Valhoamas

Ingredients

Fish

• 4 kgvery fresh skipjack tuna (kanneli), gutted, gilled and rinsed in clean sea water
• 200 gcoarse sea salt (about 5 percent of the fish weight)
• 4 litreswater, or clean sea water

Smoking

• 3–4 kgdry coconut husks and shells, plus a few dry coconut fronds for kindling

Equipment

• 1wide pot, 1 raised bamboo or wire rack (dhun aara) set 60–80 cm above the fire, 1 covered smoking hut or drum, drying mats

Directions

1. Trim each loin to an even thickness of 4–5 cm.
2. Bring the water with the salt to a strong boil, add the loins and simmer 45–60 minutes until they are cooked hard right through and a skewer meets no soft centre. Do not let the water gallop or the loins will break.
3. Lift the loins onto racks and drain overnight in a cool, airy, insect-proof place. The surface must go tacky and matte before smoke will hold on it.
4. Smoke the loins for 3 to 5 days, keeping the fire alive by day and banked at night, turning the loins twice daily so they darken evenly to a deep mahogany brown. Move the loins to mats in full sun for 2 to 3 days, bringing them in each evening away from dew, until they are rock hard and ring like wood when knocked together.
5. Check monthly; a white salt bloom is normal, any soft or musty patch is not.

Technique

• This is a preserve, not a cure by salt alone. Safety comes from three barriers together: a full boil that cooks the fish through, long smoke that lays down antimicrobial phenols on a dry surface, and a final water activity low enough that nothing can grow. Cut any of the three short and the block will spoil from the inside.
• Only bled, ice-fresh tuna will do. Skipjack spoils fast and builds histamine that no amount of smoking will remove; if the raw fish smells sharp, do not start.
• The Maldives distinguishes softer, shorter-smoked hikimas from fully dried valhoamas. Valhoamas is the hard, long-keeping grade, traded for centuries as Maldive fish across the Indian Ocean.

Substitutions

• No open fire: a cold smoker or a covered kettle grill run at 55°C (130°F) with coconut-husk chips will work, followed by 3–4 days in a dehydrator at 50°C (120°F) in place of the sun.
• Coconut husk is the traditional fuel and gives the sweet, slightly resinous note; oak or beech chips give a harsher smoke but are usable.

Variations

• Hikimas: the same loins boiled and smoked for only a day or two, still slightly yielding, used quickly rather than stored.
• Rihaakuru is the by-product of the same process, the salty boiling liquor reduced for hours to a thick brown paste eaten with rice.

History

The Maldives’ oldest export, traded across the Indian Ocean for centuries and known in Sri Lanka as Maldive fish.

Frequently asked questions

What is Valhoamas?

Valhoamas is a charcuterie & cured from Maldives: tuna boiled, smoked and sun-dried into hard blocks that keep for months. The Maldives’ oldest export, traded across the Indian Ocean for centuries and known in Sri Lanka as Maldive fish.

How long does Valhoamas take to make?

Valhoamas takes 1 hr of preparation and 1 hr boiling, then 3–5 days smoking and 2–3 days sun-drying of cooking. The recipe makes about 1 kg of hard cured loins from 4 kg raw tuna. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Valhoamas?

Yes, within limits. No open fire: a cold smoker or a covered kettle grill run at 55°C (130°F) with coconut-husk chips will work, followed by 3–4 days in a dehydrator at 50°C (120°F) in place of the sun. Coconut husk is the traditional fuel and gives the sweet, slightly resinous note; oak or beech chips give a harsher smoke but are usable.

What is the most important thing to get right in Valhoamas?

Bring the water with the salt to a strong boil, add the loins and simmer 45–60 minutes until they are cooked hard right through and a skewer meets no soft centre. Do not let the water gallop or the loins will break.