Rolls

Quite a lot of work goes into making the shorteat we call the Roll. First you’ll have to make the tuna and potato filling. Then you’ll need to make little Maldivian crepes called ‘folhi.’ Then the filling gets enclosed in the ‘folhi’ and get rolled up, and these rolls are then dipped into egg and coated with dried breadcrumbs before being deep fried.

Makes: 13

Ingredients:

• ½ onion
• 10 curry leaves
• ¼ scotch bonnet pepper (or to taste)
• ½ tsp. grated garlic
• ½ tsp. grated ginger
• 1 lime
• 1 tuna can
• ½ tsp. black pepper powder
• 1 potato, boiled and mashed (just under ¾ cup when mashed)
• 1/3 tsp. salt (for the filling)
• 1 cup flour
• 1/3 tsp. salt (for the batter)
• 1 egg
• 1 cup water
• 2 ½ tbsp. water (for flour paste)
• 1 tbsp. flour (for flour paste)
• 2 eggs
• 75 grams dried bread crumbs (around 1 cup)
• 2 cups oil (for frying)

Instructions:

1. Slice the onion, curry leaves and scotch bonnet pepper (githeyo mirus) thinly and add them to a bowl along with the garlic and the ginger.
2. Squeeze in the lime and use your fingers to mix, squeeze and squash the contents in the bowl until the onion becomes soft and releases its juices.
3. Then add the tuna, black pepper powder, potatoes, and mix well. Have a taste and add salt to your liking. We added 1/3 tsp. That’s it for the filling.
4. Now to make the ‘folhi,’ first mix the flour and the salt.
5. Beat the egg and mix it into the flour.
6. Add water gradually while stirring.
7. Heat a pan on medium heat.
8. When the pan has heated up, add 2 tbsp. of batter to the pan.
9. Spread the batter with the back of spoon in a circular motion so that it makes a nice thin circle.
10. The ‘folhi’ takes less than a minute to cook, so remove from the pan as soon as it releases from the pan and place it on a plate.
11. Repeat until you run out of batter.
12. Make flour paste by combining 2 ½ tbsp. water with 1 tbsp. flour. We are going to be using this to seal the rolls.
13. Place a ‘folhi’ on a plate and in its center, place 1 tbsp. of filling and shape it into a neat line.
14. First fold in from the two sides and gently press down.
15. Spread a little bit of the flour paste on the edge that’s away from you.
16. Then roll from the side closest to you and press down to seal. Place the roll on a plate.
17. Repeat steps 13 to 16 until you run out of ‘folhi.’
18. Add the eggs to a bowl and beat them. Set aside.
19. Add the breadcrumbs to a plate and set aside.
20. Take a roll and dip it into the eggs. Make sure it’s entirely covered with egg.
21. Then place it in the breadcrumbs and gently roll it around to give it a nice breadcrumb coating. Place the breadcrumb coated roll on a plate.
22. Repeat steps 20 and 21 until you run out of rolls.
23. Heat the oil in a pot. We used 2 cups of oil. But the important thing to remember here is that the rolls need to be at least halfway submerged in the oil when frying. So you might need to use more oil depending on the size of the pot you are using.
24. Test the temperature of the oil by pinching off just a little teeny bit from a roll and dropping it into the oil. When it floats and you can see bubbles forming around it at a medium speed, that’s your cue to put the rolls in the oil.
25. Rather than frying all of them at the same time, fry the rolls in batches. We did ours 4 at a time. So, place the first batch of rolls in the oil and then fry until they take on a reddish brown colour. You’ll have to turn the rolls around so that they get fried evenly, however, remember to do this really gently.
26. Once fried, gently remove them from the oil and place them in a steel strainer or over some tissue papers to get rid of the excess oil.
27. Continue frying the rolls in batches until it’s all done. Keep the temperature of the oil at medium heat throughout.