Dhirifiyaalee Baiy

Dhirifiyaalee Baiy is a special rice dish that’s just superb with some spicy Miruhulee Kukulhu or even a chicken curry. And as the name suggests, the two main flavours in Dhirifiyaalee Baiy are onions and cumin.

Some people do fry sliced onions and cumin seeds in a bit of ghee or oil before adding that to the rice. Others soak them in coconut milk to add them in at the end of cooking. The recipe below is based on Zareena Ibrahim Didi’s Dhirifiyaalee Baiy recipe in her cookbook Dhivehi Kaanaa. Like in her recipe, we’ve included cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and pandan leaf in ours. However, it’s quite usual for the rice dish to be made without any of those.

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients:

• ½ small onion
• ½ inch piece of ginger
• 1/3 cup thick coconut milk
• 1 cup uncooked rice
• 1 & 2/3 cup thin coconut milk
• ½ tsp. whole cumin seeds
• 3 cardamom pods
• 3 inch piece of cinnamon
• 3 inch pandan leaf
• ½ tsp. salt

Instructions:

1. Slice the onion and ginger very thinly.
2. Add the onion, ginger and thick coconut milk to a bowl and mix well. Cover and set aside.
3. Rinse the rice thoroughly.
4. Add the rice, thin coconut milk, whole cumin seeds, cardamom pods, cinnamon, pandan leaf and salt to a pot. (The thin coconut milk needs to reach around half an inch above the rice. So, do add some water if necessary.)
5. Bring the contents in the pot to a boil over medium heat.
6. Then reduce heat and let it simmer until almost all the water has evaporated.
7. Add the onion, ginger and thick coconut milk mixture to the pot. Mix, and let it cook until all water evaporates.