Fehi Boakibaa

Fehi Boakibaa; it’s green, it’s coconutty, it feels special, and it’s one of our favourite teatime snacks.

Below is our version of the local green coconut milk cake. We couldn’t find any maafen (jasmine water) so we left it out. But if you have some, make sure you put some in.

Makes: a 20cm square boakibaa

Ingredients:

• 1 onion
• 1 tbsp. oil or ghee
• ¼ cup sliced kanamadhu (or to taste)
• 3 ½ cups water
• 12 inch piece of raanbaa (pandan leaf)
• 6 inch piece of cinnamon
• 7 cardamom pods
• 300 grams sugar (1 & 1/2 cups)
• 200 grams flour (1 & 1/3 cups)
• 1 ½ cup thick coconut milk
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground cardamom
• 2 eggs
• 2-3 drops of green food colouring

Instructions:

1. Slice the onion very thinly.
2. Heat up the ghee or oil in a pan.
3. Fry the onions until they become soft.
4. Add the kanamadhu (sea almond) and fry the onion and kanamadhu mixture until the onions begin to turn brown. At this point the kanamadhu would have turned a bit golden too.
5. Remove the mixture from the pan and set aside.
6. We are now going to make some infused water by adding water to a pot along with the raanbaa, cinnamon and cardamom and letting the mixture gently simmer until it reduces to half. For us this took around 20 minutes. When the mixture reduces, switch the stove off and set it aside.
7. Prepare a tray by coating it with a little bit of oil or ghee. We used a 20 cm square tray.
8. Preheat your oven at around 180 degrees Celsius.
9. In a large pot, mix together 1 & ½ cups of the infused water together with the sugar, flour, thick coconut milk, eggs, food colouring, and ground cinnamon and cardamom. Do give the eggs a little bit of a beating before your add them in.
10. Use a fork or a whisk to mix the contents of the pot really well.
11. Place the pot on the stove and cook the mixture on low heat. You’ll have to keep stirring continuously until this step is done. It’s done when the mixture thickens to the point where you feel some resistance when stirring.
12. Pour the mixture into the tray you prepared before. You can wet your fingers and gently press down on the surface to smooth it down.
13. Scatter the onion & kanamadhu mixture on top. You might not need to use all the onions and kanamadhu.
14. Place the tray on the middle rack of the preheated oven and bake it until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the boakibaa comes out clean. For us this took around 20 minutes. But do remember, different ovens cook differently, so check and adjust as you go.