Kitchen Recipe Collection
Sri Lankan Aasmi
An intricate, delicate, deep-fried web of rice flour dough, elegantly drizzled with bright pink or brown sugary treacle.
- Prep
- 60 min
- Cook
- 30 min
- Total
- 90 min
- Servings
- 10
- Difficulty
- hard
- Cuisine
- sri lankan
Ingredients
Scaled for 10 servings
- rice flour
- coconut milk
- cinnamon leaf juice (or dawul kurundu leaf mucilage)
- kithul treacle
- sugar
- pink food coloring
- oil for frying
Equipment
- Deep fryer
- Coconut shell spoon with holes (or slotted spoon)
Instructions
- 1
Make Batter
Mix rice flour and coconut milk. The traditional secret is adding the mucilaginous juice of dawul kurundu leaves (which makes the batter stretchy and slimy).
- 2
First Fry
Dip a perforated coconut shell spoon into the batter. Hold it over hot oil and use your fingers to rub the batter through the holes, letting strings of batter fall into the oil in a web shape. Fold in half and fry until light. Drain and rest for a few days.
- 3
Second Fry
After resting, deep fry the webs a second time until crispy and white.
- 4
Drizzle Treacle
Boil sugar or kithul treacle into a thick syrup (dye it pink if using sugar). Drizzle thickly over the fried Aasmi.
Cooking Tips
- Aasmi requires immense skill and the specific leaf extract to get the batter consistency right. Okra juice is sometimes used as a modern substitute for the leaf extract.
- The two-stage frying process (with resting in between) is what makes it incredibly crisp but airy.
Variations
- Pink Aasmi: Uses pink sugar syrup instead of brown kithul treacle.
Chef's Notes & Storage
- Considered one of the most prestigious and difficult traditional Sri Lankan sweets to master.
Nutrition Estimate
180 calories · 1g protein · 30g carbs · 6g fat · 1g fiber per serving
