Kashikeyo Kan’dhi

Kan'dhi is a really delicious porridge like dessert drink that’s prepared by cooking fruit, like wax gourd (fufoo), green plantains (maalhoskeyo) or in this case screwpine fruit (kashikeyo), together with ground rice, sugar and coconut milk.  

The Maldivian way of slicing the kashikeyo horizontally with a sharp knife is the way to go for this recipe. We really do need the kashikeyo to be thinly sliced as otherwise we are going to get strings in our kan’dhi and that’s just unpleasant. If slicing the kashikeyo proves challenging and if you can’t find someone else to do it for you, just do the best you can and strain the mixture in Step 4.

We’ve omitted maafen (jasmine water) from our recipe as it’s not always so easy to find. However, if you have some, do feel free to use it. You’ll find more information about it in the instructions. If you use jasmine water, you can ditch the rosewater.

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp. rice flour
• ¼ cup water (for soaking rice flour)
• 1 ½ cups water (for cooking kashikeyo)
• 1 cup thinly sliced kashikeyo
• 6 inches pandan
• 7 cardamom pods
• 1 ½ cups water (for the kan’dhi)
• ½ cup sugar (or to taste)
• ½ cup thick coconut milk
• 2 tsp. rosewater

Instructions:

1. Add ¼ cup water and the rice flour to a bowl, mix it together and set it aside.
2. Add 1 ½ cups of water to a pot and bring it to a boil.
3. Add the kashikeyo, pandan (raanbaa) and cardamom pods. Turn the heat down and let the mixture simmer until the kashikeyo is really soft. For us this took around 30 minutes.
4. If you want to strain the mixture, do it now; discard the kashikeyo bits along with the pandan and cardamom pods, and after straining, put the liquid back in the same pot. If you don’t want to strain the mixture, just go to the next step. You can scoop out the cardamom and pandan; we left them in there though.
5. Add 1 ½ cups water and sugar, mix well and then bring it to a boil. If you have maafen (jasmine water), replace some of the water with it.
6. When the mixture begins to boil, add the rice flour, which by now should resemble a paste.
7. Now you’ll have to cook the mixture until the rice flour is cooked and the mixture thickens. You’ll have to continuously keep stirring too to make sure the texture is nice and there are no lumps. For us this took around 15 minutes, but timings may differ depending on the quantities being made. We kept the heat on medium throughout the cooking process.
8. Once the mixture has thickened and the rice flour is cooked, add the thick coconut milk and mix it well.
9. Finally switch off the stove and stir in the rosewater if you are using that.