Kevum or Kavum ( si, කැවුම්) is a deep-fried Sri Lankan sweet made from rice flour and kithul (sugar-palm)

treacle Treacle () is any uncrystallised syrup made during the refining of sugar.Oxford Dictionary The most common forms of treacle are golden syrup, a pale variety, and a darker variety known as black treacle, similar to molasses. Black treacle has ...

, with a number of variants adding additional ingredients. It is also known as ''oil cake''. Kevum is traditionally given and consumed during celebrations of Sinhala and Tamil New Year.

History

Kevum is mentioned in ancient Sri Lankan texts including the ''Ummagga Jatakaya'', ''Saddharma Ratnawaliya'' and ''Pujawaliya''.

Varieties

The ''Dhathuwansaya'', an ancient Sinhala text, mentions 18 kinds of kevum including Sedhi Kevum, Mun Kevum, Ulundu Kevum, Uthupu (shaped using a coconut shell) and Ginipu (fire kevum). * Konda kevum ( si, කොණ්ඩ කැවුම්) - ''hair kevum'' is the most common variant. It has a dark reddish color. The dough of rice flour and kithul treacle is flavored with salt and

cardamom Cardamom (), sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genera ''Elettaria'' and ''Amomum'' in the family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to the Indian subcontinent and Indonesia. They are r ...

. Konda ( si, කොණ්ඩ) is the Sinhala word for hair, and is named so as the shape of the konda kevum resembles hair tied up into a bun. It is shaped by hand and without a special

mold A mold () or mould () is one of the structures certain fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of spores containing fungal secondary metabolites. The spores are the dispersal units of the fungi. Not ...

. * Naran kevum ( si, නාරං කැවුම්) - ''mandarin kevum'' is the size and shape of a mandarin, colored yellow with

saffron Saffron () is a spice derived from the flower of ''Crocus sativus'', commonly known as the "saffron crocus". The vivid crimson stigma and styles, called threads, are collected and dried for use mainly as a seasoning and colouring agent in ...

. Green gram flour and scraped coconut are added to the basic kevum mix of rice flour and treacle. * Thala kevum ( si, තල කැවුම්) - ''sesame kevum'' has sesame in the kevum dough. * Undu kevum ( si, උඳු කැවුම්) - ''dal kevum'' is kevum flavored with

urad dal ''Vigna mungo'', also known as black gram, urad bean, urid bean, mash kalai, uzhunnu parippu, ulundu paruppu, minapa pappu, uddu, or black matpe, is a bean grown in South Asia. Like its relative, the mung bean, it has been reclassified from the ...

. * Mun kevum ( si, මුං කැවුම්) - ''gram kevum'' adds green gram flour and saffron to the kevum mix of rice flour and treacle. The kevum are diamond shaped and yellow. * Handi kevum ( si, හැඳි කැවුම්) - '' spoon kevun'' is flavored with cumin and fennel.

References

External links

Aluth Avurudu Recipe: Kavum (Oil Cake) on inside.lk
{{Sri Lankan cuisine Sri Lankan desserts and sweets Sinhalese New Year foods