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Panangai paniyaram

Palmyra fruit fritters

When the palmyra palms of the Jaffna peninsula drop their ripe black fruits in the late monsoon months, kitchens from Point Pedro to Kayts fill with the smoky, almost mango-like smell of panangai paniyaram. The fibrous orange pulp is squeezed out of the fruit, cooked briefly with sugar, then mixed with rice flour and fried in spoonfuls until the fritters are nearly black outside and soft and sticky inside. They are an afternoon treat with tea and are carried as gifts to relatives in Colombo and abroad. Outside Sri Lanka, look for frozen or tinned palmyra fruit pulp in Tamil grocers; there is no real substitute for its taste. The common failure is frying in oil that is too hot: the sugar in the pulp burns before the middle cooks, so keep the oil moderate. Chef's tip: cooking the pulp with the sugar first takes the edge off the fruit's natural bitterness and makes the batter easier to handle.

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