Buffalo curd and treacle, Sri Lanka's clay pot dessert

Buffalo curd, meekiri in Sinhala, is a thick yoghurt made from the milk of water buffalo, set in a shallow clay pot and eaten with kithul treacle poured over it. It is the dessert of the south of Sri Lanka, sold from stalls along the road east of us. At Ohana, buffalo curd fills half a papaya in our Papaya Curd Bowl, 2,300 LKR.

What is buffalo curd?

It is fermented milk, like yoghurt, but made from buffalo milk, which is richer in fat than cow's milk. That is why curd is so dense. You do not stir it. You cut it with a spoon, and it comes away in clean, heavy pieces.

The taste is gently sour and creamy, with a natural sweetness of its own. Eaten with treacle the dish is called kiri pani, curd and treacle. It is breakfast for some and dessert for most.

How is curd made?

With three things: milk, yesterday's curd and a pot.

• The milk is boiled. Fresh buffalo milk goes into a big pan over a wood fire and is stirred as it heats. Some makers keep it on the fire a long time, so that water boils off and the milk thickens.
• It is poured into clay. The hot milk goes into shallow pots of baked clay, called kiri hatti.
• A starter goes in. When the milk has cooled, a little curd from the day before is added. Nothing else.
• It rests. The pot is covered with paper and left in a cool, dark place. The milk sets in six to sixteen hours, usually overnight.

By morning it is curd, with a pale skin on top. Curd is a fresh food. It is best in its first days, before it turns too sour, and a paler skin is the sign of a fresher pot.

Why a clay pot?

The pot is part of the recipe. The clay is coarse and porous. It keeps the milk at an even warmth while it sets, and makers say it gives the curd its texture and its taste. The best curd is said to come from a new pot.

The pots are made by village potters, mostly by hand. You buy the pot with the curd in it, covered with clean paper, and the pots are usually sold in sets of two or more.

Where are the clay pots on the southern road?

Drive east from Dikwella, past Tangalle, and the curd country begins. In the Hambantota district, stalls line the roads towards and beyond Hambantota town, with clay pots stacked in rows. Names you will hear are Ridiyagama, north of Ambalantota, Tissamaharama and Lunugamvehera. More than 400 families in the south and east of the island live from making and selling curd.

If you are on your way to Yala or coming back from it, this is the stop. Stalls sell pots to take away, and some small places along the road will serve you a bowl with treacle on the spot.

How is curd eaten?

• Cut, do not stir. Take a thick piece from the pot with a large spoon, traditionally one made from coconut shell, and put it in a bowl.
• Pour the treacle. Kithul treacle, the dark syrup of the fishtail palm, is the one that belongs with curd. Sri Lankans pour generously. Start with less: the curd is sweet enough to need little.
• Keep the pieces whole. Do not mix it into a soup. You want cold, sour curd and sweet treacle on the same spoon.
• Cold curd, warm treacle. People who love it chill the curd and warm the treacle slightly.

It comes at the end of a rice and curry, when the mouth is still warm from the chilli, and that is when it is at its best. There is more about the syrup in what is kithul treacle.

Where is curd on our menu?

• Papaya Curd Bowl, 2,300 LKR. Thick, gently sour curd in half a papaya, already cut loose from its skin, with our granola, coconut, lime and mint, and kithul treacle. The fruit is the bowl. It is on the breakfast menu, and again with the desserts at lunch and dinner.
• Mango Lassi, 1,900 LKR. Sri Lankan curd and ripe mango, blended cold with a ribbon of kithul: thick, creamy and gently tangy.
• Labneh. Our labneh is curd that we hang for a day, until it is thick enough to spread. It is under the jammy eggs of the Tomato, Labneh, Soft Eggs, 2,950 LKR, inside the Fitness Omelette, 2,800 LKR, on the Zucchini Toast, 2,750 LKR and on the Huevos Verdes, 2,900 LKR. A spoon of it on the side is 750 LKR.

If you want your curd the classic way, with more treacle, 30 ml of kithul is 300 LKR. Our kithul comes from Badulla, in the hills near Ella.

The menu says "curd" and "Sri Lankan curd", and it is buffalo curd.

Curd is milk, so it is not for guests who avoid dairy. The Tropical Smoothie Bowl, 3,200 LKR, is made with coconut milk and has no curd in it. You can read about the fruit in smoothie bowls and the fruit of Sri Lanka.

Curd and treacle is the simplest example of what the island grows and how we cook it: two things from the island, and almost nothing done to either.

Good to know

• Breakfast is served from 08:00 to 11:00. Lunch and dinner are served from 11:00 to 21:00, every day.
• The Papaya Curd Bowl is on both menus. The Mango Lassi is on the breakfast menu.
• Prices are in LKR, plus a 10% service charge. Filtered water is on the house.
• Curd and labneh contain milk. Tell us about any allergy: ours is one shared kitchen.
• We are at Turtle Beach, Dikwella, less than five minutes by road from Hiriketiya.