Chattipathiri - A traditional Malabar Moplah Sweet Dish !

A traditional Malabar Moplah / Muslim dish, which is made on special occasions, like during the time of Ramadan, when breaking the fast and feasting on good food. A sweet dish that is layered with chapati /roti, with filling of sweetened egg mixture and sprinkled with nuts, raisins and poppy seeds. A rather heavy sweet dish, that you can indulge in, occasionally. This is my first attempt at making this dish and am not sure if i have cooked this to perfection.

Ingredients

For the chapati / Roti

1 cup - Wheat flour
1 cup - Maida / All purpose flour
1 tbsp - Ghee
A pinch of salt

For Filling

6 to 7 - Large Eggs
200 gram - Sugar, powdered
2 tsp - Rose water Or Vanilla essence
10 - Green Cardamom, powdered

To Fry

100 gram - Poppy seeds / Khus khus
100 gram - Cashew nuts
100 gram - Golden raisins
100 gram - Ghee

Method

1 ) Make the chapati dough - Mix both the flours, ghee, salt and mix well. Then add water little at a time and make a soft dough.Divide the dough into 6 or more small balls. Then roll out the dough into very thin round chapati's. Size of chapati should be as per the size of the chatti or non-stick pan you are going to cook this dish in.

2 ) Heat a tawa or a griddle to cook the chapati's. Place one chapati at a time and cook very lightly on both side. Chapati should not get fully cooked. Just cook one side lightly, flip and cook the other side too lightly and take off the tawa. Do like wise to rest of the chapati dough. Spread little milk on each chapati.

3 ) Heat little ghee in a pan, add raisins and fry till it puffs up, drain off ghee and set aside in a plate. Then add cashew and poppy seeds and fry in ghee. Once they have browned lightly, drain off ghee and set aside along with raisins.

4 ) Egg mixture - Beat egg well then add sugar, rose essence, cardamom powder and beat well.

5 ) To Arrange and cook the chattipathiri - Take a non stick kadai, spread some ghee all around the bottom and sides of the kadai. Then sprinkle a little of the raisins, cashew and poppy seeds( sprinkle little, since you need to sprinkle this in each layer and then finally there should be some to garnish on the top ) Then pour little of the egg mixture evenly all around.Now dip one chapati in egg mixture and place the first layer of chapati in the pan. Pour little egg mixture evenly all around on top of the chapati.Then sprinkle some raisins, cashew and poppy seeds. Pour some ghee all around the chapati. Now do the same process to the next layer of chapati and layer one after the other. Finally top with, pouring egg mixture evenly all around the top chapati, and garnishing the top with raisin, cashew and poppy seeds. Pour some ghee all around.

6 ) Place the non-stick pan on stove on a very low heat. Cover and close with a tight lid and cook for 30 to 45 minutes on very low flame. Do not open in between to check. Once cooked, take it off the stove to cool a bit then cut in to pieces and serve.

Serve when still warm and enjoy this chattipathiri.

You can bake this dish, by preheating oven to 350 degree, place dish in the middle rack and baking 30 to 45 minutes. Depending upon you oven heating, it will take 30 t0 45 minutes.

Kuthappam /Muttayappam / Ottayappam / Mutta Pathiri

Back in Kozhikode / Calicut, this appam is called kuthappam, since this appam has a lot of holes formed on its upper surface. Most probably this appam must have a different name in other parts of kerala. Appam chatty, a clay pot (manchatty) is used to make this appam. Other alternative is to use a non-stick pan with a tight lid.

Ingredients

1 cup - Maida / All purpose flour

1 cup - Rice flour

1 - Egg

3/4 cup - Thick coconut milk

A pinch of baking soda

Salt to taste

Method

1 ) Shift maida, rice flour and baking soda along with salt. Beat egg very well and make it frothy. Add to the flours and mix well. Pour coconut milk, little at a time and make a batter which has a consistency, which is a bit lighter than idli batter. Not too loose like dosa batter, nor too thick like idli batter. Rather in between dosa and idli batter consistency. Add water if necessary to get the right consistency.Stir the batter well, so that some air bubbles form in the batter. Let the batter rest for ten minutes. Before preparing the appam, stir the batter once again well.

2 ) Heat a manchatty or a non-stick pan on medium high heat. Grease a cloth with oil and wipe the manchatty or the non-stick pan with this cloth. Using a big ladle, take batter in the ladle and pour into the chatty or non-stick pan. Do not stir the pan or chatty. Close with a tight lid and cook on very low heat. Appam will start forming holes on the top surface and get cooked in the steam. Once the appam is fully cooked, take the appam out of the pan and transfer to a serving plate. Continue making more appam in the similar way with rest of the batter. Just keep in mind to heat the manchatty on high before pouring batter and then immediately lower heat to very low simmer, after closing with lid. The high heat will help in forming the holes.

To serve - you can have this appam with sweetened coconut milk, poured on top of the appam. So make fresh coconut milk extract, add sugar and sweeten. Otherwise you can have this appam with any meat curry.

Arikadukka - Stuffed Mussels

Kadukka or Kallumakai as mussels is known in Malayalam is a popular seafood in Malabar regions of kerala. Mussels are fried, stuffed, curried, pickled and are used in rice dishes for making biriyani or pulao. Ari kadukka, as the name suggests in Malayalam is mussels stuffed in rice paste and steamed within its shell, which is then fried.

Ingredients

25 - 30 - Medium size mussels

For Stuffing dough

3 cups - Rice flour

1.5 cups - Grated coconut

3 - Shallots / small onion

1 tsp - Aniseed

1/2 tsp - Jeera / cumin seeds

Salt to taste

Masala batter

2 tsp - Red chili powder

1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder

1 tbsp - Rice flour

2 - Garlic flakes, finely grated

Salt to taste

Method

1 ) Wash the mussel shells well. Boil the shells in enough water, till the shells open. Drain all the water. Do not use shells that have not opened. Those are not good ones.

2 ) Scoop out the mussel meat from the shell. Clean the inside part of the mussels to remove any dirt there. Cut and remove the black part in the bottom of the mussel. Clean well and set aside.

3 ) Grind the ingredients for the dough, except the rice flour, to a smooth paste with little water. Add to the rice flour and make a dough.

Stuff this dough into the mussel ( inside part of the mussel and the outer part. Cover well with the dough. Place this stuffed mussels in a well cleaned mussel shell to steam.

4 ) Steam the stuffed mussels in a steamer or use a pressure cooker in which a utensil for steaming is placed and steam mussels in it, covered with a lid.

Steam for 10 minutes. When fully cooked. Take off the steamer and place to cool. Then scoop out the stuffed mussels from the shells.

5 ) Mix all the ingredients for masala batter together with little water and make a batter. Dip or lightly coat the steamed mussels in this batter.

6 ) In a wok or kadai, add enough oil to deep fry. Add mussels to the oil and fry till crisp and golden brown in colour.

Serve this Arikadukka as a snack with your evening tea.

Brain Fry

This is a delicacy.Very simple recipe to follow and tasty dish to have.

Ingredients

500 gm - Goat Brain
1/2 to 1 tsp - Turmeric powder
1/2 tsp - Black pepper powder
Salt to taste

To fry

1 cup - Shallots, chopped
2 to 4 - Green chili, chopped and minced
1'' piece - Ginger, minced
1 sprig - Curry leaves, chopped

Method

1 ) Heat a pan, add 1/2 th cup water. Add turmeric powder, pepper powder, salt and brain to it. Cover and cook the brain on a low heat.When half cooked,with a spoon cut brain to big pieces, so that the pepper and salt can reach in. Cook till all the water is used up and brain is fully cooked. Take off stove.

2 ) Meanwhile, in a pan fry, green chili, ginger, shallots and curry leaves. Fry till light brown.

3 ) Add the cooked brain to the fried ingredients. Fry on low heat and let the ingredients blend in. Adjust salt as per taste.

Serve hot with chapati or rice.