Meen Pathiri - steamed Rice Pancakes with a Fish Masala stuffing | a Malabari delight

I love trying varieties of food when cooking for friends or if I have guests over. I know it’s not a good practice to experiment with food for the very first time when you have guests over. But if I’m calling over close friends who share the same passion as me when it comes to trying new food I don’t mind. I know they’ll forgive me if it fails and still eat the dish or else applaud it and want me to immediately share it on the blog ;-) I’m thankful for having such friends.

I wanted to share this post the same week I made this dish but that got delayed by a couple of months now :-D Anyways, few months ago, I had a set of close pals over for lunch and decided we’ll have a Malabari themed lunch. Malabar is the northern region of kerala and their cuisine is quite different from Kottayam (where I’m from) and let me say the food options are really yumm!

Initially I had thought of making the whole lunch myself but then we later decided on a potluck…Don’t blame me if you start drooling all over :-D , but the lunch menu we decided on was:

Chicken Chatti pathiri, Meen Pathiri, Kappa with Fish Curry, Varutharacha Chicken Curry, Spicy Fish fry, Nei Chor, Mixed Veg raita, Rasmalai (for dessert)

Wanting to try something new and different I decided to try my hand at making Chicken Chatti Pathiri and Meen Pathiri. My friends decided to bring the other stuff and for dessert I just bought some Rasmalai from the Indian store, which turned out really good btw.

All the dishes came out so good and we couldn’t stop complimenting each other for our cooking skills…Lol! The Meen Pathiri was a big hit, everyone went for second and third helpings. 
Meen Pathiri is a Malabar treat which is commonly served during special occasions like Weddings, Ramadan feast etc. They are steamed rice pancakes with a Fish Masala filling. The pancakes itself tastes great on their own. The preparation can be a bit time consuming but they were really worth it and if you shallow fry the fish instead of deep frying and use less oil when preparing the masala, these Fish pancakes turn out to be a very healthy snack/appetizer option too. It’s a must try dish!

The Chicken Pathiri came out pretty good for a first try, it held its shape and came out perfectly from the pan but I personally felt the chicken filling needed some more spice or flavor, so I’m not sharing the recipe for that now. I want to give it another try and see if it works next time and then will share my experience in detail. 

But for now let’s enjoy and try this awesome Meen Pathiri recipe. The fish masala filling  is simply awesome and even the Rice Pathiri tastes great on its own. My friends also agreed this was a good recipe to share on the blog, so here it is…

I followed the recipe instructions as given by my favorite Malabari cuisine blogger Shabs from her blog Shab's cuisine and have almost copied the instructions exactly as written by her as it was so well explained. The only changes I made was using Idli rice for the pathiri and using boneless fish whereas she has used fish with bones and de-boned the fish after frying. 

MEEN PATHIRI (Fish masala stuffed Rice Pancakes)

Recipe Source: Shab's Cuisine

You'll Need

For Rice Pathiri

2 cups Parboiled rice (I used IDLI Rice)

1 ½ Tablespoons fennel seeds (Perumjeerakam)

1 ¾ cups grated coconut

1 ½ cups water

1 cup Rice flour

Salt – As required

For Fish fry

3-4 Fillets of boneless Tilapia

2 Tablespoons Red Chilli powder

1 teaspoon Black pepper powder
1 teaspoon Coriander powder

½ teaspoon Turmeric powder

Salt as needed

Water as needed to make a thick paste

For Fish Masala

3 Large onions (approx 4cups chopped)

5 large cloves of garlic (1 heaped Tblsp, grated)

2 medium Tomatoes (approx 1 cup chopped)

2 teaspoon Kashmiri Chilli Powder

3 teaspoon Coriander powder

½ teaspoon Turmeric powder

1-1 ½ Tablespoon Lime/lemon juice

2 twigs curry leaves, chopped

6-8 Mint leaves, chopped

3 Tablespoons Coriander leaves

4 Tablespoons water

½ teaspoon Garam masala

1 teaspoon salt

For Coconut paste:

½ cup grated coconut

½ teaspoon fennel seeds (perumjeerakam)

2 shallots

4 Tablespoons (1/4 cup) water

Directions

For making the Ari (rice) Pathiri :

1. Soak the rice in water for 3-4 hours or overnight.

2. Grind it with minimal water until you get a coarse yet grainy mixture.

3. Add coconut, fennel seeds, roughly chopped onions and salt to this and grind for few seconds until everything is just crushed and NOT smooth.

4. Tip the whole mixture in to a large bowl, add the rice powder and mix well using hands until you get dough that can be shaped into balls.

For Fish masala
1. Rub the fish with salt and lemon juice to get rid of the raw smell. Wash it thoroughly.

2. Make a thick paste of all the powders with water and marinate fish for about ½ hour -1 hour.

3. Make a smooth coconut paste by grinding the coconut, fennel, 2 shallots and water.

4. Heat a large frying pan and add oil. Fry the fish well. Remove from flame and break each piece into 4-6 portions. Keep them aside.

5. In the same pan, add onions and salt and sauté until it becomes soft and translucent. Add ginger, garlic and sauté for few minutes until the onion is cooked very well. Add chilli powder, coriander powder and turmeric powder and sauté for few seconds.

6. Add in the chopped tomatoes, cover and cook till the tomatoes are soft and cooked. Add the coconut paste and ¼ cup water (less or more as required to get a very thick, neither dry nor watery gravy/masala). 

7. Cover and cook for 3-4 minutes until the raw smell of the coconut goes away. Add the chopped coriander-mint leaves, lime/lemon juice and garam masala and stir well, cook for a minute or two. Add the fish pieces, cover and cook on very low flame until all the flavour is infused well for about 8-10 minutes.

For assembling the Meen Pathiri:

1. Take a small portion from the rice dough, make a ball and flatten it on a non-stick sheet (I used my Silpat mat, can also use square cutouts of wax paper or a banana leaf) using the heel of your palm. Add some masala in the centre along with the fish pieces. Leave some space at the ends.

2. Make another pathiri in another sheet the same way, a bit bigger than the previous one and cover the masala filled pathiri, covering the masala completely. Slowly press the edges using the fingers to seal all the fish masala in.

3. For steaming the pathiri, you can either place the pathiri with the wax paper/banana leaf itself into the steamer, or else just place each pathiri into a greased steamer by itself and steam for 10-12 minutes until its fully cooked through and becomes firm to touch.

4. Repeat the same process until all the fish masala and the rice dough are used up. Serve hot!

The entire lunch was a hit with these Meen (fish) Pathiri turning out the best! I'm urging you all to give it a try sometime.

-Manju

Sukhiyan, sweet lentil fritters....a Kerala special snack!

When I think of Sukhiyan I remember Sreeja ammayi's mom. Vanaja aunty is always called as Shasthamangalathile aunty, she is so often called that that I sometimes have no clue what her real name is ;-) Shashthamangalam is a place in Trivandrum, Kerala and Vanaja aunty lives there with her husband. 

Her daughter, our Sreeja ammayi is Manish's mom's brother's wife....Well, anyways Manish's family have been family friends with them for a very very long time and later became relatives and the friendship still stands strong.

After Manish and I got married we had gone to their home several times and every time we went there aunty was ready with Sukhiyan. I love these sweet lentil fritters but these are so rarely made in my home and even in local bakeries it's a rare find these days. So whenever she made them for us with a cup of sweet hot tea, I couldn't resist enjoying myself to a good bunch of these!

Even if we go there unannounced in the middle of the day, she'll make something quickly and would never let us leave without eating and Sukhiyan was almost always her go-to palaharam to make, I just love such people who attracts you with food ;-)

Even though I really enjoyed eating them I never tried making them at home. When my sis-in-law, Malli came home for a vacation, she decided to make these. I was simply excited and went about clicking pics as she made them. So, these were technically made by her and they were super yumm! She even calls them Modakam, so apparently it has a lot of names :)

I have no clue of the origin of it's name but it is popularly called Sukhiyan or Suhiyan and it is a very simple and easy snack to make. Boiled green moong daal is mixed with melted jaggery that's flavored with a pinch of elaichi (cardamom powder), rolled into balls, dipped in batter and deep fried. I could just eat the rolled lentil balls as it is, but there's nothing like a crispy fritter :-) The batter is the same as the one used for Pazhampozhi (plantain fritters).

The ratio of Green moong dal to Jaggery is approx 2:1 respectively. We don't measure it exactly but just add enough melted jaggery that'll help the cooked lentils stick together and form a ball easily. Some like to flavor the jaggery with cardamom powder, dried ginger powder, cinnamon etc...but I prefer it simply flavored with a little cardamom powder. A cup of hot sweet tea and a bowlful of these Sukhiyan...aaah! Let me daydream for a moment :)

Sukhiyan, sweet lentil fritters

You’ll need

1 cup Boiled Green lentils (Moong daal)

½ cup melted Jaggery
½ cup fresh grated Coconut

¼ tsp cardamom powder

For batter

1 cup  All purpose flour (Maida)

1 Tblsp Rice Flour (Ari podi)

¼ tsp Turmeric powder

1 tsp Sugar

A pinch of Salt

¼ cup Water (more or less as needed)

Oil for deep frying

Directions

1. Cook the Green moong daal: Soak the moong daal in cold water for ½ hour. Add to a pressure cooker with enough water to immerse the daal and Pressure cook for 1 whistle. Turn off the heat after 1 whistle and let it cool down by itself. Once cooled open the lid and check if the daal is cooked. Drain off any excess water.

2. Melt the jaggery in a hot pan and add ¼ tsp cardamom powder for flavor. Add the grated coconut and mix well and keep aside to cool slightly. (If you feel the jaggery might be gritty, strain it and then add grated coconut)

3. Make the batter by mixing together all-purpose flour, rice flour, turmeric powder, sugar and salt with enough water to form a smooth batter. Batter should neither be too runny nor too thick.

4. Mix the cooked green moong daal with the melted jaggery and mix together gently. While still warm  start rolling them into equal sized balls .

5.  Heat oil for deep frying and once ready, dip each moong daal ball into the batter and immerse into hot oil. Fry until they turn golden brown.

6. Serve the Sukhiyan hot with a nice cup of hot tea/coffee :)

 

Hope you'll be tempted to try these someday. It's really good and despite the frying, I like to think I'm eating a protein rich snack ;-) My little son too enjoyed these and I want to try making more naadan palaharam for him to show him the food his parents grew up eating and enjoying :-)

-Manju

PazhamPori (Ripe Plantain fritters) ... our favorite tea time snack!

PazhamPori (pronounced – Param pori)  needs no special introduction to any Malayalee. It is a deep fried fritter made with ripe plantains. As the fritter is made with Ripe plantain or Ethapazham (pronounced - Etha Param) , it is also called as Ethakapoli by few.

My mom used to make this quite often when we were kids, but do you know when I actually started to love and crave for this tea time snack? During my college days and stay in hostels.

After a long and exciting day in college, my main motto would be to get back to ladies hostel before the evening snacks got over ;-P

In the hostel canteen, they would just cut a whole ripe plantain in half and dip them in maida batter and fry them until golden brown. I guess more than the fritters I guess it was size of the fritters that allured me :-)  I mean , my mom never served a plantain fritter that was half the banana itself!! The only downside was, we were allowed to take only One…so our next mission would be to wait till everyone finishes their tea and snack and hope for leftovers, thankfully by now my friends would also join in the waiting :-P  

PazhamPori with some sweet elaichi-ginger Tea is my absolute favorite way of having an evening snack and a few weeks back when I saw some super ripe and huge plantains at our downtown farmers market I had to grab a few. And I din’t have to think twice as to what I wanted to make with them.  

Mildly chewy on the outside, soft and sweet on the inside and golden brown, there's nothing you won't love about this snack and it's a fried snack I (we) don't mind enjoying anytime! And if your plantain is super ripe, then they literally melt in your mouth like how mine were. Delicious!

Mummy still doesn't prefer serving up half a plantain as a fritter, so I had to cut them up into small pieces…oh well, just eat few extra pieces and that’ll make your half plaintain :-P

And as it was made on a lazy weekend evening and my lil’Appu was happily sleeping, I took few step-wise pics as well. Ahem! those glasses are my dad’s, borrowed for my quick little photoshoot  ;-) 

Here's a pictorial on how I made these:
Peel and cut the ripe plantain however you like.

Into a wide bowl add 1 cup of all-purpose flour. Then add a heaped tablespoon of rice flour (the rice flour adds a bit of crunch once fried)

Add some turmeric, sugar and salt. Add enough water to make a smooth batter.

Batter shouldn't be lumpy and neither too thick nor too runny, just good enough to coat the plantain slices.

Fry the ripe plantain on both sides until they are nice and golden brown and mildly caramelized.

PazhamPori (Ripe Plaintain fritters) 

You’ll need:

Ripe plantain – 2 large or 3-4 small ones

All purpose flour (Maida) – 1 cup

Rice Flour (Ari podi) – 1 heaped tblsp

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Sugar – 1 tsp

Salt – a pinch

Water – ¼ cup (more or less as needed)

Oil for frying (I used Canola oil and shallow fried)

Directions:

1.  Peel and cut the ripe plantain. I cut them in half and then into thirds.

2.  In a wide bowl mix the All-purpose flour, Rice flour, Turmeric powder, Sugar and Salt with enough water to make a batter that isn't too thick nor too runny.

3.  Heat oil in a pan. Coat the ripe plantain slices on all sides with the batter and fry them until golden brown.

Suggestions:

1.  If your plantain isn’t too ripe or sweet add more sugar to the batter mix (about 3-4 tsp).

2.  You may cut the plantain however you like , only make sure it is coated and fried well.

3.  You can deep fry if you’d like.

4.  Using Coconut oil would bring out a very authentic Keralite taste. 
5.  I have seen recipes that add baking soda or baking powder while making the batter, but I've never added it while making at home.

-Manju