Smoked Tuna

During the first term mid term break , my husband and his three sibling and all the  families , headed to his island  , Lh. Naifaru.  This was our third visit and I have to come to love and enjoy my time in this small island. One of the things I love about this island is the strong communities and one of my favorite streets is Thitha's street ,where  hubby's aunt Thitha lives in an old run down but cosy  home. The street is old and narrow  and can see inside the coral walled houses .
The neighbours are hard working  people and they chip into help one another. If one is making a big batch of masmirus ,the rest of the women offer to slice onions and will sit gossiping  and laughing while busily slicing the onions. Once while we were heading home  along that street,  each lady from each house was sitting with a tray of moranga branches  busy pulling the leaves. Hubby commented  are you all cooking moranga today and one lady goes, " oh this is all for just one house, we are just helping to pick the leaves ".

Anyway ,  apart from the strong community around Thitha's place,  you will also find a long wire rack full of smoked tuna near her house. Thitha prepares smoked tuna and sells them  and believe me freshly made smoked tuna tastes nothing like the ones you buy from the markets. I was lucky enough to  see the step by step process this time around.

fresh tuna 

First  up, the tuna!, Freshly caught  tuna is brought in  by morning and a huge pot of  lightly salted water is  heated up  over an open fire  outside the house.  The tuna is gutted but the flesh is left whole  with the skin on.  Once the  fish is cooked through , the fish is lifted off and drained  and left in the sun to cool and the water to drain off and dry up.

fish getting cooked in hot water

Once cooled and dried in the sun ,the fish is cleaned up . The fillets are cleaned,skin and bones removed and all.  Then its taken and placed in the dhumashi. A dhumashi is a rack that's placed a few feet above  an open slow fire made using coconut shells and husks. The smoke from the fire  gives the fish a reddish colour and a smokey taste . In our language this process is called Dhilajessun. As you can see it can get quite smokey in there.

After smoking the fish is again placed in the sun for a few more hours  to dry up . By know its dried and has that reddish brown colour  and smoky smell and taste to it.

smoked tuna or Valhomas