Guest Blogger: Authentic Food Traditions in the Maldives

Guest Blogger #737, Entry #1728, October 16, 2012

Before or after your holidays to the Maldives, why not make some of the country’s food at home? The beautiful island nation in the Indian Ocean shares many similarities in local food traditions and recipes with its closest cultural cousin, Sri Lanka, by incorporating delicate and spicy flavours into its curries. One Maldivian curry is a particularly good representation of Maldivian ingredients (coconut and coconut oil are particularly important in Maldivian cuisine), while also reflecting the increasingly pan-Asian nature of the country’s food.

Maldives has many foods that you will enjoy

While this dish doesn’t feature fish – which, being an island country, many Maldivian dishes do (though it should be noted that unlike many other island cultures, the Maldivians don’t eat raw fish), this curry reflects the country’s Muslim heritage (no pork) and geography (little beef, given the lack of proximity to good grazing land for cattle), uses coconut oil, and features an array of spicy and sweet ingredients, some from Asian ‘neighbours’ (not exactly around the corner, but still…) such as China, while other ingredients are more Indian in nature, such as cardamom.
The dish is a chicken curry called Kukulhu Riha, and the recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:

1 (1200g) whole chicken – skinned, cut into 8 pieces
4 tbsp cooking oil
1 cup onion – finely sliced
¼ cup curry leaves
1 tsp ginger – grated
4 cloves garlic – pressed/grated/very finely chopped
1 Dorset Naga (Chinese capsicum/ ghost chili/githeyo mirus) – chopped
3 pieces of Pandan (rampe/ raambaa) leaves – cut into ½ inch pieces
3 cardamon seeds
1 tsp chili powder
2 tbsp chicken curry powder/paste
1 cup coconut cream/milk (thick)
1 cup coconut cream/milk (thin)
1 cup water
Salt to taste

Directions:

Heat the oil, sauté the onions, garlic, ginger, curry leaves, Pandan leaves. Add the chili powder, while stirring, then add the curry powder/paste and ½ cup water and cook on low heat, stirring frequently. When this curry paste starts bubbling, add the chicken pieces and toss until all chicken pieces are well coated. Add salt, Dorset Naga, cardamoms, thin coconut cream/milk and the remaining water and cook on low heat, stirring occasionally. When the chicken is cooked, add the thick coconut cream/milk and simmer for about a minute.

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