Bambukeyo Bongara

Bambukeyo Bongara is a breadfruit curry made with roasted spices and Maldivian fish paste ‘rihaakuru’. Serve it with Maldivian flatbread ‘roshi’ or white rice.

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients for cooking the breadfruit

• ½ small breadfruit (around 3 cups when sliced)
• 1 onion
• ¾ cup smoked tuna
• 4 cups water
• 3 inches pandan
• 5 curry leaves
• 1/3 tsp. salt (or to taste)

Ingredients for spice paste

• ½ small onion
• ½ inch piece of ginger
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 tbsp. coriander seeds
• ½ tbsp. cumin seeds
• ½ tbsp. fennel seeds
• 4 dried red chillies (or to taste)
• ½ tsp. black peppercorns
• ¼ tsp. turmeric powder
• ½ inch cinnamon
• 2 cardamom pods
• 1 cup grated coconut
• 5 curry leaves

Ingredients for finishing the curry

• ¼ scotch bonnet pepper (or to taste)
• 1 cup thin coconut milk
• 1 ½ tbsp. rihaakuru (or to taste)
• ¼ cup thick coconut milk
• ½ lime
• ½ tsp. salt (or to taste)

Instructions:

1. Peel the breadfruit, remove the core and wash thoroughly. Cut the breadfruit into ½ inch thick pieces and set aside.
2. Slice the onion thinly and set aside.
3. Cut the smoked tuna into ½ inch thick slices and set aside.
4. Bring the water to a boil in a large pot.
5. Then add the breadfruit, onion, smoked tuna, pandan, curry leaves and salt to the pot and cook on medium heat until the breadfruit is soft. For us this took around 20 minutes. You can use a fork to test doneness.
6. While the breadfruit is cooking, slice the onion, ginger and garlic thinly.
7. Add all the ingredients listed under spice paste to a large pan and mix well.
8. Turn the heat on, and toast the mixture on low to medium heat until the coconut looks golden brown and you can smell the spices. You’ll have to stir at regular intervals so that the spices don’t burn.
9. Let the mixture cool down and transfer to an electric grinder and grind the mixture to a smooth paste. You can add a few tablespoons of water to help make it smooth. We added around 3 tbsp.
10. When the breadfruit is cooked, add the spice paste to the pot along with the scotch bonnet pepper, mix well and cook on low heat for around 5 minutes.
11. Then add the thin coconut milk, mix well and cook for around another 5 minutes.
12. Add the rihaakuru, thick coconut milk and lime juice (instead of lime you can use ½ a small green mango. Just slice thinly and cook it along with the breadfruit in step 5) and mix well.
13. Have a taste and make any final adjustments. We added ½ a tsp. of salt at this step.