How to prepare popular Maldivian Cuisine - Bis Keemiya

The Maldivian cuisine is an interesting mix of a few South Asian Cuisines. For instance, India and Sri Lanka. If you want to know how to make one of the most popular dishes in this country, read on.

About the cuisine in the Maldives

Traditional Maldives food usually has a variety of spicy items that includes dishes made with fish, meat and chicken. You will also find a lot of salads made with local vegetables and fruits. Being an island destination, seafood is one of the main food items served in the Maldives. There are many popular things you can learn to cook when you are in the Maldives and if you are staying at Adaaran Select Hudhuranfushi, a resort which has one of the best Maldives Hotel restaurants, or if you are out and about exploring the other restaurants in the country, you will notice that Bis Keemiya is a trending dish at almost every place you go to eat at.

About Bis Keemiya

This is basically the Maldivian version of a samosa that you might have eaten at places like India and Sri Lanka. In these other countries, you might have also eaten the version of this called as patties or any other form of pastry.

The recipe for Bis Keemiya

The ingredients you need to make this popular Maldivian dish are; a cup of smoked tuna, a few capsicums, probably Chinese or anything else, a few Curry leaves, onions, pepper, cabbages, eggs, salt, flour, vegetable oil, water and any other spice you might want to add.

Making the dish

Fry the onions until they turn golden brown and then add Curry leaves in the vegetable oil that you have already used to fry the onions. Afterwards, while you keep mixing, add the cabbage and stir fry this until everything turns soft. Follow this with the tuna, the capsicum, the eggs and pepper. Once you are satisfied with the texture of this mixture, let it be aside and cool down. While your stuffing cools down, it is time for you to make the dough for the samosa.

Making the rest

Mix the ingredients for the dough like vegetable oil, salt, warm water and flour to make a dough you might for something like chapati or roti. Break, the completed dough into small pieces probably like a golf ball or a snooker ball. Once you are done separating the dough into tiny balls use a rolling pin and spread each ball evenly into circles that are about 5 to 6 inches in diameter. Place the cabbage, egg and fish mix in the centre of this dough ball and fold both ends over and fold the other two ends so that it forms kind of a square like you might do with a package. Using water and flour make a thick paste that can be used as glue so that the sides of the samosa do not open up when you are frying it in hot oil. Once you are done making the samosas deep-fry them, drain them and serve, probably with tomato sauce or chilli garlic sauce.

Learning to make the dish

You could always look up recipes online after your trip to the Maldives, but if you want, you can also head to some of the cooking classes conducted in the country during your holiday itself. Most luxury resorts do offer lessons on making the most famous dishes in the country, so look up for the places that do it before you fly there. And, have a yummy time, there and back home!