Malabar Rice Pathiri

The colorful selection of mouthwatering delights are indeed a speciality of Muslim Cuisine.The cuisine of Kerala Muslims alias ‘Mappila Cuisine’ is also well known for its delicate blend of spiciness and subtle mix of ingredients. Traditional Mappila cuisine is spicy and wholesome and has a lot in common with other foods of Kerala with the base as rice.
Malabar Pathiri is a special Mappila bread prepared with rice flour.They make different varieties of pathiri like steam cooked Meen Pathiri(made of Fish),shallow fried Kannan Pathiri (shaped as eye),Adukku Pathiri(made with layered rice& egg) ,Egg Dipped Pathiri,Meat Pathiri,Coconut Pathiri….and many more.Pathiri in all its dry varieties can be tried out as perfect accompaniments to the dense coloured meat preparations.The difference between various pathiris comes from the rice that they are ground from.Biriyani Rice & Ponni rice are mostly use for preparing Pathiri’s in Kerala.
As per the request of our friend Pol,i’ve tried this Plain Rice Pathiri last week.This was the best Pathiri i’ve ever made.Thanks Pol,for reminding me about this,and we had a really different and enjoyable dinner-Pathiri & Mutton Masala.Again this is a special Pathiri recipe from Vanitha.

Ingredients:-

Rice Flour -2 cups(I used normal ‘Swad’ rice flour available to us from Indian Groceries)
Water – 2 cups
Salt – to taste

For Grinding:-
Grated coconut -1 cup
Shallots – 5
Jeera – 1 tsp
(These grinding ingredients are optional.In Traditional plain pathiri recipe(‘Neriya Pathiri’ in Malabar),they don’t normally add these ground coconut mixture.I got this special recipe from Vanitha and I loved that coconut flavour in Pathiri,rather than the plain one.)

Method:-

Heat water and salt in a vessel.Stir in the grounded mixture when it starts to boil.When it boils well,put the rice flour into it.Close the lid tightly and simmer it for few minutes.Open the lid and mix the flour well with a spoon.Remove the vessel from fire and allow the content to cool. Knead it to a fine dough using hand without adding water.(Note:-This kneading part has to be done before the flour is completely cooled.)

Kneaded Dough

Make it into small lemon sized balls.

Dough made into lemon sized balls

Take small balls and roll each of it into very thin, round shapes by spreading rice flour over the balls.Cut it into perfect round shape using a round & firm steel plate.

Dough rolled thin & cut into round shape

Heat a thick bottom flat pan. Cook the pathiri by turning both side till done. Don’t use any oil while cooking. Another alternative is rolling it thick and deep frying, just like Puri.

Malabar Pathiri

Difficulties i’ve faced:-
At first,I couldn’t lift the rolled pathiri from my kitchen slab.So I used a banana leaf and rolled the dough on it.Then i could lift the leaf itself and turn it upside down to the heated pan.I think you can get the same effect if its done with a steel plate also.My friend Shuba told ,it can be done on a plastic wrap too with little oil on it.Does anyone knows any other options for it??All inputs are welcome..