The Indian subcontinent · Volume 25, The Roasted Spice, the Palmyrah Coast and the Coral Atoll
Garudhiya (Maldivian clear tuna broth)
The Maldives
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 30 minutes
- Researched
- No outside sources linked
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
The Maldives. A clear broth of tuna, water and salt, the base of much everyday Maldivian eating, and the first stop on the same reduction that ends, taken further, at rihaakuru.
As tradition built it
Serves 4. 30 minutes.
Ingredients
- 600 g skipjack tuna, cut into large pieces
- 1 litre water
- To taste salt
- 1 pandan leaf, tied in a knot
- As needed to serve: chilli, lime, finely chopped onion
Method
- Bring the water to the boil with the tuna, salt and pandan leaf.
- Simmer gently for around 20 minutes, skimming any scum from the surface as it rises.
- Remove the tuna, flake it, and return the flesh to the pot, discarding bones and skin.
- Serve hot with rice or roshi, lime squeezed in at the table, and chilli and onion offered on the side.
What a modern chef changes
A cleaner, more controlled reduction, and the option to keep going toward rihaakuru.
Rung 4
Method
- Skim continuously rather than occasionally through the full simmer, exactly as the traditional method does, for a genuinely clear, clean-tasting broth rather than a cloudy one.
- Strain the finished broth through a chinois before serving, removing every last fragment for a completely clean, glassy result.
- To make rihaakuru from the same pot, simply keep reducing: continue simmering the strained broth, uncovered, skimming as it goes, until it becomes a thick, dark, spoonable paste; a dehydrator tray at a low, steady setting can finish the last stage more evenly than a stovetop alone.