For Christmas, my son's girlfriend bought my son a box of Sri Lankan food. Well, food he had to cook himself. Even better, food that was good to prepare together, which is the best kind of food in my opinion! Which is what we did, cooking coconut and chilli roti, a carrot and bean tamarind curry, and the most amazing tamarind rice.

It was put out by Nige, a Sri Lankan refugee who taught himself to cook because he missed his mother's cooking. In the box is a recipe book and all the spices you need to make his recipes, including rice, chillis, and all kinds of spices in cute jars and bags. It even came with a lovely ceramic pinch pot. It's a great home cooking experience, especially if you're unfamiliar with spice combinations (which I'm not) or Sri Lankan food (which I only had a fair knowledge of, lumping it with South Indian).

'You can take photos of the recipes if you like', they generously said - but, if you know me at all by now, I tend to bastardise recipes, making them a little simpler and easier to follow, and using what I have in the cupboard. So when I set to make tamarind rice, I used spring onions and less garlic than the recipe, and I used tamarind paste, instead of the more traditional pressed square you have to crumble and melt in water - because that's what I had.

Now, I'm sure if you are a Sri Lankan, you're laughing at my attempt to make this as it's likely a staple in your household, but to me, this is a REVELATION and I'm never eating plain rice EVER AGAIN. And I'm sorry if I have the spices slightly different - I swear to goodness, I tried my best, and the best is what I got - come over and try!

The idea is simple. Cook some rice, and add a spicey tamarind reduction. Sit for ten minutes and voila - heaven. The clincher for me was the curry leaves, which I have only eaten dried, and don't often use. However, I found them fresh, and they really made the distinctive taste of the dish.

Firstly, cook 1.5 cups of rice with a tbsp of turmeric and 6 cardamon pods. I use a rice cooker - something I swore I'd never use, but now absolutely swear by. Too easy.

Meanwhile, melt a very large desertspoonful of coconut oil in a pan. When I made it with my son, we didn't have this ingredient, and used olive oil instead. Trust me - the liberal amount of coconut oil MATTERS - it makes for a creamier, lovelier rice. When the oil is hot, fry an onion, or, like I did, a few spring onions. Fry until almost caramelised.

Then, temper your spices. To the hot oil, add:

• 1 tsp of mustard seeds
• 2 tsp cummin seeds
• 2 tsp fennel seeds

and fry for one minute. Then, add 6 cloves of garlic and a few mild chillis - or if you like it hot, hot chilli. For this recipe, I used a jalapeno - just one, quartered. Add a couple of cinnamon quills and about 20 curry leaves. Now they're what I believe give it that authentic taste, so don't skimp on these. You can buy them fresh, but dried is fine at a pinch - try the Indian grocers.

Now, add a cup of water in which you've melted 2 big tablespoons of turmeric.

Simmer for about ten minutes until it's reduced by half - into a lovely, spicey paste.

Add this to your rice, and leave it for about ten minutes (I left mine on the warm setting in the rice cooker) to absorb the spices.

Serve with curry or dahl.

Honest to goodness, I never go back for seconds, but I went back for thirds with this rice!

Do you make spiced rice? How do you make it?

With Love,