Pathiri Kozhicurry

This is a popular dish of the North Malabar region of Kerala. I am sure there are people out there who are now longing for this great dish. This is one dish which we used to have from friends houses during the Ramzan days. The Pathiri with chicken curry  of a restaurant in Calicut ( Sagar) is very famous and so is  the one in  Cool land  (Kannur) .There are lot of varieties in it- Neipathiri, kaipathiri, Irachipathiri, Meenpathiri are some of them among which the Thin Aripathiri is the easiest and most popular in our region . 

For a while I had been thinking of making this dish but its not easy and is also tough to get  it right. Finally today I gathered up the courage to make it  with the help of some tips given by my friend and some cooking videos. To be honest its a time consuming , tedious and messy method , but the end result is worth the effort and time. Thanks to all the tips I got ............. so if you want to make good pathiris follow this recipe which is guaranteed from my side.

INGREDIENTS:

• Rice flour- 1 cup
• Water - 1 and 1/2 cup
• Salt as needed

How to Prepare: 

Step 1 : Roast the rice flour till it turns little cream colored and a roasted aroma comes. Keep stirring and monitoring so that the flour does not get burnt at the bottom. Sieve the roasted flour to a dry clean vessel. At the same time  boil the water adding one tablespoon salt .  

Step 2: Reduce the flame of the boiling water, and remove 1/2 cup water to another glass so that now only one cup water remains in the vessel. Add the roasted flour to it, stir continuously so that the flour gets completely coated with the water. If water is less and you can see dry flour then add the 1/2 cup boiled water to it little by little and make it uniformly wet, though not to the sticky level. ( By any means , do not add more cold water or flour to the mix at this point ) .Keep the vessel covered so that the flour is fully set. 

Step 3: Transfer the flour to another flat vessel and when it is warm to touch, gently knead the dough ,like you make for chappathy. It should be done with both the hands for about 15 minutes. And finally you should get a smooth dough which is neither sticky nor dry. Divide the dough to equal sized balls , generally lemon shaped. 

Step 4: Spread rice flour on a dry surface . Flatten the dough to round shapes adding rice flour to avoid sticking. Care should be taken to flatten the dough rolls in uniform thickness as otherwise it would not puff up while cooking. If you cannot make perfect round shapes you can flatten it and then cut with the sharp edge of a round lid of desirable size. Dust the rice flour from the surface of each flattened dough.

Step 5: Heat a griddle at medium flame. Cook the pathiris on it . First you will be able to see steam coming from the edges of pathiris which is the first sign that cooking has started (you may or may not see bubbles ) flip it to the other side and cook till it puffs up from end to end. If your dough is perfect the whole pathiri will puff up like a balloon, otherwise you can see small bubbles or browning here and there on the pathiris. Either stage when reached , immediately remove from flame. It should be cooked only to this stage. No oil should be added while cooking and no oil should be there on the griddle too. If possible use a non stick griddle for this purpose. 

Step 6: Transfer all the cooked pathiris to a serving plate. Clean the griddle too as there may be the flour dust on it which can burn during the next use. 

Serving directions: For ones who have sweet tastebuds , this dish goes well with coconut milk. You can layer the pathiris  one above the other, pour sweetened coconut milk over it , let it soak and then enjoy it. 

For others, it goes well with spicy chicken curry , other meat curries, egg masala, Korma varieties or fish curry.You can refer my blog for all these gravies as I have provided detailed methodology for all.