Sri Lanka: coconut pancakes
During my last & only trip to Sri Lanka in February 2022, I discovered so many new dishes and flavor combinations! Here is one of those discoveries: coconut pancakes.
It is simple to make yet delicious. We had it multiple times for breakfast or afternoon tea.
Afternoon tea at Lipton's Seat
It has to be one of the most memorable and my favorite experiences in Sri Lanka. Just to think that I had a chance to enjoy afternoon tea while being surrounded by (arctic) monkeys & breathtaking views - that’s wild. :)
Also, that was one of those times when we had coconut pancakes. See those fluffy, yellow cuties in the left top corner? Yeah!
From my knowledge, it is essential for coconut pancakes to be yellow - to achieve it, you can simply add a little bit of turmeric to your pancake batter (or any other natural food coloring, or artificial - it’s not illegal.)
Coconut + sugar + water
So! The filling. That’s simply desiccated coconut with brown sugar and water.
For about 3-4 pancakes… I added 4 tablespoons of desiccated coconut to a small frying pan, toasted it a little bit. When the coconut starts to get brown-ish, it’s time for 2 tablespoons of sugar and 4-6 tablespoons of water. Heat it all up… and done. Note: if you want the filling to be less sweet, I think it’s safe to add only 1 tablespoon of sugar. (But, to be fair, it’s coconut with sugar, so… it needs to be sweet!).
Note 2: every description (or maybe better: translation) I found on the internet, it says coconut pancakes, but I would say these are more like coconut crepes (Polish: naleśniki). I am always using a recipe for crepes with aquafaba among the ingredients, and those are truly the best. And yeah, just fry the crepes, put the filling inside, roll those up - enjoy.
Note 3: according to my research, the original name of these is either pani pol or pol pani (or peni pol???).
