Dhon Riha

Dhon Riha falls into that nice place between a Kirugarudhiya and full fledged, spice laden curry. You’ll have to make a curry paste for this one, but apart from that, it comes together really quickly without much of a hassle.

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

• 200 grams tuna
• 1 medium onion
• 1 clove garlic
• ½ cup grated coconut
• ¼ cup thick coconut milk
• 1 cup water
• 5 curry leaves
• 2 cardamom pods
• 1 inch piece of cinnamon
• ¼ inch slice of ginger
• ¼ tsp. turmeric powder
• 1 tsp. ground fennel
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 2 fenugreek seeds (if you have it)
• 3 inch piece of raanbaa
• ¼ githeyo mirus (or to taste)
• 1 tsp. salt (or to taste)

Instructions:

1. Slice the onion thinly and using something like a back of a spoon, smash the ginger and the garlic.
2. Cut the tuna into cubes. You can have them in the usual fish curry size.
3. In a bowl, mix together the garlic, ginger, grated coconut, turmeric, cumin, fennel and half of your sliced onions. Use your fingers to really squeeze them together.
4. Transfer the mixture to your grinder and add the curry leaves, salt, cardamom seeds, fenugreek seeds and cinnamon. Grind the mixture until you get a smooth paste. We added 5 teaspoons of water while grinding to help it become smooth.
5. Transfer the mixture to a pot; add the water, githeyo mirus and raanbaa. Stir to combine and cook the mixture until it boils. You can keep the heat at low to medium.
6. When the mixture boils add the tuna, and stir to combine. Cook until the tuna pieces lose their raw pinkish colour.
7. Add the thick coconut milk and your remaining onions. Give it a good stir and let it cook until the onions soften a bit and that’s it. Before you call it done, remember to taste test as usual and make any adjustments you want. Also, some people do let the onions sit in the coconut milk for a while before it’s added to the curry, so if you want to do it, do it.

Note: It is quite usual for Dhon Riha to be made without cumin as it's known as a fennel based curry. However, we like the taste of cumin in our Dhon Riha and hence you'll find it in our ingredient list.