Foni Hedhikaa
by Iyath Adam
Hedhikaa is a quintessentially Maldivian treat.
These little finger foods, known as short eats in English, are typically enjoyed at teatime with a cup of black or milk tea. Hedhikaa comes in both sweet and savoury flavours; savoury hedhikaa is usually made with coconut and tuna while sweet hedhikaa is made with a variety of local and not-so-local ingredients.
Here, we bring to you 10 of the most popular sweet or foni hedhikaa recipes that we love to have in the evening.
Gabulhi boakibaa is a type of Maldivian coconut cake made with gabulhi (young coconut), flour and sugar. Just mix the ingredients and bake until it becomes dry and turns a pale golden colour.
It’s just eggs, condensed milk, and a little sugar! But the trick to preparing this pudding well is to make sure that your sugar doesn’t burn on the stove. Check out our recipe for some helpful tips on how to get a nice, golden brown caramel.
Githeyo boakibaa is a rich, aromatic boakibaa made with ground rice, coconut milk and ghee (githeyo) as its main ingredients. But don’t underestimate the ghee-fried onions and sea almonds (kanamadhu) on top or the ground spices and pandan leaves added to the batter – they’re what makes this dessert truly shine!
Fehi boakibaa gets its name from the green (fehi) food colouring used to make this special coconutty dessert. It’s quite similar to githeyo boakibaa, except for the fact that fehi boakibaa is made with flour and eggs, giving it a more pudding-like, softer texture.
The Maldivian version of the classic French toast, this is made by soaking bread in a mixture of egg and condensed milk. The key to spectacular roast paan is to make sure that the bread is properly soaked in the mixture before cooking it.
Made with grated dhandi aluvi (cassava), gabulhi (young coconut) and sugar, this boakibaa is certainly a teatime favourite. Although delicious all around, we always go for the edge pieces which have a nice, toasty and almost-caramelly flavour.
If you have some ripe bananas on hand, whip up a batch of this dhonkeyo kaju – deep-fried until crispy on the outside and soft and oh-so fluffy inside.
This is perhaps one of the easiest Maldivian desserts to make; just mix condensed milk (gerikiru), eggs, flour, and a little baking powder, then bake for a springy, lovely boakibaa.
It’s soft, sugary and a great hedhikaa for when you need something nostalgic and comforting. Although pink is the go-to colour of the cream, you can use any food colouring you like!
Kaamaranga is similar to Mexican churros or Iranian tulumba, but none of that hits the spot like our Maldivian version – fried and soaked in a cardamom and cinnamon infused sugar syrup until it’s soft with just a slight bite to it!
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