GRILLING

At first glance, grilling would seem to be the easiest way to handle your fish. A newbie might assume that grilling fish is the same as grilling steaks or burgers. Unlike fowl or cattle, fish tends to secret most of its own juices when cooked. On a grill the delicious juice drips into the coals.
To prevent losing the moisture, first coat the fish with oil. The oil will seal a part of the moisture inside. Second, keep an eye on the fillets and turn them as soon as a cut would reveal that the fresh fish is cooked halfway through. After being flipped, watch the fish carefully. Remove the fish as soon as it is cooked through.
An option to basting the fish with oil is to wrap it in aluminum foil. The aluminum foil will keep the moisture and marinate the fish in its own moisture. Placing herbs and spices inside the foil with the fish enhances the grilling process and the fish itself.

GET THE BEST OUT OF YOUR FISH

Breading and frying a freshly caught fish is as good as it gets. The smell of butter emanating from the frying pan and the flair a fisherman puts in flipping his catch is worth its weight in gold, almost. For the novice fisherman, make sure that the butter is extra hot but not yet burning. Also, make sure that the fish is well coated in batter. Season your batter to your heart's content, salt and pepper never goes wrong. You may want to try other herbs and spices with the batter for a more delicious fish.

RIHAAKURU DHIYA

Ingredients:
1cup rihaakuru
10 chillies
5 curry leaves
3 onion
7 bilinbi
1/2 litre water
coconut milk of 1 coconut
salt and lemon to taste

Slice chillies,curry leaves,onions bilinbis thinly and mix with salt.
Mix in rihaakuru.
Add coconut milk and water.
Serve at room temperature.

• HOW TO MAKE COCONUT MILK
  
  1 coconut,2 1/2 cups of water
  
  Scrape out the white meat.
  Add 1 cup of water and squeeze.
  Press through a nylon strainer catching the milk in a bowl beneath.
  Return the coconut to the previous bowl,add the remaining water and squeeze.
  Press through the strainer to another bowl.
  The milk taken first is known as the creamy milk.
  
  Now a days people use food processor instead of squeezing with hand.

RIHAAKURU

Taste this unique recipe of Maldives,you will love it.This can be used for flavouring savoury dishes and eat with rice.
How to make rihaakuru?
Its very simple.Make Garudhiya(see below for recipe) with only fish and water.
Cook in low heat until reduced to semi thick paste,and its done.The colour of it now will be dark brown.
Remember not to add too much salt as it will become too salty when it get reduced by evaporation.
Now the making of Rihaakuru is finished,and you can start eating with rihaakuru.But do keep some as it can be kept for a long time, if kept in a clean jar, because I'm going to tell you more recipes which are made with rihaakuru.

FISHING TIPS

There are many kinds of fishing equipments in stores, numerous fishing methods in books, and fishing advices online. To make it all simple, here are the basic things you need to know for your first time fishing adventure.
1) How to fish with bait
* Tackle. To plunk the bait, you should purchase lead weights. The weight of the lead would vary depending on the current of the environment. Anglers commonly use and recommend bank sinkers with a number-two hook.
To avoid sinkers to slide, you would need a swivel to act as a stop. To protect the knot, you could use plastic beads between the swivel and weight. Using two appropriate swivels could allow you to rig the sliding sinkers.
* Bait. The commonly used bait for all kinds of fishes is worms. Another popular bait is chicken liver. Remember to buy fresh bait and keep them cold to avoid them from getting soft and allowing the bait to stay within your hooks.
Some of the commonly used baits are cut-baits which include skin from fried chicken, fish entrails, grasshoppers, salmon eggs, shrimps and crayfish tails.
2) How to fish – There are three basic methods for fishing.
* Plunking – It is the most common method used. Use a suitable amount of weight for you to be able to take hold of the bait in a position which is against any current. An option in plunking is to use minimal weight for the bait to move along with the water current.
* Back bouncing – It is done by lifting the bait out the bottom and raising the tip of the rod for one to two feet. Allowing the bait to walk with the current, you should free the back reel or spool. Repeat the steps when the lure settles down on the bottom. Back bouncing is effective in deeper water like fishing in a boat.
* Drift-fishing – It is a simple method wherein you cast upstream or downstream. This may vary depending on the current's amount. You should count the appropriate depth and start reeling.
3) How to fish from a boat – It is important to determine in which location you would perform your fishing. Deeper water needs heavier jigheads compared when fishing on shore.
* With heavy weight which keeps your bait near the bottom of the water and the line straight down from your boat, you are able to drift the boat along with any current. A good technique of fishing on boats is trolling slowly with a fishing device called bottom-walker.
Fishing is easy as long as you’re enjoying the trip. Bring some of your family and friends along and make your first time fishing a memorable one.

GARUDHIYA

A traditional Maldivian dish which is served with plain rice,lemon and chillies.

Ingredients:
250g fish(tuna) cut into 2 inch slices
2 litres water
2 cloves garlic
1 piece ginger 1 inch
1 curry leaf
2-3 dried red chillies
salt to taste

Boil water and fish on low heat.
skim.
Add all the other ingredients and leave on low heat for 5-6 minutes.

GRILLED FISH

Ingredients:
Fish of your choice,can use whole fish or steaks
2 onion
8 tbsp shredded coconut
4 cloves garlic
2 curry leaves
1 tsp cumin seed
1 piece ginger 1 inch
20 dried red chillies
1/2 tspepper powder
salt to taste

Make diagonal slashes on both sides of the fish.
Rub the fish inside and out side with salt.
Grind all the other ingredients.
Rub the fish with the paste,make sure to rub into the gashes and all over the fish on both sides.
Grill for 30 minutes turning the fish over halfway through cooking time,or until cooked.

FRIED WHOLE FISH

Ingredients:
1 onion
1 curry leaf
4 clove garlic
1 piece ginger 2 inch long
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp chilli powder
salt to taste
4 red mullets
vegetable oil for shallow frying

Grind the first 7 ingredients using a food processor.
Scale the fish and make gashes on both sides of the fish.
Rub them with the paste and leave about 1 hour.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan.
Add the fish into the pan and fry on one side until sealed,turn onto other side gently and fry until golden brown.
Serve with sliced lemon.

Before Cooking Fish

When everyone is looking for a healthy diet,what can be better than a natural fresh ingredient which is all around us and easy to cook,most of all extremely nutritious and delicious?yeah its Fish.
Before going in to recipes of fish its important to know the fish and how to cook it.Fresh fish has a tender delicate flesh.So its not cooked to tenderise it,rather to develop its flavour.Therefore it need to be cooked carefully over moderate temperature.High temperature and lengthy cooking might destroy the fish and its taste.
The most commonly used methods of cooking fish are Steaming,Grilling,Baking and Shallow and Deep frying.