These crispy golden tuna rolls are the perfect finger food to enjoy with a cup of tea. Maldivians love tuna and we love making short eats or snacks or finger foods using tuna. These come in various shapes and sizes, and each one has their own unique taste. While almost all of them will have tuna and chilli, the taste differ from one to the other. Some may be baked like the Maldivian fish cake (kulhi boakibaa) while others are deep fried. But what they have all in common is they are so moreish!

Tea time and snacks go together. When friends and families get together for afternoon tea, the table is filled with these lovely savoury snacks and sweet ones too. So I hope to make a few of these finger foods and share them with you during this month of Ramadan. We break our fast with…

Maldivians love tuna and we love making snacks or finger foods using tuna. Tea time and snacks go together and especially during Ramadan we make a few varieties to break our fast.

These spicy potato and tuna cutlets are an all time favourite. But wait, it’s not the old cutlets again I hear you say, or yes they are. But you are in for a treat this time. A mini burger treat. So let’s switch it up.

For the burger lover I have the perfect mini burgers. Use the same mixture, flatten it out a bit and you’ve got yourself mini burgers.. They are crispy and delicious. Fill your mini sliders and enjoy with your favourite sauce and cheese if preferred.
So you’ve got 2 favourite snacks from one. Everyone’s happy! I am all for a good burger now and then, so these are just perfect. Hope you’ll like it…

When my daughter was deciding what she wanted for her birthday dinner she was considering antipasti, green garden, and then she hit upon a Caprese salad and knew that was what she wanted. She is my vinegar girl. The more vinegar the better something is for her.

Verdict:

This complete dish was gone by the end of the meal. Spend a bit more to get the real mozzarella cheese, fresh basil, and good vinegar to make this dish unbelievable. I added a bit of honey to my balsamic reduction to make it a tad sweeter because my bottle was a bit acidic. It is up to you to decide if you want to add a smidge of  honey to the balsamic reduction or not.

In almost every cuisine you will find some version of fried chicken. In Japanese cuisine, fried chicken is referred to as katsu and it is often served with rice and curry.  You may have also seen a similar word, tonkatsu, on menus which is similar to katsu, but made with pork instead.

The recipe below is from the book Japanese Soul Cooking. I substituted the pork shoulder with chicken thighs, which is possibly the laziest cut of meat to cook because of it’s high fat content – making it wonderfully juicy without having to pound it to death. Also instead of making the sauce, switch to the store-bought classic Bulldog Tonkatsu sauce.

Ingredients:

4 chicken thighs
Salt and pepper
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup flour
2 cups panko crumbs
Vegetable oil
Bulldog Tonkatsu Sauce

Directions:

1. Sprinkle the chicken thighs with salt and pepper and set aside. Put…

Repeat after me: Never use fresh rice to make fried rice.

My rice has about a 5-day life span.
1st day = Fluffy
2nd day = Fluffy
3rd day = Slightly fluffy
4rd day = Medium firm with parts of the bottom getting hard (Best time for fried rice)
5th day = Eat at the risk of chipping a tooth

Fried rice is not only delicious, but it can also stand on its own as a full meal when protein is added. This makes it easy for me to feed everyone on days when I feel reluctant to cook.

Ingredients:

Oil
1 cup Hawaiian Portuguese sausage or spam, cut into small cubes
1/2 cup frozen peas, defrosted
2 cups of cooked rice (at least 2 days old)
2 eggs, beaten
1 TB soy sauce
1 Green onion, thinly sliced
Salt

Directions:

1) Add oil to a pan (less…

Costco is dangerous. My husband bought more Jimmy Dean sausages than I knew what to do with. One lazy night, I decided to try making fried rice with Jimmy Dean. It’s pork, it’s  pre-seasoned, and most importantly it’s filling, so I didn’t see a downside.

I tossed and crumbled a pound of Jimmy Dean sausage in a copper pan until it was fully cooked and then did my usual a little bit of this and that and TADA, best fried rice ever – according to my husband.

Ingredients:

8oz Jimmy Dean Regular Pork Sausage
1/2 cup of frozen peas
2 cups of cooked rice
2 eggs, beaten
soy sauce
1 green onion, chopped

Directions:

1. Heat up a nonstick pan on medium high heat. Add the sausage. Use a mix n chop tool to crumble the sausage into smaller pieces. Add the peas until they are heated through. Transfer the…