Farumas Riha (Maldivian style fish curry)

 Serves: 2

Ingredients:

1 small onion

2 cloves garlic

10 curry leaves

½ tsp. ground cumin

¼ tsp. ground black pepper

1 ½ tsp. red chilli powder

1 tbsp. grated coconut

¾ tsp. lime juice

3/4 tsp. salt (or to taste)

3 tbsp. water (to grind the curry paste)

1 tbsp. oil

¼ scotch bonnet pepper (or to taste)

3 inches pandan leaf

1 cup thin coconut milk

200 grams reef fish cut into bite sized chunks (snapper)

2 tbsp. thick coconut milk

Instructions:

To your grinder add half of your onion, 2 garlic cloves, 5 curry leaves, cumin, black pepper, chilli powder, grated coconut, lime juice, ¼ tsp. salt and water. Grind to a smooth paste and set aside.

Slice the rest of your onion thinly.

Heat the oil in a pot and add the sliced onions, githeyo mirus (scotch bonnet pepper), rest of your curry leaves and pandan leaf. Cook until the onions become soft and you can see a hint of brown on them.

Add the spice paste you prepared earlier. Stir fry for half a minute.

Add the thin coconut milk, stir to combine and bring the mixture to a boil.

Lower the heat and then add the reef fish. Stir to combine, put the lid on and let the mixture simmer until the fish is cooked. For us this took around 15 minutes.

Once the fish is cooked, stir in the thick coconut milk.

Then have a taste and add salt to your liking. We added ½ teaspoon. You can adjust the lime and chilli too. We added another ¾ teaspoon of lime juice. Once the taste is to your liking, switch the stove off because that’s it.