A lifelong journey of culinary delights
Lilanie Kadirgamar Geiger set out to compile a book of her mother’s recipes nearly two decades ago and along the way, not only did she discover the key to many of Amma’s culinary delights, it also took Lilanie on a journey filled with memories of good food and good times.
The end result is “Amma’s Cuisine”, which introduces the reader to many recipes along with a story of why each one of them is so memorable to the writer.
Titled “Traditional to Fusion Sri Lankan Recipes and An Island Wedding Story”, a book begins with the wedding of her parents Vasanthica and Selvanathan (Bhai)Kadirgamar that took place on the island of Kayts , Lilanie’s mother’s home town. ”It was a luxurious wedding, my relatives who attend it say.
My father had to take a ferry from the mainland to Kayts for the wedding and they wed at the church, the land for which was donated by mother’s family.”
Lilanie’s mother’s expertise in the culinary field may have not developed to the levels which they did save for a twist of fate. Vasanthica’s father had decided against sending her off to Medical College for which she had been selected in an era when women were groomed to be good wives and mothers rather than pursue a career outside the home.
So instead of Medical College, she was enrolled for cookery and sewing classes and thus the foundation was laid for a lifetime of cooking delicious and innovative meals.
“Every birthday of my sister’s and mine, she would make us these fantastic cakes based on nursery rhymes, with cockle shells, penguins out of marshmallows or ducks out of peaches. She loved to decorate.”
While their mother was turning out delicious meals for them, Lilanie and her sister’s early lives in Colombo were far removed from the kitchen and revolved around their studies.
“We were not allowed into the kitchen or taught to cook.My father used to say, “Your dowry is the income you bring into your family” and hence we were encouraged to concentrate on our studies.
After I graduated and moved out of the house, I had to call Amma and ask her how to cook,’ said Lilanie who went onto become an electrical engineer specialising in mobile satellite communication.
The family had moved to Boston, USA when Lilanie was of 17 and it was here that her mother’s cookery began to evolve from the traditional Sri Lankan food she had been cooking in Colombo to include western food as well as innovative ways of making Lankan food in a foreign land.
“When she moved to Boston in the 1970s there were hardly any Asians and there were no shops selling ingredients needed for Sri Lankan food including coconut milk.
Mother experimented and found that using cow’s milk with a bit of evaporated milk mixed together was a perfect substitute and hence we continued to enjoy Sri Lankan style curries thousands of miles away from home,” she recalled.
Later an Indian shop opened in the neighbourhood but though it stocked mainly ingredients for Indian cooking Lilanie’s mother convinced the shop owner to start importing Sri Lankan spices.
“She was persuasive enough that the shop owner started getting down Lankan spices and other locals who had moved into the area over the years always thanked mother for her role in getting the shop stocked with Lankan spices.”
Away from home, Lilanie who first began by getting recipes over the phone from her mother also began to sharpen her cooking skills and expand the variety of food she made.
It was after her mother died in 1996 that Lilanie decided to gather all the recipes and get them printed along with a bit of the family history to go with it.
“It was initially meant to be circulated only among family and friends so that my mother’s recipes would not be forgotten. However once I put together a rough copy, a cousin told me it was “too good” and I should go public with it.”
The process took many years with Lilanie busy with her job, deciding how best she could put together a publication that would be an apt tribute to her mother.
Things began to fall into place and corresponding with Lilanie’s retirement last year, the finishing touches on the book too were done. Late last year she launched the book in the USA and Singapore, while it was launched in Sri Lanka earlier this month.
So does Lilanie think she has mastered her mother’s cooking skills? “My mother’s signature dish was the sticky toffee pudding which I have now perfected. It’s true I expanded and experimented with all kinds of different cuisine.
I think I overtook her in expanding the range of dishes I cook but she was truly a very versatile cook with an uncanny knack for cooking.”