Bring a little of the Maldives home with this recipe for traditional Maldivian curry, as served at Raffles Meradhoo Maldives. Their version is aromatic, mild, and thick with its tomato and onion base.
Maldivian Curry from Raffles Maldives Meradhoo Island
150g Garlic cloves, peeled 70g Ginger, peeled 150ml Oil 2 Onions 1kg Tomatoes, chopped 2tsp Turmeric 2tsp Cumin 2tsp Cardamom (black, green, or preferably, a mix) 1tsp Coriander seed 1/2 Stick cinnamon 5g Curry leaves 200ml Coconut milk Root vegetables of your choice, such as carrot, potato, cassava, sweet potato
Instructions
Combine ginger, garlic and oil (reserve 3 tbsp oil for the next step) in a food processor and blend or use a mortar and pestle to grind to a paste texture.
Heat the reserved oil in a saucepan, add chopped onion and sauté on medium heat until the onion is transparent. Add curry leaves and spices, sauté for a further two minutes.
Add 70% of the ginger garlic paste to the pan (the rest can be used on bread/naan etc as an accompaniment) and sauté for five minutes.
Add tomatoes and reduce for half an hour.
Remove curry leaves and cinnamon stick, blend, strain and return to the pan.
Add coconut milk and root vegetables (or meat, if you wish) and cook until tender.
Serve with chapatti/naan bread, white rice and papadams.
