Mas Banas

Mas Banas is the Maldivian version of Sri Lanka’s Maalu Paan. The savoury bun stuffed with spiced tuna and potatoes is quite a popular and filling tea time treat.

If you are making Mas Banas from this recipe, remember to adjust the heat to your liking, and also, although we’ve used chicken curry powder, you can use any kind you have on hand.

And one last and very important thing. In this recipe we’ve used instant yeast. Not active dry yeast. You can get instant yeast from most corner shops and yeast in this form can be directly added to the dry ingredients. Active dry yeast on the other hand needs to be dissolved in water before being used and we’ve not tested this recipe with that.

Makes: 8

Ingredients:

For the dough

• 3 cups flour
• 1 ½ tsp. instant yeast
• 1 ½ tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 ½ tbsp. melted butter (at room temperature)
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tsp. oil (for oiling the bowl for the dough)

For the filling

• 1 onion
• 10 curry leaves
• ½ githeyo mirus (scotch bonnet pepper)
• 1 ½ tbsp. oil
• ½ tsp. grated ginger
• ½ tsp. grated garlic
• 2 tsp. curry powder (we used chicken)
• 1 ½ tsp. red chilli powder (or to taste)
• ¼ tsp. turmeric powder
• 1 tuna can
• 2 medium potatoes boiled and mashed (1 cup when mashed)
• ½ tsp. salt (or to taste)
• 1 egg

Instructions:

1. Add the flour, instant yeast, sugar and salt to a bowl and mix to combine.
2. Add the butter, give it a mix and then mix using your fingers while adding water gradually. The mixture is going to be a bit sticky, but not to the point that you can’t work with it.
3. Once you’ve added all the water, start kneading the dough until its soft and comes together like a ball. For us, this took 5 minutes of kneading. If it’s sticking too much, you can add in a little bit of flour while kneading. We added around 3 tbsp.
4. Rub the oil on a clean bowl and place the kneaded dough in it. Cover the bowl with a clean cloth and let it rise for an hour.
5. Mince the onion and curry leaves. Slice the githeyo mirus thinly too.
6. Heat the oil in a pot and add the onion, curry leaves and githeyo mirus.
7. Cook until the onions become soft and then add the ginger and the garlic.
8. Cook for another half a minute and then add the curry powder, red chilli powder and turmeric powder.
9. Cook for a minute while stirring and then add the tuna and the potatoes.
10. Mix well to combine. Have a taste, add the salt, and make any final adjustments you want.
11. Remove from heat and let the mixture cool down and set it aside. Also, divide the mixture into 8 equal portions.
12. Prepare a baking tray by lining it with aluminium foil and rub a little bit of oil on it.
13. Back to the dough now. After you’ve let the dough rise for an hour, it should have doubled in size. Use your knuckles to punch it down to get rid of the excess air.
14. Divide the dough into 8 equal portions.
15. Lightly flour a surface and using your rolling pin, roll one of the portions to a circular shape. Aim for a diameter of around 5 inches. Also, it’s easier to get that perfect circle shape if you roll lightly rather than pressing down hard.
16. Place a portion of the filling in the centre of the dough circle. Fold from two sides, one overlapping the other a little bit. Then fold the side that’s now open. You should have a nice triangular shape.
17. Place the stuffed bun on the tray you prepared. Cover the tray with a clean cloth; all the stuffed buns you prepare go under this cloth.
18. Repeat steps 15, 16 and 17 until you run out of dough and filling.
19. Let the stuffed buns sit covered under the cloth for another 20 minutes.
20. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius.
21. Beat the egg in a separate bowl.
22. Brush the tops of the stuffed buns with the egg generously.
23. Place the tray in the middle rack of the preheated oven and bake until the tops are golden brown. For us this took 35 minutes, but the timing might be different for you as different ovens cook differently. Also, if your oven is small and don’t have room to bake all the buns at the same time, just do it in two batches; just keep the unbaked buns covered with a cloth until the first batch is done.