Gaslabu Curry

Sri Lanka's green papaya simmered in coconut milk with fenugreek, turmeric, pandan, and curry leaves, a mild white curry for the middle of a rice and curry table

Origin: Colombo & Sri Lanka

From the journey of Papaya.

Sinhala has two words for the one plant. Ripe, it is papol; unripe and bound for the pot, it is gaslabu, which reads as the tree labu, the gourd that grows on a tree, and tells you exactly what Sri Lankan cooks decided the green fruit was. English in Sri Lanka calls it pawpaw, as Britain and Australia do. The Portuguese brought it from the Americas by way of their Indian ports in the sixteenth or seventeenth century, and it settled into the island so completely that a papaya tree in the garden is now the ordinary state of affairs. Because it fruits all year and a tree gives more than a household can eat ripe, the green fruit became a vegetable: cooked as this white curry, shredded into gaslabu mallung with coconut and lime, or stewed with dried fish. A kiri or white curry is the calm dish on a Sri Lankan table, set amongst things that are not calm at all. The seasoning is unroasted: raw curry powder or none, turmeric, fenugreek seeds for their slipperiness, a stick of pandan, curry leaves, green chilli split rather than chopped, and thick coconut milk added at the end and never allowed to boil.

Ingredients

Curry

  • 700 g green (unripe) papaya, peeled, seeded, and cut into 3 cm pieces
  • 1 onion, thinly sliced
  • 3 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 0.5 tsp fenugreek seeds
  • 0.5 tsp ground turmeric
  • 2 green chillies, split lengthwise
  • 1 sprig fresh curry leaves
  • 5 cm piece of pandan leaf (rampe)
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 250 ml thin coconut milk
  • 1 tsp salt

To Finish

  • 200 ml thick coconut milk
  • 1 tbsp lime juice

Method

  1. Put the papaya, onion, garlic, fenugreek, turmeric, chillies, curry leaves, pandan, cinnamon, thin coconut milk, and salt into a pan and bring to a simmer.
  2. Cook uncovered over a medium heat for 15 to 18 minutes, until the papaya is tender to the point of a knife but still holding its shape.
  3. Pour in the thick coconut milk, swirl the pan, and heat through for two minutes without letting it boil.
  4. Take off the heat, stir in the lime juice, check the salt, and serve with rice, a fried dried fish, and something with chilli in it.

Notes

Fenugreek seeds are not optional in a Sri Lankan white curry; they give the gravy its faint slipperiness and bitterness. For gaslabu mallung, grate the raw papaya instead, and cook it for four minutes with grated coconut, turmeric, onion, green chilli, and lime.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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