Hithala fu

Hithala is a kind of root vegetable or fruit belonging to the Pachyrhizus erosus or Jícama family. Fu in Maldivian language is flour, but Hithala fu is not in flour form, if you rub Hithala fu particles between your fingers, then it will break very easily to powder form. My mum use to make different kinds of desserts, cakes using hithala fu. Even she put Hithala fu rubbed little between her fingers in to hot tea, after sometime hithala fu will turn translucent. My mum says when it turns translucent that means the Hithala fu is cooked in the hot tea and it is ready to drink adding a pinch of pepper powder and sugar. This tea is called "Hithala fushu Sai". I too love this tea.

It has been sometime since I bought a small bag of Hithala fu from a local shop, which is not much available these days in the local market. I love anything made from Hithala fu so I thought I will make one of the dessert or cake and post in my blog, but I had a problem because I didn't know how Hithala fu was made. If I am posting or writing about a new product which will be new to the world I like to give a small explanation about what it is, so I asked my mum and the way she explained nothing was getting into my head.

This morning I was sitting with my mum & her sister for morning cup of coffee. My aunt does not live in Male' but some of her children lives in Male', she came for her eldest son's wedding. I asked my aunt about how Hithala fu was made because I knew she will be more familiar to these kinds of local products then my mum as she is the second eldest and she has been living at the island since childhood up to now. She did explain to me briefly how Hitala fu is made.

First the Hithala or Pachyrhizus erosus or Jícama is dug out from the ground, then it is washed properly and skin is peeled. A rough stone call "hiri gaa" is used for grating Hithala, the stone is cleaned and washed properly and placed in a container full of water, then the Hithala is rubbed on the stone so it will get grated roughly. After grating is finished, the stone is taken out and water is strained again new water is put into the grated Hithala container and left for several hours. Changing water like this will go on for three to fifteen days until the impurities (impurities they say the water turning to reddish color) are gone from the Hithala, at this stage Hithala will be grind or rubbed on a stone grinder to make a fine paste, then this paste will be mixed with water and left for several hours until the powder goes down the water container (Powder & water separates). If water is not clear again the washing with water will continue until water gets clear. When the water gets clear, water is drained properly from the paste. Now the Hithala will be in a dough paste like texture, then an aluminum sheet is put under the sun and the Hithala dough is pressed inside a holed coconut shell to make small rod like pieces, then left to dry under the sun for several days. Below is the picture of final product which we call Hithala fu.

 Hithala Fu (Used to make sweet desserts or teas in Maldives)

 I have given this information about Hithala because my next recipe is Hithala fushu Folhi

Healthy Breakfast four

Lot of reasons to change all purpose flour to "Atta" or whole wheat flour

Before I write my recipe, let me tell you that we are missing an important nutritional food for our body with the wrong one. From what I have heard many Maldivians think wheat flour or Atta (Atta is an Indian or Pakistani name for whole wheat flour) is only consumed by diabetic patients or patients who have cholesterol or people who are on diet. I ran a medical clinic for eight years and interacted with a lot of patients (not that I am a doctor or a nurse just I love to spend time with patients who come to my clinic talking and sometimes I do translation for the doctors during consultations). From which I came to know that many Maldivians love to eat "Roshi" (Maldivian flat bread, which is made from all purpose flour) including myself, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. During these session's many patients came with constipation problems which lead to gastric problems and piles. A good reason to stay away from all foods which cause this!

Dr. Devoji Rav who worked at my clinic, specially (always) advised his patients to eat healthy and drink at least eight glasses of water per day. He will keep advising me also first thing is health. From him I came to understand that all purpose flour is not good for our body, it takes more time to digest and a lot of nutrition is taken out by refining. But as we have been eating all purpose flour since always makes it difficult for us to change our diet. But then again it's always the right time to change from all purpose to whole wheat when you know what it comes with. For more information check www.healthbanquet.com/whole-wheat-nutrition.html

Ingredients:

1cup Whole wheat flour

1/3 cup warm water

1can Baked beans

1small onion (chopped)

2tbs olive oil

salt 

Method:

To make whole wheat roshi: In a bowl mix wheat flour, pinch of salt. Add water little by little and stir until it is combined you may not need all the water or sometimes more water may be needed. Knead the dough for 2 minutes. Divide into 3to 4balls. Roll the dough with a rolling pin until the balls resemble thin, round disks. Bake both sides on heated flat pan until done. If you are not on diet add 1tbs of butter or oil while making dough.

To make Baked beans: In a sauce pan heat olive oil fry onion until light brown add baked beans and if you want fish or chillies add some. Cook for few minutes. Season with salt.............enjoy. 

Baked beans

The humble baked bean is a nutritional powerhouse of protein, fibre, iron and calcium. It contains carbohydrate that, like that in apples, is of the low GI variety.

The tomato sauce covering baked beans is also a good source of lycopene, another powerful antioxidant shown to help prevent heart disease and prostate cancer.

The insoluble fibre in baked beans is not digested but moves into the large intestine, or colon, where bacteria act on it and produce short-chain fatty acids.

These fatty acids are thought to nourish the colon lining and protect it from carcinogenic (cancer-causing) invaders. Information taken from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-369042/The-10-super-foods.html

Use of Coconut in Maldivian cooking

I would like to write some information about the stages of coconuts which can be used in Maldivian cooking's.

1- First I would like to write about the young coconut with sweet juice, but just starting to form it's soft easily scrapped flesh. This coconut is used only as a refreshing drink & the flesh can be easily scrapped, this young coconut is called "Kurumba" in Maldives.

2- Secound is the medium soft fleshy coconut, this coconut the flesh is harder then kurumba soft then kaashi. The flesh has to be grated or removed piece by piece using a small knife this is sometimes eaten with coconut honey which we call "Dhiyaa hakuru". This coconut is used in some of our desserts & it's called "Gabulhi".

3- Third is the normal coconut with hard flesh, which is sometimes eaten with dried fish called "Maskaashi" and the coconut milk is widely used in Maldivian cooking's, such as curries, rice, desserts this coconut is called "Kaashi".