Saagu Bondibai (Sago Pudding)

 Ingredients

 1½ cups saagu (sago seeds)

 7 cups water (for boiling)

 3 cups water

 ½ cups sugar

 ½ can sweetened condensed milk

 2 pieces of Pandan (rampe/ raambaa) leaves – cut into ½ inch pieces

 1½ Tb rose water

Directions

Bring 7 cups of water to the boil, add the sago seeds slowly while stirring.

Cook until the seeds become transparent with only a very small white dot in the center.

Drain and rinse with cold water until all the starch has been washed away.

Add the remaining 3 cups of water, Pandan leaves, sugar and boil the sago seeds for about 30 minutes.

Add the rose water and sweetened condensed milk. Simmer for about 5 minutes.

Serve warm or chilled.

TIP:

Add a few drops of food coloring to give this dish the color of your choice.

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.

Masroshi (tuna stuffed chapati)

 Ingredients

2 cups smoked tuna – diced/sliced (substitute: 3 cans Light meat tuna chunks)

 1 cup coconut – scraped/grated

 1 Scotch Bonnet chilies (githeyo mirus) – finely chopped

 ⅓ cup curry leaves – finely chopped

 1 cup onion – finely sliced

 5 cloves garlic – pressed/grated/very finely chopped

 1 tbsp ginger – grated

 ½ cup lemon juice

 Salt to taste

Dough:

 3 cups flour – sifted

 1 tsp salt

 ⅓ cup vegetable oil

 Warm water

 

Directions:

Using your hand, squash together the onions, garlic, ginger, curry leaves, chilies, lemon juice, and salt.

Add the tuna and coconut, and mix until it becomes a sticky mixture.

Shape the mixture into small balls (about 1 inch in diameter).

For the dough

Add the oil and salt into the flour.

Add warm water and knead until you have a dry, smooth dough. (Add the water gradually to make sure the dough does not turn out too sticky.

Shape the pieces of dough into cups and place filling inside; then close the cups and smooth into balls.

Cooking

Warm a shallow, non-stick skillet over the stove.

Using a rolling pin, gently flatten out the filled balls into small round circles (about 3 inch in diameter)

When the skillet is warm enough, place the masroshi on them. Keep flipping every few minutes so both sides cook evenly.

 

Tip

If you would like the masroshi to be crispier, then add a cup of grated/shredded coconut to flour when making the dough.