Smoked Tuna

During the first term mid-term break, my husband and his three siblings and all the  families headed to his island, Lh. Naifaru.  This was our third visit and I have to come to love and enjoy my time in this small island. One of the things I love about this island is the strong communities and one of my favourite streets is Thitha's street,where hubby's aunt Thitha lives in an old run-down but cosy home. The street is old and narrow and can see inside the coral-walled houses.
The neighbours are hard-working people and they chip in to help one another. If one is making a big batch of masmirus ,the rest of the women offer to slice onions and will sit gossiping and laughing while busily slicing the onions. Once while we were heading home along that street,  each lady from each house was sitting with a tray of moranga branches busy pulling the leaves. Hubby commented are you all cooking moranga today and one lady said, "Oh this is all for just one house, we are just helping to pick the leaves ".

Anyway,  apart from the strong community around Thitha's place,  you will also find a long wire rack full of smoked tuna near her house. Thitha prepares smoked tuna and sells them and believe me freshly made smoked tuna tastes nothing like the ones you buy from the markets. I was lucky enough to  see the step-by-step process this time around.

fresh tuna 

First  up, the tuna!, Freshly caught tuna is brought in by morning and a huge pot of lightly salted water is heated up over an open fire outside the house.  The tuna is gutted but the flesh is left whole with the skin on.  Once the fish is cooked through, the fish is lifted off and drained and left in the sun to cool and the water to drain off and dry up.

fish getting cooked in hot water

Once cooled and dried in the sun, the fish is cleaned up. The fillets are cleaned, skin and bones removed and all.  Then its taken and placed in the dhumashi. A dhumashi is a rack that's placed a few feet above an open slow fire made using coconut shells and husks. The smoke from the fire gives the fish a reddish colour and a smokey taste. In our language, this process is called Dhilajessun. As you can see it can get quite smokey in there.

After smoking the fish is again placed in the sun for a few more hours to dry up. By now its dried and has that reddish brown colour and smoky smell and taste to it.

smoked tuna or Valhomas