Riha Folhi

Making the delicious riha folhi involves a few steps. They are not overly long or complicated, but they need to be followed in order nevertheless.

First you have to make the filling. And while talking about the filling, you can substitute the valhomas with an equal amount of canned tuna, but we think valhomas is so much better.

After you make the filling, you have to make the batter. Then you have to cook the batter, one folhi at a time, insert the filling and roll it while the folhi is still hot. That’s it.

Here at Lonumedhu we had quite a long debate about the correct shape for the riha folhi. Some wanted it long with a thin filling while others preferred a shorter one with a bit more filling. Ours ended up being the shorter kind. But if you want them longer, just experiment a bit and find out what works for you.

Makes: 10 riha folhi

Make the filling

Ingredients:

• 1 cup valhomas chopped into tiny pieces
• 1 large onion
• ¼ tsp. grated ginger
• ¼ tsp. grated garlic
• 3 inch piece of raanbaa
• 2 curry leaves
• ¼ githeyo mirus (or to taste)
• 4 ½ tsp. hanaakuri havaadhu
• ¼ tsp. red chilli powder (or to taste)
• ¼ lime (or to taste)
• ½ tsp. sugar (or to taste)
• ½ tsp. salt (or to taste)
• ½ tsp. cinnamon cardamom powder
• ½ cup thick coconut milk
• ¾ cup water

Instructions:

1. Slice the onion thinly.
2. Heat the thick coconut milk in a large pan.
3. Add the sliced onions, grated ginger, githeyo mirus, cinnamon and cardamom powder, curry leaves, raanbaa, sugar and cook until the onions soften and take on a brownish tint.
4. Add the grated garlic and stir well to combine and then proceed with adding the hanaakuri havaadhu, red chilli powder, followed by the valhomas. Give it another stir.
5. Add the water, salt, squeeze in the lime, stir to combine everything and with the lid on and over medium heat, cook the mixture for around 5 minutes or until the mixture has lost most of the water.
6. Before you switch off the heat, remember to have a taste and bring any changes you want.

Making the folhi

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 tsp. turmeric powder
• ½ tsp. salt (or to taste)

Instructions:

1. Mix the flour, salt and turmeric in a large bowl.
2. Add in the water and mix until everything is smooth.
3. Heat a pan, and once you are sure the pan is well heated, add 2 tbsp. of batter to the pan and run the back of the tablespoon in a circular motion over the batter to spread it into a somewhat thin circular shape.
4. When the batter is cooked, remove with a spatula. Do remember that you have to insert the filling and roll it into a folhi while it’s still hot, as soon as you remove it from the pan (the instructions for that is right below). Also, the batter cooks really quickly, in just seconds, when the batter comes off the pan easily, that’s an indication that it’s cooked.

Assembling the riha folhi

Instructions:

1. As soon as you remove a folhi, lay it flat on a plate.
2. Near one edge (not right at the edge but close to it, so that you’ll have a bit of folhi to hold when rolling) of the folhi, place a tablespoon of filling in the shape of a line.
3. Fold the folhi at both ends of the filling line. Press it a bit so that it holds the shape.
4. Starting from the side that you placed the filling, roll the folhi and press down lightly. The heat will allow it to set into the shape.
5. Repeat with the rest of the batter and filling. Also, don’t worry if you don’t nail the first few riha folhis; this is the sort of thing that needs a little bit of practice.