Peace haven, Kandy Sri Lanka

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Peace haven is my home. It is where I grew up, and it is where I have come back to, to find peace as its name implies!

It is also a guest-house run by my parents. Peace haven is a little away from the hustle and bustle of the town, but is within walking distance to the famous Temple of the Tooth Relic. 

view from our balcony, early in the morning

This is our balcony. Our visitors like to relax here with a cup of piping hot Sri Lankn tea. Some even have their breakfast here, enjoying the lush greenery with the chirping of the early morning birds and if they are early enough they will catch sight of the flocks and flocks of white egrets flying west.




We have 2 bed rooms with attached toilets with hotwater shower. The rooms have mosquito nets and a fan. My parents are happy to give you a huge breakfast with lots of tropical fruits and most guests say they can happily skip lunch after partaking of it!

Bed room 1

Bed room 2

We also have daily visits by a family of parrots who come to the balcony and holler for Marie biscuits.

One of our daily visitors

The monkeys. Although visitors are both thrilled and scared by these monkeys, the Sri Lankans find them a menace. I have blogged about it here

These are my lovely parents. They are good, friendly,  hospitable people and are ever willing to help guests with anything they may need. My mother is a good cook and my father is knowledgable about all the tourist destinations, train times etc.



Please visit us if you are planning on coming to Sri Lanka. It will be like coming home...


February 2014: I belatedly notify that we have been closed for some time and do not hope to re-open the guest house again. Thank you and sorry for the inconvenience.

A saucy post

Tomatoes are going cheap in Sri Lanka (Rs.20 a kilo. ) and I decided to make us some tomato sauce. I surfed the net and fund several, some using only tomatoes and vinegar and some using even carrots and onions. When I told my mother this, she said she had a tried and tested reipe given out by our local Agriculture Department in Gannoruwa. It had a lot of spices and even powdered red chillie, so I decided this will be more in keeping with our taste and decided to go for it. Here is the recipe:

Spicy Sri Lankan Tomato Sauce recipe

1 1/2 Kg ripe tomatoes

1 cup vinegar

50g Tamarind

4tsp dried red chillie powder

150g- 200g sugar

Salt

Celery chopped

grind the following on a grinding stone or wet grinder:

2 cloves garlic

1 inch piece ginger

Tie the following in a clean piece of cotton cloth :

2 inch piece cinnamon

10 peppercorns

10 cloves

Method:

1. Wash tomatoes well and blend in an electric blender (with skins on). Sieve into heavy bottomed pan.

2. Dissolve tamarind in some of the vinegar and pour into the tomato juice in te pan.

3. Add the ground ginger , garlic , chillie powder, the rest of the vinegar and the spices tied in te piece of cloth into the tomato mix.

4. Put on fire and bring to boil always stirring with a wooden spoon to avoid clumps.  (You can see my spice bag in the centre of the sauce.)

 

 5. Add the sugar and salt to taste. You may adjust the seasoning to your taste. (these quantities give a very rich, spicy and hot hot sauce-very much Sri Lankan)

6. Simmer for about 30-40mins till thick. Remember to stir frequently.

7. Add the celery when it is almost ready to be taken off the fire. You may remove the celery pieces once the sauce has cooled.

This is my bottle of sauce. Yields about 750ml of sauce. Can keep in the refrigerator for some time (I can't tell you exctly how long. Mine has been there for about a week and is still good) 

Enjoy your homemade, no preservative sauce with fried fish/ pizza, noodles, rice-with just anything you wish! This has a well balanced taste of tanginess, sweetness and chillie.

I also made a handkerchief dress for my 4 year old niece.

That's all for now. I also warmly welcome Helen and the 7of us to my blog. I am so happy you are here! Maybe that's a reason for my quite frequent posts!!!
Take care,
Dhilma

On my mind..

Joining in with Rhonda at Down to Earth for an On my Mind post.













On my mind today are- MONKEYS!!!

The monkey menace in my area (Kandy, Sri Lanka) used to destroy all that sprouted in our garden and played with our clean laundry hanging out in the sun. They leave our water taps open, till the over-head tank runs dry; creep into our house to steal whatever is within sight. We've had over twenty years of this man-monkey battle. We have tried everything from spraying water at them from a hose pipe to lighting crackers to scare them off-with little success.

Now, finally our neighbours have tried and tested wearing a dark gown over their heads with a devil mask over their faces and jumping up and down, making a huge racket, and it has managed to keep them at bay for about two months.

My mother (who is adopting this method at the moment) consented to being photographed in her black under-skirt and pumpkin mask- her "Monkey chaser" attire!
Here's to hoping they will keep away for a long time..