Kirukeyo

Kirukeyo is a delicious Maldivian traditional dessert drink made from maalhoskeyo (green plantains) and coconut milk. It’s very similar to a kan’dhi and just as tasty, except it’s a bit thicker and glossier. We love our kirukeyo with the usual hedhikaa (short eats) at teatime along with a good warm cup of black tea. 

Our kirukeyo recipe below is mostly based on Zareena Ibrahim Didi’s version, which we found in her cookbook Dhivehi Kaanaa. In her recipe, she doesn’t use any cinnamon or cardamom, but some people do put those in when making kirukeyo so feel free to do that in if you want to. Also, if you have maafen (jasmine water), be sure to use that too, we’ve included when, in our instructions.  

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp. rice flour (we used coarse)
• 1 cup thin coconut milk
• 1 maalhoskeyo (green plantain)
• 4 cups water (for boiling the maalhoskeyo)
• 1 ½ cups water (for cooking the kirukeyo)
• 6 inch raanbaa (pandan leaf)
• ½ cup sugar (or to taste)
• ½ cup thick coconut milk
• 1 tbsp. rosewater

Instructions:

1. Combine the rice flour and the thin coconut milk and let the rice flour soak while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
2. Place the maalhoskeyo and 4 cups of water in a large pot. Boil the maalhoskeyo for 12 minutes or until you can easily pierce the maalhoskeyo with a fork.
3. Remove the maalhoskeyo from the water and let it cool down a bit.
4. When the maalhoskeyo has cooled down enough to handle, remove the skin.
5. Cut the maalhoskeyo vertically into 4 pieces, remove the core, and then cut the vertical pieces into thin slices. Zareena Didi did not specify this, but someone told us that we have to cut the pieces diagonally, so we did do that. As for the thickness, we kept it around a centimetre.
6. Place 1 ½ cups water, raanbaa and sugar in a pot and heat the mixture on medium heat. If you have maafen (jasmine water), put some in too.
7. Once all the sugar has dissolved, add the sliced maalhoskeyo and cook until the mixture begins to boil.   
8. Now slowly add the rice flour and thin coconut milk mixture while stirring continuously.
9. Once you have the rice flour and thin coconut milk in there, keep the heat on medium and stir continuously until the kirukeyo has thickened to the point where it can coat a spoon. For us this took around 20 minutes.
10. Add the thick coconut milk, mix well, turn the heat down and let the mixture cook for around a minute.
11. Switch the stove off and stir in the rosewater.