a marvellous Sri Lankan chicken curry. She then shows Maeve how to eat Sri Lankan style - without knives and forks, using stringhoppers to scoop up curry and accompaniments. We see how stringhoppers and hoppers are made - both are made with riceflour - one looks like a little mat of fine noodles, the other like a bowl-shaped pancake, both adored by Sri Lankans. Dessert is the easiest dinner party sweet you'll find - a dense spiced custard made with coconut milk and palm sugar called wattalappam, made to a family recipe by Deborah Solomon.