- Erasha Hettige of Podi Hands Cook on staying creative to eat frugally
As time inevitably marches on towards September, the reports from a few months ago of a looming food shortage are going to weigh more and more heavily on our minds. How bad the food shortage will be and how effectively our Government has worked to mitigate it are things only time will tell.
For the moment, however, what we are struggling with is managing to feed ourselves, and feed ourselves well, given the exponential rise in the cost of, well, just about everything.
Images of 1950s housewives poring over magazines for frugal tips on keeping home and hearth alive and healthy come to mind, as do images of professional couponers – though coupon culture is not something that seems to have made its way into Sri Lanka’s mainstream psyche.
Nevertheless, in a country where food inflation has increased to nearly 76% in June (up from approximately 25% in January) and is set to keep increasing, it is now time for most of us to think in earnest about eating on a budget while still staying healthy.
On the topic of eating frugally but nutritiously, Brunch reached out to culinary consultant Erasha Hettige of Podi Hands Cook, for tips on how to maintain a balanced diet without breaking the bank.
Being a culinary consultant
Erasha is someone who’s had her hands in the kitchen from a young age – coming from a family of really good cooks (the men included). Food was always important to Erasha and often a form of celebration that went on for hours, with the recipes prepared being treasured by the family.
Erasha began experimenting with food professionally almost as soon as she finished school, starting with baking, and she even started her own business – Sugar, Salt and Sprinkles. However, because of the pandemic followed by the economic crisis and the skyrocketing cost of ingredients, the brand has been downsized to focus on made-to-order cakes and desserts for the time being.
Her love for food inspired Erashha to begin her own food blog – Podi Hands Cook. “Since food was always so close to my heart, I wanted to share it with my daughter and my son. To date, I still use my grandmother’s recipes, her dinnerware and crockery, and so on. It’s become somewhat of a tradition and through Podi Hands, I’m passing it on.
“I initially began Podi Hands Cook to document my cooking journey with my daughter – to get her involved in the kitchen and experiment with different flavours and textures. It is a very interactive way to get even the pickiest of eaters to eat a variety of different foods.”
Erasha also has a background in nutrition and has combined this with her time in the kitchen to develop healthy, tasty, and balanced recipes. As a culinary consultant, she has also worked for over 10 years with various brands as well as on her own to curate workshops, events, and recipes that focus on healthy and hearty meals.
Looking back on the unusual career path of being a culinary consultant, Erasha explained: “I’ve basically been self-taught and have currently evolved into a space where I have the freedom to explore cooking in general. I focus more on family-oriented meals, especially now that my kids are older and eat almost anything. I create recipes and work with agencies and brands to do recipes that showcase their ingredients and products to the best of their abilities, as well as work on Podi Hands Cook and Sugar, Salt and Sprinkles.”
Amidst the current crisis, Erasha has also been doing her part whenever possible to assist community gardens, kitchens, and outreach programmes that help alleviate hunger.
Building nutritious meals in a time of austerity
As a mother of two and member of a family of four who works in the food industry, Erasha is more than aware of the cost of food and just how difficult it is to make ends meet, while also juggling the many other responsibilities and expenses that come with managing a family.
She realised that she herself had to approach food, cooking, and recipes very differently, in order to make sure she was still receiving and providing proper nutrition while also being frugal, especially when it came to her children. She also realised that there must be countless other mothers out there facing the same struggle, but who do not have the same knowledge she does to maintain the balance between healthy and economic.
This led Erasha, together with Tahini De Andrado George (@thelankanmama on Instagram), to launch #LankanFrugalFridays, a campaign that addresses making healthy yet affordable meals.
“We came up with the concept after seeing things getting more expensive by the week,” Erasha explained. “One thing we wanted to highlight is that even though you’re feeding your family on a budget, you have to make it nutrient-dense because it is very possible to be well-fed but malnourished. This is what I fear most happening in Sri Lanka – people eating what is accessible over what is nutritious, which is sad because we have so many fruits and vegetables we can include in our diets and have the ability to grow diverse things to create a balanced meal.”
What makes up a balanced meal? A plate that contains at least four of the six food groups – carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals, fats, and water.
Carbohydrates are self-explanatory and an indispensable component of the Sri Lankan meal; vitamins and minerals come from our many fruits and vegetables; protein is found in meat, fish, eggs, cheese (to an extent), and plant-based sources like soy; fats, while sounding counterintuitive to many given the connotations of the word, are indeed an essential part of a balanced diet and can be found in butter, oil, and nuts, to name a few sources.
Of course, in a single dish, these groups can overlap and the beauty of our cuisine is that our average Sri Lankan ‘buth pingana’ (plate of rice and curry) is actually quite a well-balanced meal, although it is very heavily skewed towards carbohydrates (nutritionists recommend a well-balanced plate of one-fourth plate carbs, one-fourth plate protein, more than one-fourth of fruits and veggies, and little bit of fats).
Of course, a lot of this has to do with economics and with hunger being a major problem and even carbohydrates becoming unbearably expensive, perhaps now is not the time to reinvent the plate of rice and curry completely, but instead focus on how we can make it as nutritious as possible with minimal resources.
Eating frugally: It’s a mindset shift
While we can’t really reinvent the plate of rice and curry, it has indeed been transformed by this crisis. We’ve all seen the pictures of children eating plain rice and mallung, because that’s all their families can afford to feed them.
As Erasha explained, if we’re to consider frugality, we need to understand that the days of rice, a protein curry, and four accompaniments are sadly behind us – at least for now.
“The traditional ‘buth pingana’ has four accompaniments by preparation – something mirisata (spicy), something kirata (gravy), something thel-dala (tempered with oil and spices), and something badala (fried). The most easily frugal thing to do is to combine some of these preparations. For example, something I do is mix my mirisata protein with my thel-dala,” Erasha explained, adding that she had also found creative ways to mix cheap(er) proteins in with her vegetables to create more cost-effective meals.
One such example is dried baby shrimp (kuni) – which is currently cheaper than other dried fish options like karawala – which she mixes in with vegetables like beans and combines the mirisata and thel-dala components of her meal accordingly.
For kirata, which goes a long way towards making a plate of rice palatable, Erasha stressed that we have to begin thinking outside the box when it comes to the standard vegetables we use for such preparations and focus on inexpensive vegetables like cucumber, for example, which can be cooked in different ways.
Some frugal food hacks
We spoke with Erasha at length about the little ways in which we can stay frugal while still managing to eat well. Here’s what we learned:
- Think of eating well as eating healthy – focus on nutrient-dense meals. Build in as much fruit and veg as possible.
- Buy local – the nearby kadé is likely to be much cheaper (and fresher) than your neighbourhood chain supermarket. Investigate and make the choice that works best for you. These kadés are also likely to be supporting other small and micro-businesses, and as Erasha said: “Buying local and from small businesses is never a bad thing.”
- A deal is a deal. This said, your chain supermarket can be a great place to find deals – but only if you look carefully and are judicious about buying something on sale. With online shopping also having become popular, Erasha recommended looking at supermarkets’ online sites where they usually have a page set up to highlight their offers and discounts. The same is true for delivery platform aggregators that highlight their various deals for customers to take advantage of.
- Buying local also means thinking about what produce you buy. Low-country vegetables like pumpkin and cucumber, for example, are cheaper in Colombo than up-country vegetables like cauliflower and beetroot and they are incredibly versatile as ingredients and can even be eaten raw.
- Buy seasonal – look at rambutan; when they’re in season they’re abundant and so they’re cheaper. Stick to buying expensive fruits and veggies only when they’re in season and in those seasons, buy as much as you’re able to and preserve them. So many fruits once cleaned and put in Ziploc bags can stay in your freezer for months with no impact on nutritional value. You can also make chutneys, jams, and many other things that you can use to supplement your meals in terms of flavour and nutrients for months to come.
Don’t underestimate the power of making something from scratch – this is especially true for things like flatbreads and sauces. Making them at home costs a fraction of what you would pay for them outside. It’s more time in the kitchen, but the savings will impress you.- Be creative – food doesn’t always have to be what your mother or grandmother made or what your family has eaten your whole life. The world is changing and we have to change with it. Look at the ingredients around you differently. For example, Erasha often integrates raw grated pumpkin into her meals and she also makes a version of the Thai green papaya salad using ambarella (she has a tree in her garden). Think outside the box and use your fruits and vegetables a little differently.
- Stretch out your rations – slicing something really finely often leaves you with more to stretch out. Think about different ways of preparing your food. Onions, ginger, garlic, curry leaves, and green chillies form the base of almost every curry. Why not buy a sizeable amount when you’re able to and make a purée? A tablespoon or so is all you need to pack a curry with a reasonable amount of flavour and you’d be surprised at how far that purée will stretch.
- Invest in powerful ingredients that add flavour – dried herbs, for example, often go on sale, last a long while, and can really uplift a dish.
- Growing your own food – this is not for everyone, especially in an urban environment, and it’s a long game, but growing your own food can go a long way towards being frugal, even if it is just growing the easy-to-manage things like spinach and leafy greens.
Don’t underestimate the power of making something from scratch – this is especially true for things like flatbreads and sauces. Making them at home costs a fraction of what you would pay for them outside. It’s more time in the kitchen, but the savings will impress you.Keeping a family food-happy
Balancing fussy eaters (of all age groups) is a challenge even in the best of times, but it is possible and this is why Erasha has spent her time focusing on recipes for all palates – from the traditional Sri Lankan palate, to the palate that craves variety, to even those with a sweet tooth, both through Podi Hands Cook and through #LankanFrugal Fridays. She has also created crisis-friendly recipes like those that don’t use gas and instead can be made entirely in a rice cooker.
For example, she has developed spicy peanut noodles, which uses ramen noodles, a small selection of other ingredients, and peanuts to make a meal for two that only costs Rs. 280. For those with an incurable sweet tooth, she has also developed cake and dessert recipes that don’t use as much butter, eggs, or cream, one being her tropical no-bake ‘cheesecake,’ which doesn’t use any cream cheese but instead yoghurt and cream to create the same mouth-feel and taste of a normal cheesecake.
Erasha’s recipes and approach to food in the midst of this crisis show that while we are in a dark place, our food, despite its astronomical cost, still has the power to sustain us and bring us together like it has always done. And together, if the past is any indication, we can overcome anything.
To learn more about Erasha’s creative recipes and to check out her series #LankanFrugalFridays, please visit the Podi Hands Cook Instagram or website:
Website: https://podihandscook.lk/
Instagram: @podihandscook
