Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Patrani Machi & Kurukku Kaalan

 



















Bombay or Mumbai has been home to several cultures from around the world...One should say that Bombay has always had a big heart to welcome and own people from all over India and abroad...The city has an ineffable charisma and the beauty is that people just fall in love with her....In spite of having gone thro' several traumatic experiences in the recent past Mumbai has shown remarkable resilience and put on a wonderful smile always...Bombay's Parsi community is believed to have come from Persia in the 9th century and they have made their presence felt in various walks of life.They have a distinct culinary culture which imbibes the spirit of persia and topped with the local Indian flavour.Their dhansak and patra varieties are indeed wonderful gourmet experience...

Mumbai Parsis excel in fish cookery, and Patrani Machi may be called their signature dish. Traditionally, fish variety called Hilsa is used,which has a rich flavour and innumerable bones...but one can always substitute it with pomfrets or even salmons....It is a wonderful variety for all those who love fish.Fish is topped with a coconut-cilantro chutney and wrapped in leaves,banana leaves(best) or colocasia leaves, and steamed(can be baked too).If you dont have access to these leaves you can very well use any of the edible wrappers like lettuce,spinach,swiss chard,cabbage,taro leaves etc. If nothing is available,just apply the herb sauce and steam the fish!....Back home in Kerala my mother always fried any fish in banana leaves...hmmm....wah!that is a wonderful flavour addition to the fish fry...just lay a banana leaf in the frying pan and fry the marinated fish pieces on it.Last time I had picked up a few colocasia leaves from the India market with the idea of making some patra dishes and of course some of the traditional kerala recipes...Ok now straight to the Patrani Machi recipe.

Ingredients

Fish fillets-300g(salmon/pomfret)
Colocasia leaves/Banana leaves-for wrapping
(ideally blanch the leaves and trim them)
Melted Butter/Desi ghee/oil-2tbsp(or as rqd)
lemon wedges-1 or 2

Ingredients for the chutney/sauce
Fresh grated coconut-100g
G.Chilli-5
Garlic- 5 cloves-chopped
ginger-1 tbsp-chopped
Fresh cilantro-1/2 cup-chopped
mint leaves-a few sprigs(as u prefer the flavour)
Lemon juice-3 tbsp
Cumin powder-1 1/2 tsp
salt-as rqd
Chilli powder-1/2tsp-optional
1 tsp. brown sugar (optional)

Method

Clean the fish fillets and marinate it with lemon juice and salt.I used whole pomfrets.So I made small gashes on to the fish so that the chutney can seep in properly...Grind the ingredients for the chutney into a coarse paste.

Coat the fish generously with the chutney and fill the inside as well(if u r using a whole fish).Place 2 leaves on a work surface slightly overlapping.Apply oil/butter on the leaves. Place the chutney coated fish/whole fish on top of the leaves, fold in the sides, and wrap it up into a neat package.You may even tie it up with a thread. Now put it on a steamer rack(or boil water a large mouthed vessel,place a metallic sieve on top and place the fish packets on it) and steam it until the fish is cooked...say 30 minutes(depends on the type of fish).Alternatively you can bake these packets in a greased baking dish at 350F until the pack looks wilted and browned.Once the fish is cooked transfer it to a plate,open the packets and serve with some lemon wedges,cucumber and tomato with steamed rice.It goes well with most pilaf varieties. I had it with steamed rice,Kurukku kalan and some
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    Kurukku Kaalan recipe to be posted soon! :)

    12 comments:

    RP said...

    ഈ കുട്ടിക്ക് വേറെ പണിയൊന്നുമില്ലേ?? എപ്പോ നോക്കിയാലും ഭക്ഷണത്തിന്റെ വിചാരം മാത്രേയുള്ളോ? വെറുതേ പറഞ്ഞതാട്ടോ...
    Waiting for the recipe.

    Priya Bhaskaran said...

    Shinny... you got so much patience and interst to cook so much :) Wish I had all your energy:) I am waiting for Kurukku Kaalan recipe:)

    KA said...

    Shynee
    Heard about this dish a couple of times but never tried it myself..
    Looks yummy!

    indianadoc said...

    >hahaha!verey pani onnum thalkaalam illya rp...hmm...thinnu thinnu oru kutti aana aayi varunnundu!! :)
    >Hmm...I love cooking Priya, and eating too!! shall post the recipe soon...
    >KA, I had eaten this in one of the restaurants and always wanted to try...hmmm...it is worth a try...

    Prema Sundar said...

    Wow the pictures are great.. I havent heard abt this dish.. different one. looks tempting.

    Revathi said...

    I have heard about pathrani machi.. Wow truly exotic recipe... Looks like the fish will have a suttle taste and a deep aroma of the leaves... Hmm i was some now !!!

    Anonymous said...

    Looks wonderful.

    Movie Mazaa said...

    ഒരു സംഭവം കാണിച്ച്‌ തരാമെന്ന് പറഞ്ഞ്‌ ഞാന്‍ അമ്മയെ ഇവിടെ എത്തിച്ചിട്ടുണ്ട്‌. ഒരു സ്ഥിരം വായനക്കാരിയെക്കൂടി കൂട്ടിക്കൊള്ളൂ....

    :)

    Maddy said...

    are u telling us that pomfret is available here?? where did u find them?

    indianadoc said...

    > thanx Prema...hmm it is indeed quite tasty,rather different,i wd say!
    >Revathi,I think it would taste still a lot better had I made it in banana leaves...bt unfortunately I cd get only colocasia leaves...bt still it was quite different from the usual...we liked it.
    >thanx coffeepot :)
    >Santhosham mashey!Appo swayam undakkan udheshamonnumilley?...Minakkedan Ammayunadkumbo enthina alley veruthey ushnikkunnathu?!!
    >Yes Maddy...not only pomfret,thani naadan mathi,ayila yellam kittum...pakshe BC 400-aam aandilethanennu mathram!!...Frozen!! Bt still not very bad in terms of taste...We get it all from a Kerala shop in Birmingham.Oru divasam oru trip B'ham lottu poyi vendunnathellam loot adichu vannal mathi,pocket kadakkaaranum loot adikkumennoru cheriya warning :)!!

    Maddy said...

    u mean lakshmi foods dudley rd near the temple? but we never buy the frozen stuff, hey BTW try al murshid at stoke - they sell faster, so u hopefully get AD stuff.

    indianadoc said...

    >No Maddy, it is called 'KeralaSuperStore'and is on the slade road in B'ham.You will get most of the items that we get back home in Kerala...Frozen fish so far hasnt been bad...even Ayila did not taste bad,though frozen..We have never been to this shop in Stokes...hmmm prbly can try next time...