Daily Archives: October 11, 2014

Meen paal curry

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Preparation Time : 20 minutes

Cooking Time : 15 – 20 minutes

Serving : 3-4 members

Description

Meen paal curry is an authentic dish of the tirunelveli region . This same dish is addressed in different names by the neighbouring districts as meen Aviyal in nagarkovil and as meen sothi in tirunelveli by the Hindu communities . Meen paal curry is a common name among the Muslim community of the Tirunelveli region . Every community and region has a  slight variation of their own to this dish but the main ingredients being fish , coconut milk and lime . I first got to taste this dish at my father – in – laws elder brothers place . Mumthama ( my father – in – laws elder brothers wife )    is an excellent cook and there are so many dishes that I learnt from her , including this dish . This dish is lightly spiced with the coconut milk flavour being the most dominant along with tartness of the lime . From the time I learnt to make this dish , I make it a point to make this dish when I have guests at home ( mainly mom’s side guests ) . My cousin brother moheen and his wife zuvariya  were here for a day when they were newly wedded , moheen was head over heels with this dish and he did ask zuveriya to take note of the recipe . These every day home style preparations interests  me a lot . Traditional  recipes , in particular that offer insights into communities that devise them and yield secrets about people’s past . The magic of Indian home cooking that can not be eaten at restaurants are treasured gifts from our ancestors .

Ingredients

Ingredients
Quantity
Cleaned fish1/4 kg , ( I have used anchovy / nethili here , you can use any other fish )
First extract of coconut milk ( thick )1 cup
Third extract of coconut milk ( very thin ) or water1 cup
Coconut oil 4 tablespoons
Cumin seeds1 teaspoon
Fenugreek seeds1/4 teaspoon
Ginger grated1/4 teaspoon
Small Onions1 hand full chopped
Green chillies8 to 10 slit
Curry leavesfew
Salt to taste
Lime juice 2 tablespoon or to taste
Coriander leaves chopped few to garnish

Method

  1. Heat coconut oil in a board kadai . Add fenugreek seeds , cumin seeds and curry leaves . Once the fenugreek seeds crackle top with green chillies .
  2. Sauté For a few seconds until the flavour of the green chilli arises and colour changes .Top with ginger and onions . Once the onions are translucent pour the third extract of coconut milk ( very thin ) or water and mix well .
  3. Bring to boil and add the fish with salt to taste and cook until fish is cooked 3/4 cooked .Add the thick coconut milk . Mix well adding lime juice . Taste and adjust seasoning .
  4. Top with chopped coriander leaves . Simmer until oil separates and floats on top . Serve hot as a side dish along with white boiled rice or with appams .

Notes

  1. make sure the thin extract of the coconut milk is very thin or else the curry tends to split .
  2. To be on the safer side use water .Add more green chillies in case you want a more spicy curry .

Meen pathiri

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Preparation Time : 30-40 minutes

Cooking Time : 25- 30 minutes

Serving : 4 -5 members

Description

Meen pathiri . An authentic Malabar recipe that I first tasted at moms place , when we had a new cook appointed from Kerala . Her version was a bit different as she had made a filling with onions and tomatoes separately and placed a whole piece of fried fish in between two rice flour pathiris and then steamed them . Tasted yum but was a bit difficult to eat the fried fish with the bones on it . After that again once at my friend sulus place where she had made it with prawns filling . It was to die for . Breaking my head about a healthy snack to be made for Iftar … Meen pathiri just sparked bright in my mind which is a great healthy eating option  . Browsed through the net for a good recipe and took note of a few but re- checked with my saviour buddy sulu ( from class two till date in my kitchen its like that except I was her saviour in maths and physics :-)) )  again and got more tips and tricks as an added bonus for my first try with meen pathiris . I have made bite size individual pathiris but you can follow the same recipe and make medium pizza sized single ones cut and serve or make crescent -half moon shaped ones as well . Made up my mind to make crescent shaped pathiris but swapped my mind to medium sized  nibble  ones as was not very confident about the rice flour dough not breaking while folding into a moon shaped pathiri . Religiously followed sulus instructions and wolla it was absolutely pitch perfect with a wow factor written all over it . My friend meera aboo thamby , her son athik And her   nephew Seyad went bonkers eating the meen pathiris because of the marvellous pairing of contrasting flavours . Was a bit  nervous about serving the meen pathiris to hubby as we never ever add fish on the menu through out the holy month of ramadan . But brunches have a way of surprising when you least expect it as  hubby also enjoyed it a lot .

Ingredients To Marinate The Fish and fry

Ingredients
Quantity
Cleaned fish 1/4 kg ( sheer fish )
Red chilli powder2 teaspoon
Turmeric powder1 teaspoon
Lime juicea squeeze
Saltto taste
Oilto fry

Method for fish fry

  1. Marinate in the cleaned fish in red chilli  powder, turmeric powder  , lime juice and salt for an hour at least and then shallow fry it in vegetable oil.
  2. Don’t let it get too brown and crispy….. the idea is to just cook the fish, not deep fry it. Drain, and remove the bones and skin and shred the fish.

Ingredients For the filling

Ingredients
Quantity
Onion 1 medium size chopped
Small onions2 hands chopped
Tomato1 small blitzed in a food processor
Green chilies5 chopped
Ginger Garlic Paste1 teaspoon each
Red chilli powder1 teaspoon
Coriander powder1 teaspoon
Garam masala powder1/4 teaspoon
Turmeric1/4 teaspoon
Curry leaves3 sprigs chopped
Saltto taste
Coconut Oil3 tablespoon

To  dry roast and powder

Ingredients
Quantity
Coconut grated1/2 cup
Shallots4 small ones chopped
Fennel seeds/Saunf1 teaspoon

Method for Fish Filling

  1. In a non – stick kadai or a heavy bottom pan, dry roast the ingredients specified above, all together on very low heat till the coconut gives out its aroma and starts turning brown at the edges.
  2. Take off the flame and pulse in a dry grinder to powder it coarsely. No water is to be added and set aside .
  3. Heat oil and saute onion and green chillies. When the onion becomes transparent, add ginger-garlic paste . fry to crisp and then add the coriander powder, chili powder, garam masala and turmeric powder.add the blitzed  tomato at this point , cover and cook for 5 minutes or till the tomato  looks pulpy .
  4. Add salt. Stir and sauté till the whole mixture gives out oil and moves as one mass in the pan. Add the fried shredded fish to the onion mix and stir together on medium heat.
  5. When there is just enough moisture in the fish masala as needed for the filling, add the coarsely ground coconut, finely shredded curry leaves, salt and mix well. Taste and adjust as needed. Remove from flame and keep aside.

Ingredients For  The rice paste

Ingredients
Quantity
Rice flour( iddiappam flour )2 cups
Water1 1/2 cup
Salt3/4 teaspoon
Cumin powder 1/2 teaspoon
Coconut grated1/2 cup
Small onions5 to 6
Garam masala powder a huge pinch

Method

  1. Pulse grated coconut , cumin seeds and small onion in a food processor just to get a corse mixture and set aside . Mix rice flour , salt and garam masala powder together .heat water and bring to boil .
  2. Add the rice flour and Stir with a fork to get a crumbly mixture where the rice flour has taken all the water into it . Remove from heat  and cover for 5 minutes.
  3. Add the coarsely ground coconut mixture and  Knead it into a soft sticky dough with the help of wet hands .

How to assemble and steam

  1. Grease a plastic cover that is cut into a one large piece or use  parchment paper . Place a big orange size rice flour ball , cover with another greased plastic  cover or place another parchment paper over it and roll it with a rolling pin to get a wide pathiri ,  the thickness should not be too much.Remove the top paper carefully.
  2. Use any round shaped cutter size of your choice and press as many circles as you can . ( i could make 3-4 circles to a time ) Place 2 tablespoons of filling on one  pathiri leaving a half inch trim along the edges. Place another  pathiri on it and then press down on the edges with your fingers to seal the edges .
  3. I made a pattern , all around the edges by pinching both the pathiris together . Cover the whole meen pathiri with foil / parchment  paper tightly or with banana leaf  and then steam in your steamer for about 10-15 minutes.
  4. ( I steamed them in my iddli steamer , you could use your rice cooker . ) Remove the meen pathiris  from the steamer and serve hot .

Notes

  1. You can follow the same recipe and substitute fish filling with prawn filling , mutton filling or chicken filling . Vegetarians can do the same with paneer , mushroom or soya chunks filling .
  2. Traditionally banana leaves are used to steam the meen pathiris .. I used foil paper which is more handy as you can just steam it again when ever wanted to be served hot .
  3. You can store these steamed meen pathiris along with the foil paper on in a zip lock bag in the refrigerator and steam again when ever required  to be served hot .
  4.  you can also  use any large vessel half filled with water. Placing a colander or a steamer basket over the water when the water boils  reduce heat to medium. Place the foil paper covered meen pathiris  in the basket, cover it and cook for 7-10 minutes . Once cooked serve hot .