South Asia

Maskurolhi: Maldivian Tuna and Coconut Relish for Rice Porridge

Name: Maskurolhi: Maldivian Tuna and Coconut Relish for Rice Porridge
Prep time: 18 min
Cook time: 28 min
Total time: 46 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Maldivian
Ingredients: 1 gō, about 150 g Short-grain rice; 1.1 L Water; 1 Pandan leaf; 1/2 tsp Salt; 2 tbsp Coconut milk; 2 cans, 140 g net Canned tuna (in water or oil); 50 g Unsweetened fine desiccated coconut; 5 g Bonito flakes; 80 g Red onion; 1 Green chili or dried red chili; 1/2 clove, about 3 g Garlic; 5 g Ginger; 6 Curry leaves; 1/4 tsp Black pepper; 1 1/2 tbsp Lime juice; 1/3 tsp Salt

Maskurolhi is a coarse Maldivian relish of tuna and coconut served with the rice porridge baiypen. Not to be confused with masroshi, this home-kitchen version uses canned tuna, unsweetened coconut and lime, with amounts, heat control, storage and fixes.

Published: October 24, 2026Total: 46 minLevel: Beginner

Cooking flow

Cooking steps

STEP 11 / 6

Wash the rice

5 min

Washing rice in a bowl and draining it beside a sieve — Wash the rice three times and drain for 5 minutes. Don't over-wash, so the sweetness of the porridge remains

Put 1 gō of rice in a bowl and wash it three times, changing the water. Discard the first thick white water right away, and finally drain in a sieve and leave for 5 minutes. The sign is that the surface of the grains is wet but water no longer keeps dripping under the sieve. Even with no-rinse rice, a light rinse removes the bran smell and keeps the porridge clear.

STEP 22 / 6

Simmer the baiypen

28 min

Simmering the rice porridge baiypen over low heat in a pot — After it boils, keep it on low heat. Stop at a thickness where the hard centers of the grains are gone and only the edge of the pot is bubbling

Put the rice, 1 L water and a knotted pandan leaf in a pot and heat over medium heat for about 8 minutes. When it boils and white foam rises, lower to low heat, set the lid slightly ajar and simmer for 18 minutes. Turn the bottom over only twice along the way, and keep the rice grains losing their hard centers and the edge of the pot gently bubbling. If it is too dry, add the remaining 100 ml water, and finally add the salt and turn off the heat.

STEP 33 / 6

Crush the aromatics coarsely

7 min

Coarsely crushing onion, chili, ginger and curry leaves in a mortar — Keep the aromatics coarse. Stop while corners of onion and fragments of leaf remain

Cut the red onion into 5 mm dice, the ginger into 2 mm pieces and slice the chili into rings. Put the chili, garlic, ginger, black pepper and salt in a mortar and crush for 1 minute, then add the onion and curry leaves and crush for 2 more minutes. Stop while it is coarse, not a smooth paste, with corners of onion and fragments of leaf still visible. If you make it too fine here, moisture comes out and it gets sticky later.

STEP 44 / 6

Combine the tuna and coconut

5 min

Coarsely mixing tuna, rehydrated coconut and aromatics in a bowl — Don't crush the tuna; leaving coarse lumps of 2 cm or smaller makes it easy to mix into the porridge

Pour 60 ml hot water over the unsweetened desiccated coconut, rehydrate for 5 minutes and lightly squeeze out the water. Drain the tuna, keeping only 1 tbsp of the oil if it is oil-packed. In a bowl, put the aromatics, tuna, coconut and bonito flakes and fold from the bottom with a wooden spoon about 20 times. Stop when the large lumps of tuna are broken up to 2 cm or smaller and the coconut is spread throughout.

STEP 55 / 6

Finish with lime and rest

6 min

Resting the finished maskurolhi in a small bowl with a lime beside it — Rest it only 5 minutes after adding the lime. It should be coarse and loosely held together, not watery

Add 1 tbsp of the lime juice first and fold about 10 times. Taste, and if needed add the remaining 1/2 tbsp lime juice and a pinch of salt. Leave it for 5 minutes uncovered, until the sharpness of the onion has mellowed a little, the surface is not watery, and it holds together lightly when pinched in your hand. Don't leave it long at room temperature; it has the most aroma when made right before eating.

STEP 66 / 6

Serve with the baiypen

3 min

Pouring warm baiypen into a bowl with maskurolhi beside it — Set the maskurolhi at the edge of the plate and mix it a little at a time into the white porridge

Pour the warm baiypen into a shallow bowl and set 2 to 3 tbsp maskurolhi per person at the edge of the plate. Don't mix it all in from the start; draw a little into the porridge with each bite. The porridge should fall slowly from a spoon with the rice grains still visible. For those who want more heat, serve chili sliced into 2 mm rings or sambal oelek in a small dish.

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Ingredients

1 / 2

Baiypen

Ingredient	Amount	Choosing & notes
Short-grain rice	1 gō, about 150 g	Ordinary rice. If it is no-rinse rice, reduce the water by 20 ml
Water	1.1 L	Includes the amount added during cooking
Pandan leaf	1	Omit if you can't find it. Don't substitute vanilla or bay leaf
Salt	1/2 tsp	Keep it light to suit the saltiness of the maskurolhi
Coconut milk	2 tbsp	Optional. Adds roundness, but too much is heavy

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Maskurolhi

Ingredient	Amount	Choosing & notes
Canned tuna (in water or oil)	2 cans, 140 g net	If in oil, keep only 1 tbsp of the oil
Unsweetened fine desiccated coconut	50 g	Rehydrate with 60 ml hot water. Chop coarse flakes to 5 mm or smaller
Bonito flakes	5 g	Adds the savor of the local dried fish
Red onion	80 g	If using ordinary onion, soak in water for 3 minutes
Green chili or dried red chili	1	For less heat, remove half the seeds
Garlic	1/2 clove, about 3 g	Too much is strong for breakfast
Ginger	5 g	Finely chopped
Curry leaves	6	If available. Without them the aroma is lighter but it still works
Black pepper	1/4 tsp	Coarsely crushed
Lime juice	1 1/2 tbsp	If using lemon, start with 1 tbsp and adjust
Salt	1/3 tsp	Adjust according to the salt in the canned tuna

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A little tuna and coconut beside steaming rice porridge

Put rice on low heat in the morning kitchen and the pot slowly turns quietly white and cloudy. Tie in a single pandan leaf and a green, sweet fragrance rises, quite unlike rice from a rice cooker. Spoon hot rice porridge into a bowl, set a spoonful of coarse tuna-and-coconut relish beside it, and, with no fuss at all, it suddenly feels like a breakfast on a Maldivian island.

White rice porridge baiypen and a separate plate of maskurolhi on a breakfast table — Serve the baiypen and maskurolhi separately and let each person mix a little at a time

Maskurolhi is a coarse, sambol-like dish of tuna, coconut, onion, chili and lime, served in the Maldives alongside the rice porridge baiypen (bai pen). By name it is easily confused with masroshi, in which tuna is wrapped in roshi and baked, but what we are making here is not a wrapped bake.

The short English Wikipedia entry says maskurolhi is a Maldivian dish eaten with baiypen. A pre-Ramadan meal feature from the local food media LonuMedhu also places baiypen with fish and coconut sides at the early-morning table. In other words, the star is not a showy dish but a way of eating in which the gentleness of rice is combined, bit by bit, with the saltiness of fish.

What is hard in a home kitchen is getting the local smoked and dried fish. Here canned tuna is combined with bonito flakes, and unsweetened desiccated coconut is rehydrated in place of freshly grated coconut. What to protect: a softly cooked rice porridge, coarse tuna, the acidity of lime, and a way of eating that doesn't spread the heat through the whole pot.

Maskurolhi and masroshi are different dishes

Masroshi is introduced as a snack in which tuna and coconut are wrapped in roshi dough and baked. Maskurolhi is closer to a coarse side dish served with the rice porridge baiypen. Because the names are similar, this article sticks to the maskurolhi eaten with baiypen.

How it is eaten

Mixing a little maskurolhi at a time at the edge of white rice porridge — Don't mix the maskurolhi in all at once; combine it a little at a time at the edge of the porridge

The Maldives is an island nation, so fish and coconut are at the center of the table. Mas huni, often featured in tourism material, is also a breakfast of tuna, coconut, onion and chili eaten with roshi. Maskurolhi uses similar ingredients, but differs in that it is mixed a little at a time into baiypen, the white rice porridge.

Baiypen is a quiet porridge that you could eat with salt alone. If you mix tuna into the porridge itself, the fish smell spreads through everything and it can feel like a congee for a day when you're unwell. Make the maskurolhi separately and mix it a little at a time at the edge of the plate, and the sweetness of white rice, the richness of coconut, the saltiness of fish and the acidity of lime come in turn in your mouth.

It suits breakfast or a late-night bowl. With the heat reduced it is easy to serve to children and older relatives, and only those who want it can add chili. Among related South Asian dishes, Sri Lanka's kiribath (in Japanese) is a celebration dish of rice and coconut, and India's avial (in Japanese) coats vegetables in the texture of coconut. Maskurolhi is easiest to understand as the lightest morning vessel among them.

Ingredients (serves 4)

Rice, canned tuna, unsweetened coconut, red onion, lime, chili, curry leaves and pandan laid out — Divide the ingredients into those for the porridge and those for the maskurolhi. Keep the rice soft and the tuna and coconut coarse

This amount serves 4 at breakfast or 3 as a late-night meal. If the baiypen is too thin it can't hold the maskurolhi, and if it is too thick it becomes like rice dumplings. Plan on 1.1 L water for 1 gō (180 ml) of rice, then adjust to the thickness you like at the end.

Allergens and heat

This dish uses fish, coconut and chili. If you have concerns about fish or coconut, avoid it. At a table with someone sensitive to heat, halve the chili and serve the maskurolhi on a separate plate for easy adjustment.

What to shop for

Unsweetened coconut, curry leaves, chili, pandan, a food processor, rice and canned tuna laid out for shopping — What's worth looking for online is the aromatic ingredients and a tool that chops coarsely. Canned tuna and rice are easy to buy locally

Rice, canned tuna, onion and lime can be bought nearby. What is worth looking for online or at an import grocery are unsweetened fine desiccated coconut, curry leaves, pandan leaf and a small food processor that chops coarsely. Pandan is only an aromatic aid, so it's fine to omit it the first time if you can't find it.

Unsweetened desiccated coconut is what gives this dish its grain. If you substitute canned coconut milk alone, the maskurolhi becomes too moist, like tuna mayo melting over the porridge. Look for "unsweetened" and "fine" at import grocery stores or baking supply shops.

Curry leaves are not essential, but a small amount pulls the flavor toward South Asia. Leftovers can go into kukul mas curry or avial (in Japanese).

On a day when crushing chili from scratch feels like too much, use just 1 tsp of sambal oelek and stretch it with onion, tuna, coconut and lime to get close. Avoid sweet chili sauce, which is a different thing.

Since nothing is wrapped and baked, you don't need a griddle. Instead, a tool that can stop before the onion and coconut get too fine makes the result steadier. You can chop with a knife, but if you make this often in the morning, a small food processor is handy.

Method: simmer the baiypen and serve a coarse sambol beside it

Trying to finish the baiypen and maskurolhi at the same time gets hectic. Put the rice on, lower it to low heat, and chop the aromatics while it simmers. The maskurolhi needs no heat, so it is enough to combine it at the end while watching the thickness of the porridge.

Choices for getting close to the original in a home kitchen

Question	Closer to local	Practical home option	Direction to avoid
Fish	Smoked or dried tuna-type material	Canned tuna combined with bonito flakes	Turning it into tuna mayo
Coconut	Freshly grated coconut	Unsweetened desiccated coconut rehydrated in hot water	Moistening with coconut milk only
Rice porridge	Cooked thin as baiypen	Short-grain rice simmered soft on low heat	Briefly warming cooked rice in water
Heat	Coarsely crushed fresh chili	Dried chili or a little sambal oelek	Sweet chili sauce
How to eat	Porridge and side served separately	Mix a little at a time at the edge of the bowl	Mixing tuna through the whole pot

The most important thing to protect in a home kitchen is not to over-mix. If you put all the tuna and coconut into the porridge, the white porridge has nowhere to go. Maskurolhi is, after all, a side. Its lightness as a breakfast lies in being able to adjust salt and acidity in your own bowl.

The other point is the form of the coconut. Canned coconut milk can be used in small amounts in the baiypen, but the body of the maskurolhi needs grains. The grains absorb the moisture of the tuna and loosen softly over the porridge.

Where it goes wrong

A comparison of watery and moderately thick rice porridge, and sticky and coarse maskurolhi — Don't make the baiypen too thin or the maskurolhi watery. Judge the thickness of the porridge and the side separately

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Porridge is watery	Low-heat simmer was too short	Uncover and add 5 minutes on low heat so the grains open
Porridge is heavy	Too little water, stirred the bottom too much	Add 100 ml hot water and warm on low heat for 3 minutes
Maskurolhi is sticky	The coconut's moisture wasn't squeezed out	Add 2 g bonito flakes or 2 tsp unrehydrated coconut
Fishy smell	Too much tuna liquid, not enough lime	Drain again, and add 1 tsp lime and a little black pepper
Too hot	Chili seeds were left in	Add 1 tbsp coconut and 1 tbsp tuna

The dividing line between success and failure is moisture. Baiypen should be soft, but if it is thin like soup the maskurolhi sinks. Maskurolhi can be moist, but if liquid collects at the bottom it is too heavy. Keep a loose white porridge against coarse tuna and coconut. Preserve that contrast.

Storage and the next day

Baiypen in a shallow storage container and maskurolhi in a separate small jar — Store the baiypen and maskurolhi separately and they are less likely to turn watery the next day

Once the baiypen has cooled slightly, move it to a shallow container and finish it in the refrigerator by the next day. Rice porridge firms up when cold, so when reheating add 80 ml water per portion and warm on low heat for 4 to 5 minutes. In a microwave, heat at 600 W for 1 minute 30 seconds, stirring once halfway.

Maskurolhi uses fish and onion, so the same day in the refrigerator is safest. If you carry it to the next day, put it in a clean small jar and finish it within 24 hours. Do not reheat it. After taking it from the refrigerator, add 1/2 tsp lime juice and break up any firm tuna before serving with the porridge.

Leftover maskurolhi can also go on thin toast or rice. Mixing in mayonnaise, however, moves away from a Maldivian breakfast. To keep the direction, finish with lime, black pepper and a little chili.

FAQ

Can I make just the maskurolhi?

Yes. But it is a salty, sour side, so it is easier to eat with a vessel such as white rice porridge, white rice or thin roshi. If eating it alone, reduce the salt to 1/4 tsp and start with 1 tbsp lime.

What if I don't have desiccated coconut?

Freshly grated coconut is ideal, but unsweetened desiccated coconut is the practical choice. If you really have none, toss the tuna with 2 tbsp coconut milk and 2 g bonito flakes. It won't have the grain, though, and the maskurolhi character is weaker. Next time, look for an unsweetened product at a baking supply or import grocery store.

Should the canned tuna be in water or oil?

Water-packed is lighter for breakfast; oil-packed gives richness. If using oil-packed, using all the oil from the can makes it heavy, so keep only 1 tbsp and drain the rest. With oil-free cans, adding 1 tsp rice bran oil keeps it from being dry.

Can I make it without heat?

Yes. Omit the chili and increase the black pepper to 1/3 tsp. Removing all heat weakens the outline, so adding 1/4 tsp sambal oelek only to the adults' bowls is the safest approach.

Is pandan leaf required?

No. It is an aid to make the baiypen fragrant. If you can't find it, leave it out and make the porridge with only rice and salt. Substituting bay leaf or vanilla leads to a different aroma, so it is more natural to leave them out.

Local sources consulted

Wikipedia, "Maskurolhi": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maskurolhi
LonuMedhu, "Haaru: Maldivian Suhoor": https://lonumedhu.com/blog/haaru-maldivian-suhoor
Visit Maldives, "Maldivian Gastronomy": https://visitmaldives.s3.amazonaws.com/5oBv9OoG/v9inzimo.pdf
Wikipedia, "Maldivian cuisine": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maldivian_cuisine

What to cook next

To continue with a rice-and-coconut breakfast, move on to Sri Lanka's kiribath (in Japanese), where the same white rice becomes a celebration dish. If you like the feel of coconut grains clinging to vegetables, South India's avial (in Japanese) is the next dish. For a gentle table of fish and rice, Bangladesh's ilish bhuna (in Japanese) is also fun for comparing how aroma is built.