Meen Pathiri (Fish in Rice flour pan cake)

Pathiri comes in different varieties like meen pathiri, erachi pathiri, chatti pathiri etc.  Its during the Ramzan time  we see these different varieties of pathiri in almost all bakery in Calicut. But the Zain's Restaurant near the beach will have the special dish all round the year. We go there to get different muslim special delicacies like these pathiris, ari kadukka etc..

By chance it was a Saturday, we went to COSTCO, the day on which they serve us with different varieties of food samples. We tried out almost every item served there. As almost all of those were pure American dishes, we liked only a very few of them. One among them was canned tuna mixed with mayonnaise and served on a salt biscuit. That was really good and we being pure non-vegetarians, thought of trying it out and got a whole pack of 8 cans. I did not have much idea on what can be done with it. We tried it out with Pasta, fish cutlet etc. Then came the idea of meen pathiri

Ingredients for Pathiri:

Rice Flour                              --   1 cup

Water                                     --   2 cups

Oil                                           --   2 tsp

Salt                                         --    to taste

Ingredients for filling:

Shredded fish                         --   1 can (I used canned tuna)

Onion                                       --   1 medium

Green Chillies                         --   3 -4

Tomato                                  --    ½ of a medium sized

Ginger Garlic paste              --    1 tsp

Turmeric Powder                --    ¼ tsp

Chilly Powder                       --    ½ tsp

Pepper Powder                    --    ¼ tsp

Garam Masala                     --    ¼ tsp

Cumin seeds                          --    ½ tsp

Oil                                           --    2 tbsp

Salt                                         --    to taste

Preparation:

Add oil into the pan and fry chopped onions, thinly chopped green chillies and ginger garlic paste until the onions become translucent. Add chopped tomatoes and fry well. Add turmeric powder, chilly powder, pepper powder, garam masala and cumin seeds. Fry them until the raw smell goes off. Then add the shredded fish.Mix it well and keep aside.

If using canned fish, you can add it as such. If not, cook the fish with a pinch of turmeric and salt in water and then shred it with a fork or your hands.   

Prepare the dough for the pathiri as mentioned in the previous post – Pathiri. Roll it out in a press pan or with the hand in a piece of banana leaf / foil paper. Do not add rice flour while rolling. If sticky rub your hands/press pan with oil.

Divide the fish filling into equal portions for the number of pathiris rolled out. Spread the filling on one half of the rolled out pathiri and fold the pathiri as shown.

You can also spread the filling on one whole pathiri and close it with another. This depends on the size of the steamer you have. Keep it on an idly cooker/any kind of steamer and let it cook for 8 – 10 minutes.

Once cooked, take it out and serve hot.

Recipe Courtesy: Amma