Chilli Fish or Fish Manchurian | Indo-Chinese fusion dish

Hello and welcome to my first post for this year :-) How is everyone?  I’m doing very well and having fun with my two beautiful little ones at home. I’ve been back to working full time since last October, so that keeps me additionally busy as well. Any free moment after the kids sleep is spent with me trying to catch up on my sleep…Lol! Baby girl is a good little girl, she eats and sleeps well, but she still has her random night time wakings and wants some mommy cuddle time.

Mihi baby is 8 months old as of today  and goodness time is  flying. Appu is having more fun with her now as she is getting more responsive and playful with him and as for Mihi, she adores her big bro and is always waiting for a moment to catch his attention. She starts making noises and saying baba and tata whenever she sees Appu. I love this little world that I am in now and trying to absorb all of it!

Ever since Appu started Kindergarten, our weekday mornings are a cat and mouse chase against the clock trying to get Appu to wake-up, brush and get dressed for school and eat some quick breakfast before his bus arrives. Sometimes baby girl wakes up and wants to be part of all the morning fun. His bus comes at 7am and after the morning rush Mihi baby looks forward to some cuddle time with her dada. She is most active and does a lot of baby talk at this time and we love this little morning routine of ours.

It snowed here on Saturday…yes!  Charlotte was covered in a white blanket. It was also the Indian festival of Holi, so I joked with my friends saying we played with white color. It was Mihi baby’s first snow , so we bundled her up and took some pics outside.
Big bro Appu had lots of fun with kids in the neighborhood playing with their sledges.  The snow started quickly melting by afternoon, so it didn’t last long! But the climate is still a bit cold, so we are  eagerly looking forward to some time in the sun soon.

I haven't been doing my usual cooking and baking like before but whenever time permits I still try a dish or two now and then. Anything that is quick, easy, less prep time and tastes great are dishes that's on my agenda these days. One pot meals are usually preferred , else 'chop-dump in pressure cooker-done' type meals...Lol!
Now and then I bother taking a pic or two and sharing it on my Instagram profile or on facebook and I was blown over by the response my Fish Manchurian got me :-) 
I have to say, it woke up the blogger in me... :-P I got several 'recipe please' requests so I promised I'll blog about it coz it definitely is blog worthy and let me say really really easy to prepare. And trust me, mom-of-two talking here...

I skipped the big process of frying the fish in flour coated batter and all that. That will definitely make the dish more richer, but that's the most time taking process so I skipped it.  
Also I didn't marinate the fish either, you could do that for more flavor. But it still came out good. Having fish that's cleaned and cut into cubes ready in the freezer is a plus :-)
I took the pics in a hurry just before sunset so they just came out looking blah....but the recipe is more important, so here's how I made it.

Chilli Fish or Fish Manchurian

You’ll Need

For Fish marination:

Boneless Fish fillets – Used 3 big Tilapia filets (cut the fillet in half and then cut into bite sized pieces)

½  teaspoon  Black Pepper powder

½  teaspoon Red chilli powder

¼ teaspoon Turmeric powder

Salt, to taste

For sauce:

1 Tablespoon Canola Oil

½ Red Onion , chopped finely

3 Green Chilies , cut diagonally

3 Garlic  cloves, chopped finely

1” length Ginger, chopped into sticks

3 Tablespoon Ketchup

2 Tablespoon Red Chili Sauce  (I used Chilli Garlic Sauce)

4 teaspoon Soy Sauce

2 teaspoon White Vinegar

1 Tablespoon Corn Starch  

1 cup Water

Green Onions – 3 stalks, cut diagonally for garnishing

Directions:

Pan fry the Fish

1. Marinate the Fish with the spice powders and salt for atleast 30 minutes. (I skipped this)

2. In a non-stick frying pan, spray some oil and once hot, place the fish without crowding the pan.

3. Once one side is browned, gently flip and cook the other side and make sure the fish is fully cooked through. Cooking on a low heat avoids burning the fish and enables even cooking.

(You can always fry the fish in more oil or dip the fish in flour-batter and fry, but I wanted to use as less oil as possible so I just sprayed some oil and cooked on a very low heat until both sides of the fish were browned and cooked through)

For the sauce:

1. Heat oil in a frying pan and add Onions, Green chillies , Ginger, Garlic and cook until onions are mildly browned.

2. Add Ketchup and Red Chilli sauce and sauté until it cooks down and the oil starts to separate.

3.  Next add soy sauce and vinegar and mix well.

4.  Mix the cornstarch with water and add it to the pan. Cook on medium-low heat until the sauce starts to thicken.

5.  Now add the pan fried fish pieces and gently coat the sauce all over the fish . 

6.  Garnish with Green onions and serve!

Suggestions:

You can follow the steps done for the fish using Chicken or Shrimp or use Veggie options like Tofu, Paneer, Eggplant, Baby Corn etc...if you have other suggestions do let me know too :-) 

I know some of you will surely be trying out this dish. Don't forget to let me know how it turned out. If you make any changes or use any specific ingredient that makes the dish even more yumm do let me know. So see you until next time...back to my busy world!
-Manju

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