Mukunuwenna Mallum

The Asian Fruit and Veg shop in Dandenong Plaza has started selling mukunuwenna. In Sri Lanka, this popular greens-herb is sold door-to-door by the Keera Karaya or Greens Man who carries bundles of herbs in a woven basket balanced on his head (or in a wooden cart depending on the scale of greens-eating house-holders in a particular neighbourhood).

I’ve adapted this recipe for broccoli elsewhere in this blog, but here’s the real thing from Chandra Dissanayake’s Ceylon Cookery cookbook.

What you’ll need:

* ½ lb or 250g mukunuwenna (usually 1 bundle)

* Sprig of curry leaves

* 2-3 green chillies

* 1 cup water (left that out)

* ½ cup scraped coconut (I used desiccated coconut)

* 1 small onion (I used half a medium red onion)

* ½ teaspoon turmeric

* 1 ½ teaspoon salt

Mukunuwenna

What to do:

 Shred mukunuwenna leaves (used a food-processor). The book advises mixing the coconut with curry leaves, sliced onions and green chillies, turmeric, salt in a pan with the cup of water and cooking until the onions are done. Then adding the mukunuwenna and tossing for a few minutes, so the leaves are cooked but remain green.

I mixed the chopped leaves with everything else (except the water) and cooked for a few minutes until fragrant. Done.