Kulhimas

This is a dish that is dear to my heart. It was a staple at home and I spent most of my childhood eating it. This made my best ‘9 o’clock tea’ with roshi*, lunch, dinner and suhoor**.

Kulhimas, literally translated to is spicy fish. It is, not surprisingly, typically made with tuna in Maldives. Almost every single dish contains tuna as it is readily available to us.
I was born and bred in Maldives and I live for tuna. You would not believe when I tell you that I didn’t eat or buy fish abroad till this year because I was afraid that I wouldn’t like it.  I tried making kulhimas with cod a couple of months ago and I did not like it. Again, no surprises there. So imagine my joy when I found raw tuna at my local grocery store today. It was pricey but to hell with that. It’s not like I get raw tuna everyday anyway.

Isn’t this tuna fillet just exquisite? The concentric lines and the colour are absolutely stunning. This was my first time handling raw tuna ever (shocking) and I must say the texture felt smoother than I had imagined. The knife just slid right through the fillet and hit my yellow cutting board. I guess part of the credit goes to my sharp new knife I got from thinkkitchen on Friday.

I paired cooking with some of my favourite Maldivian songs. Ali Rameez frequently makes an appearance in my kitchen when I cook.

I paired it with roshi and a hot black tea and just like that I was back at home in the kitchen with my mum where she’d be making roshi on that overused iron tava griddle and me at the long green kitchen table eating, sharp at 9 o’clock so I can rush to the side of the TV for the 30 minute cartoon session broadcasted on national television. Instead of placing them in the round casserole food container with brown flowers on it she would place it in my plate saying, ‘eat when it’s hot, it’s better that way.’ Mum, I couldn’t agree more.

Serves 3. Prep time ~30 minutes.

Ingredients:
– 1 cup of tuna, cut into smaller pieces
– 1/2 red onion
– 2 cloves of garlic
– Scotch bonnet (as much as you can tolerate I guess)
– Curry leaves (as many as you’d like)
– 3 tablespoon of tomato paste
– Salt to taste
– 1 teaspoon of lime juice
– Olive oil

Directions:
– Cut your tuna fillet into smaller pieces and set aside. Chop onions, I prefer them to be chopped vertically for this dish and either grate/chop garlic into small pieces. Cut scotch bonnet into smaller pieces.

-Heat a generous amount of olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the onions, scotch bonnet, curry leaves and ginger until brown. Add 3 tablespoon of tomato paste and combine it with the sautéed goodie.  Add the tuna and cook until done, approximately less than 15 minutes. You don’t want to overcook the tuna. Add salt and the lime juice and you’re done.

– Pair it with some roshi or rice, which ever way you like. Enjoy.

What do you like to pair with your kulhimas? 2 of my favourites are roshi and rice mixed with banana and sugar. Hey don’t hate on the latter without trying it. Trust me, it works and it is delicious!

*roshi- Maldivian term for flatbread.
**suhoor-meal consumed early in the morning by muslims during ramadan before fasting.