Dhandi Aluvi Boakibaa

Dhandi aluvi boakibaa is a really simple cassava cake. You’ll have to get good ‘dhandi aluvi’ (cassava) though; it shouldn’t smell funky and when you cut into it, the flesh has to be white. Also, cassava when raw is toxic and not for eating.

The hardest part of preparing this recipe would probably be handling the ‘gabulhi,’ which is a younger coconut with soft flesh. You'll need four of them for this recipe. To prepare it you’ll have to remove the outer husky layers, break it open and scoop out the flesh. A bit of strength and know-how is definitely needed for this, so if you are new to it, maybe you should ask for help.

You can use regular grated coconut instead of the ‘gabulhi,’ but it would taste slightly different. Also if you have ‘maafen’ (jasmine water) use that instead of the rosewater.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups grated cassava (approximately 6 inch piece)
• 2 cups gabulhi flesh (young coconut)
• 1 cups sugar
• 2 tsp. rosewater (or to taste)

Instructions:

1. Peel the cassava and grate it. Set it aside.
2. Add the ‘gabulhi’ flesh to your mixer and process it until the pieces are roughly the same size as the grated cassava.
3. Preheat the oven at 175 degrees Celsius.
4. Prepare your baking tray by lining it with foil or rubbing oil on the bottom and sides. We used an 8 inch round baking pan.
5. Add the cassava and the ‘gabulhi’ to a large bowl. And then add the sugar and rosewater. Use your fingers to mix them all together. Alternatively you can add all of them to your mixer and pulse a few times. Doing this will give you a smoother texture.
6. Pour the mixture into your baking tray.
7. Place it on the middle rack of your preheated oven and bake until the ‘boakibaa’ releases from the sides of the pan and the top looks slightly golden. For us this took 50 minutes. We did move the pan to a higher rack after the first 40 minutes just as a precaution as we did not want the bottom to get burnt before the top had a chance to cook properly. Anyway, oven temperatures differ, so do keep that in mind and keep an eye on it.
8. When baked, remove the pan from the oven and let the ‘boakibaa’ cool in the pan completely.
9. Once it reaches room temperature, invert the pan onto a plate to remove the 'boakibaa.' Then slice and serve.