HD is a sucker for anything traditional. As far as food is concerned, he is less fussy – the only requirement he has is the food has to be fresh. But nothing is best for him than a homely meal of rice, curry and fish for lunch, and even better, some pathil with mutta curry (egg curry). In our side of Kerala, it is nice pathiri or the thin rice pancakes. Nope, I still don’t have a recipe on the blog. Such a shame, right? 🙁 I hardly make it, and each time I make it, I want to get done with it! I have received requests to make video of it too… I sincerely hope I can do it soon.
My first experience with this thick pathiri was when I got married. My first impression was definitely not good. It was thick and any amount of curry wouldn’t make it soft. But I saw that as much we enjoyed the nice pathiri, HD and his people love this thick pathiri to the core, that they have it for breakfast every day! Sometimes, it is even repeated for dinner in case they run short of rice cooked for lunch. Every time HD would ask me to make this, I would just ignore his request. But how much I can ignore? Finally, I hunted down a mill close by home where they stocked the rice flour for this pathiri. The rice flour used for the nice pathiri is silky smooth, but the rice flour for this one is slightly course.
The best part is it doesn’t take much time to make as well. You pour warm water and just bring the flour together till moist. Then it is shaped and cooked with little oil till done. Since they are thick, it needs to be flipped and cooked for a longer time to ensure that it is cooked thoroughly inside. I usually make it plain, but at times a ground mixture of coconut, fennel and shallots is added to give it more flavor. This is usually served with fish (usually this one) or chicken curry, and for the sweet lovers, this tastes amazing when dunked in sweetened fresh coconut milk. Off to the recipe…
Kai Pathiri/ Orotti ~ Malabar Rice Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup rice flour refer notes
- 1 tsp salt to taste
- Lukewarm water as required
- Oil as required
Instructions
- Whisk together the rice flour and salt.
- Pour water little by little and bring the dough together till the flour is all moist and it holds shape. Do not knead.
- Heat a tawa and brush with some oil.
- Oil you hand. Take a lemon sized piece from the dough. Slowly shape into a round, with 1/2 inch thickness. You can alternatively do this on an oiled plastic sheet or rolling board.
- Place into the hot tawa and cook on both sides, till done. Brush oil as required.
- Store in hot pot till use. Serve with curry of choice, or sweetened coconut milk.
Notes
Add water till the flour is moist and is soft to touch. Too much water will make it squishy.
Cook the pathiris, flipping them every few minutes, till done. Due to thickness, these take time to get done, so cook on medium-low flame and flip.
They look chewy and delicious.
Thanks Angie…
love these pancakes, sounds amazing!
Thanks Gloria…
pathriiiii…………….i still remember eating pathiri at my friends place when we visited her home in kerela. iv been dying to eat it ………….but it was thin and soft…..do u make it at home ??
The neriya pathiri is different, I have mentioned in my post that that recipe is still pending, hopefully some day I can do it with a video… thank you so much Farah…
So interesting! I’ll keep this in mind when I visit Kerala. I can understand about your hubby. Mine is the same too. Loves his rice and fish curry a little too much!:)
This is usually not available in eateries. The one available are the deep fried version called “Neypathal” and that too this bread is found in Malabar and not in the south side… 🙂 Thanks a lot Kanak…
Whaaaat?? It was this easy??? I’ll prepare it today! My hubby is a sucker for traditional food too, but I just hav no time to do the thin pathiris….
You just made my life easy! God bless 💕
Haha… this thick ones are way easier than the thin ones for sure! The thin ones leave me with a backache! Hehe… hope you make them and enjoy them, dear… Thanks a lot for coming by… 🙂
simple and delicious pancakes..lovely!!
Thanks Julie…