Fresh grated coconut rubbed with chilli, red onion, Maldive fish, lime and salt until pink and fragrant.
What makes it pol sambol
Freshly grated coconut — never desiccated if it can be helped.
Chilli, enough to turn it pink-red.
Red onion and Maldive fish, pounded.
Lime juice and salt.
Where it comes from
Pol is coconut in Sinhala, and pol sambol is on nearly every Sri Lankan table: with rice and curry, with bread, hoppers, string hoppers or kiribath. Traditionally the chilli, onion and Maldive fish were ground on a stone before the coconut went in; now many cooks just rub it all together by hand.
How it varies
Katta sambol
No coconut — chilli, onion, Maldive fish and lime, fierce.
Lunu miris
Chilli and onion ground with salt and lime, for hoppers and kiribath.