Rihaakuru Fathafolhi

Rihaakuru Fathafolhi is a savoury pancake. Maldivian fish paste rihaakuru is the key ingredient here and it’s combined with ground rice, spices and grated coconut for a punchy tea time snack.

Makes: 5

Ingredients:

• ½ cup coarse rice flour
• 1/3 cup water (for soaking rice flour)
• 1 small onion
• 1/3 scotch bonnet pepper (or to taste)
• ½ inch ginger
• 10 curry leaves
• ¼ tsp. turmeric powder
• 1/3 tsp. red chilli powder
• ½ tsp. cumin seeds
• ¼ tsp. whole black peppercorns
• ½ lime
• 2/3 cup grated coconut
• 5 tsp. water
• 5 tsp. rihaakuru (or to taste)
• 2 tbsp. flour

Instructions:

1. Add the ground rice and water to a small bowl. Mix and set aside so that the rice can soak up the water.
2. Add the onion (roughly chopped), scotch bonnet pepper (githeyo mirus), ginger, curry leaves, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, cumin seeds, black peppercorns, lime, grated coconut and water to your grinder. Grind until everything is minced. It doesn’t have to be smooth.
3. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and to it add the rice and water mixture from step 1 as well as the rihaakuru. Mix everything well. Do a little taste test too, and make adjustments to your liking. We added 1/3 tsp. salt during this step because we found ours still needing a bit of saltiness even with the rihaakuru.
4. Add the flour and mix to combine.
5. Rub a little bit of oil on the bottom of a pan using a bit of tissue paper and heat it up. Once heated, add 2 tbsp. of the mixture onto the pan (or 1 tbsp. if you want them smaller) and spread it a bit so that it looks like a circle. Keep the heat on low to medium and cook until the bottom is golden brown and the top is looking a bit dry.
6. Use a spatula to gently flip it over and cook until the side that’s now on the bottom is golden brown too. Be very gentle and patient, as cooking fathafolhi takes a bit of practice.
7. Once cooked on both sides, remove to a plate, and repeat the steps 5 & 6 until you run out of the mixture.