Rihafathafolhi ( curried fish pastries)

While working on recipes to upload for this month of  Ramadhan I had to go through several books because I seem to have covered quite a lot of local treats on the blog and also in my cookbook ( click here if you want to purchase it, although it is right now only available for locals). Anyway, I have seen various fathafolhi recipes on Mohamed Amin's cookbooks but this particular one was very confusing so I had to check another local cookbook.
My mum's knowledge of this was also quite limited.  At first, I made this using regular oil instead of butter for fat and cooked it on the stovetop as it was mentioned in Zareena's cookbook. But it just didn't taste so good. So I switched to butter and baked it in the oven. The butter gave it a richer taste so I guess this recipe is not very authentic. Feel free to use margarine even if you don't like butter.

The filling is made using sauteed onions then adding tuna which has been mixed with curry powder, ginger and lime juice. Then cooked a little to get rid of the raw taste of the curry powder. 

saute the onions till they soften

Mix the curry powder, curry leaves, chillies , ginger and lime juice into the fish

cook till the raw taste of the curry powder is gone

To shape the pastries take a small piece of dough, roll it into a small circle or like a cup,

place some filling inside and then bring the sides in. 

I like to use a baking paper to line my tray. Place in a oven about 180 to 200 degree C till the fathafolhi are nice and golden brown.  

Cool and enjoy with some tea.

Yield: 12- 14

Author: Nammi

Rihafatha folhi ( curried tuna pastries)

prep time: 45 mins cook time: 20 mins  total time: 65 mins

ingredients:

Dough

• 1 1/2 cups
• 2 tsp butter
• 1 egg
• a little warm water
• salt

Filling

• 2 cans tuna, oil or brine drained
• 1 medium onion, finely sliced
• 1/2 inch ginger grated
• 8 curry leaves, finely sliced
• 1/4 - 1/2 scotch bonnet pepper, finely sliced
• 2 tsp Maldivian roasted curry powder
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• pinch ground black pepper
• salt
• pinch sugar
• oil ( about 2-3 tbsp)
• 1 tsp of lime juice

instructions:

Dough

1. To  prepare the dough, sift flour into a large bowl, mix in salt.  
2. Rub in butter and make a well in the center of the mixture. 
3. Beat the egg and add into the well and a few tablespoons of warm water. Mix and knead to a smooth dough. Leave to rest covered with a damp cloth.

Filling

1. Heat some oil in a frying pan and add the onions and cook till they go soft and just starting to color.
2. In a bowl, mix the fish with the spices, ginger, salt, scotch bonnet, and curry leaves. Stir this into the onion mixture and cook till the mixture is cooked and the raw taste of the curry powder is gone.
3. Taste and adjust salt and add a pinch of sugar and squeeze in the lime juice. Set aside to cool.

Shaping the rihafatha folhi

1. Once the filling is cooled. Take the dough and shape into small balls.  Make a well in all the balls, like a cup. 
2. Take a heaped teaspoon of fish filling and spoon into the dough. 
3. Gather the dough so the filling is enclosed.  Smoothe the dough so it looks like a little dome. 
4. Line a baking tray with baking paper or just rub a little oil if you don't have any. 
5. Preheat oven to 180-200 Degrees C. 
6. Arrange the pastries on the tray and pop into the oven and bake till golden brown. 

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