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