Thank you!
I was sort of wondering how the original came to be built, who they were defending against, how did it happen to passed from one to another, and were prisoners or enslaved people kept there? Since visiting, I have come to think this way when I hear Dutch and think of Portugal.
I suppose I could look it all up, but I was wondering about the story. I’m not “testing” you! You’ve already passed, at least in my eyes. 
I found this;
Portuguese arrived in Sri Lanka by accident. And then they established their trading post there. Dutch, however, defeated the Portuguese and got hold of the country (low country). They too wanted to own the monopoly of trading. The East India Trading Company known today as VOC controlled the seas and trading. Therefore it was the company that handled the colony. However both these nations could not capture the Kandyan kingdom. They tried, but in their efforts they lost their commanders such as Constantine De Za, Pedro Lopes De Souza, and Diogo De Melo.
The British realized that Kandy cannot be taken by war, and therefore they used the disharmony among the Sri Lankans to get the Kingdom signed for them with the promise of appointing a Kandyan as king. Because the king was of Indian origin. But the British appointed a governor and imprisoned the Kandyan noblemen.
Now you can understand why fortifications were needed. It wasn’t a smooth ruling that was there. There were always the threat of an attack by another nation or the locals.
Wow! A better story than I expected!
I’m shocked 
John D’Oyly is known as the mastermind of the fall of Kandy. He lived with the locals winning their faith but planning the big scheme underneath. He won the trust of the Kandyan chieftains who believed that the kingship will be given to them after chasing away the king.
But don’t be surprised. That’s the way of politics. That’s not the first of its kind. Rome’s first women were abducted under the pretext of holding a religious ceremony. Deceit and trickery are parts of power and politics.
What I worry about is, having 74 years elapsed since independence we are still trying to survive.
Because deceit and trickery are still the bedrock of power and politics.
Low sodium pizza dough recipes. They’re all over the map when it comes to hydration levels.
One calls for 2 cups flour to “1/4 to 1/2 cup warm water” (25% to 50% hydration).
Another calls for 1.5 cups flour to 1 cup water (133% hydration).
Another for 3.25 cups flour to 1.5 cups water (93% hydration).
Yet they all have similar instructions. Mix for a few minutes, let double, then form.
I suppose it’s not just the low-salt recipes, but this is the first time I’ve surveyed 10 or so rapidly in succession (so rapidly that google gave me the “RU ROBOT?” test, LoL).
Got a preference for producing something along the lines of a Neapolitan crust?
Hi Tim. Not specifically for low-sodium, so far, but Brian Lagerstrom (who I probably rely on too much/to a fault) has a couple we’ve tried (both are relatively high sodium, as pizza crusts go). One is suited for someone with a high-temp pizza oven like and Ooni (first link below) the other is more suited to regular home oven plus using broiler method (2nd link below).
I’ve tried both (despite not having an Ooni or other real pizza oven) and the first was okay, and the second the family really liked.
But - caveat - I’m\ not sure we have actually had real Neapolitan crust, so what would we know? 
I do not have a pizza oven either, but I get it pretty hot over a gas grill.
Hi Tim. I’ve seen you mention the grilling of pizza before and discussed with you (you might remember I fantasized about disabling my oven’s safeties and using burn-out 900°F for pizza making - but I’ve not done that due to your advice especially, and others… plus it was just a fantasy anyway… I’m crazy but not stupid… I hope!).
I thought at the time when we discussed before that my Summit (Webber) got pretty hot, but since then have actually tried to chart it, and it (as near as I can tell), I don’t think it gets much over 650°F, even at full-on and closed for a good length of time.
I think your grill gets hotter than mine - probably more like a pizza oven.
But still I’m okay with my oven set at 550°F, and punking the settings (calibration), getting it close to 600°F according to the separate oven thermometer. Not real pizza oven temps. But not bad overall.
To your point, I still have not given the grill + pizza stone a good shot. I might be happier with that.
I use a baking steel. After the oven sits at 475-500, change to a broiler, steel on the top rack. You can cook on the steel or use a steel pan, like the deep dish types sold by Chicago Metallics. Neapolitan styles are harder to reproduce in a home oven, but by cranking the heat up, you can get close; those typically are cooked an a stone or steel at 550°F or higher. Use fewer toppings.
A baking steel won’t crack. Stones can fracture if temperatures or radiant heat builds up too fast.
Salt in the dough is primarily to slow the yeast down.
From my father’s recipe:
MAKING THE DOUGH
(I usually make dough and sauce the Wednesday after I’ve used up the last frozen portion for use the following Saturday which is pizza day for
us.)
6 cups of flour (I use King Arthur’s bread flour for best results) 2 cups warm (105 deg.) Water.
2 packets of instant yeast. I prefer Red stars platinum superior baking yeast. I do not use Fleischmann’s pizza crust yeast.
1 teaspoons salt
1 tbs. olive oil (some use more but I don’t) 1⁄4 teaspoon sugar
A large ss mixing bowl.
Put warm water in the bowl, add the yeast and mix using a whisk. Add 1 cup of the flour, the olive oil, salt and sugar.
Whisk until all is reasonably incorporated. Let it set for about 15 minutes.
Start adding the rest of the flour. I use a wooden spoon to mix until I see I need to use my hands. Keep a lot of flour on hand.
Knead the dough until it’s reasonably homogeneous, soft, smooth and stretchy. But don’t overwork it.
Put the dough into a smaller bowl lightly coated with olive oil. Should look like a mildly flattened bowling ball.
Cover bowl with a dishtowel and place in a warm (not hot!) spot.
Check on it every half hour or so. Dough should rise to the top of the bowl. When it does, coat hands with flour and deflate it.
At this point, I put the dough ball in the fridge overnight. Make 16 oz. dough balls the next day, after the dough has chilled. The individual dough balls, each for a 14 inch pizza, go back in the fridge (covered) until the next day.
This makes a"Bar" or New England style of pizza, with a crisp crust that doesn’t sag. You may be able to delete the salt from the dough; I don’t know. These pizzas can hold a lot of toppings. I make this type in a pan. Sometimes, the broiler is needed to roast the toppings after the crust is nearly done.
The 3-day ferment gives the dough a great sourdough aroma and flavor. Plus, the gluten relaxes, making the dough much easier to stretch. Allow extra time, after spreading, for the dough to rise again, covered in the pan, before topping.
My Italian grandparents ran an Italian cafe in MA, making who knows how many pizzas. My Dad and his brother worked in the cafe. The food there was locally famous. They adapted pizza to American tastes, with more toppings.
Thanks Robert! Very much appreciate getting a family-trusted recipe.
I suppose a pizza steel transfers heat to the crust more rapidly than a stone? I’ve got 2 heavy stones that pretty much live in the oven (the hope is that, once fully hot, they even out temp swings somewhat) unless I need space for turkey etc. Never had issue with cracking, and I leave them in during burn-out cleaning as well.
But I see a lot of enthusiasts who 10 years ago were using stones, have now shifted to the baking steels.
I’ve had my baking steel since the company launched and I prefer it to a stone, not least because I can’t break it. And apparently I can break a stone. Two stones, in fact.
The two I keep in the oven are about 9.5 lbs each. My MIL got my first one about 15 years ago and it was too thin to do much good - only about 3 lbs. I broke it in the sink while washing just due to clumsiness/not being careful.
The heavier ones have taken some abuse/clumsiness in handling without any problems, though - but I am at least a bit more careful.
The steel would be nice also because I could wash with soap and remove oil. The stones I’ve tried once with soap and the smelled really bad once hot so I just had to shift to a different dinner and let them cook for a couple of hours at 550+ to burn off the Dawn.
Now my only cleaning method is hot water scrub until they get too much oil in them, then oven burnout cleaning.
You guys have helped me convince myself. Steel, here I come.
It will rust, so dry it well. I’ve had to scour mine more than once.
I’m very fond of the steel from bakingsteel.com, made in Stoughton, Mass., the same town where I was born! I used to take pizzas out of pans to finish on a stone. Now, I just put the pan on the steel and don’t need to take it out of the pan for a second crust browning.
You’ll likely have to experiment a little and see what works best in your oven.
Another tip: Look inside your oven and locate the thermal sensor, usually a rod or protrusion, typically near the top area, back of the oven. If you have, say, a steel or stone on the right hand side and the heat sensor is on the left, the radiant heat will hit that sensor faster and can cause your oven to run cooler on the right side. Voice of experience, I was finding a minimum of 30 degrees F below the oven setting. By moving the steel or stone under the sensor (by several inches), you block the radiant heat from turning the heat source off prematurely; the sensor heats up slower and the oven temperature is usually more accurate.
Now, since the sensor is on the top left in the oven, I put the steel between the heating element and the sensor. This is one of those things no one talks about in the myriad of pizza youtube videos.
This is not just true for stones and steels; generally put whatever you are baking in between the sensor and heating element (the bottom one). Just don’t put anything touching or immediately under the sensor; give it space, maybe 5+ inches.
You can use a point and shoot infrared temperature thermometer to check the temperature of the steel or stone. Do it quickly, as the open oven causes the temperature to drop fast. You’ll be happy if you keep notes!
ETA:
https://weather.com/storms/winter/video/giant-frosty-snowman-is-local-celebrity-in-minnesota
Kind of neat to see how ‘Frosty’ was built and the family maintaining him.
