Sri Lankan shallots cooked down with chilli, tamarind, and sugar into a dark sweet-hot relish
Origin: Sri Lanka
From the journey of Shallot.
Seeni means sugar, and this is the sweet one: a dark, sticky, faintly jammy relish of shallots cooked far past the point where most cuisines would stop. Sri Lankans call the small shallot rathu lunu, red onion, and it is the island's default allium. For seeni sambol it is sliced thin and cooked slowly in coconut oil with chilli powder, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, curry leaves, and pandan until it collapses entirely, then finished with tamarind and a generous amount of sugar and reduced until it holds its shape on a spoon. The Maldive fish, dried and shaved, that most versions include gives it a savoury depth that keeps the sweetness from being cloying. What makes the shallot right for it is the same property that makes it right for frying: less water and more sugar than a bulb onion, so it caramelises rather than stewing, and it reaches a dark, concentrated sweetness in half the time. A version made with large onion is watery and needs a great deal more sugar to compensate. Where it belongs is on the ceremonial table. Kiribath, rice cooked in coconut milk and cut into diamonds, is the dish of the Sinhala and Tamil new year, of first days and of new houses, and seeni sambol is what goes beside it. The rest of the year it fills bread rolls, tops string hoppers, and sits in a jar in the refrigerator. It keeps for a fortnight and, like most things of its kind, is better after two days.
Maldive fish (umbalakada), the hard smoked and dried tuna shaved into flakes, is what gives the authentic savoury base; it is sold by Sri Lankan grocers. Dried shrimp, pounded, is a fair substitute. Leave it out entirely for a vegan version and add a little extra salt and tamarind. Sri Lankan chilli powder is milder and redder than Indian; Kashmiri chilli powder is the closest widely available substitute and gives the colour without excessive heat. It keeps two weeks refrigerated under a film of coconut oil and is markedly better after two days. Serve with kiribath (coconut milk rice), with string hoppers, with plain rice and curry, or stuffed into a soft bread roll, which is how it is most often eaten on the street.
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