Meen Pollichathu

Meen Pollichathu

Meen Pollichathu is a dish which became popular in the recent past and all restaurants in Kerala worth its name promote this dish. There are different ways of preparing this - some add coconut milk and thick onion paste to this preparation. Also some prepare this after shallow frying the fish. To fully enjoy the dish, it should be prepared and consumed fresh - and directly from the banana leaf wrapping.

Advantage of this preparation is that the fish is not directly fried in oil. Hence it is low on calories and is very healthy. But if one adds coconut milk, or coconut paste during preparation, then the dish will be rich in calories.

If Karimeen (Pearl spot) is available at stores near you, give a try.Whole Karimeen will give best result.This recipe is relatively easy to prepare.

Makes: 3

You will need

Fish pieces
Marinade ingredients
Banana leaf (cut banana leaf into 15 x15 square pieces - 3 pieces required )
Cotton thread or vazhanaaru
2 teaspoon oil

For the fish:

3 big fish pieces (200 g) or 1 whole fish

Wash and clean fish pieces. Drain out water completely. Wipe each pieces with a kitchen towel. Keep aside.

For the marinade:

3/4 teaspoon red chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/4 teaspoon pepper powder
1 tablespoon lime juice
5 shallots / chuvannulli
2 tablespoons (30 g) thick ginger - garlic paste (add shallots along with ginger and garlic when making ginger - garlic paste)
3/4 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

Mix all the ingredients well. Do not add extra water. Apply the paste evenly on both sides of the fish pieces.

Method

Slightly smoke the leaf over flame, so that it will be flexible to be wrapped. Wrap the fish in banana leaf and tie it with the vazhanaaru / cotton tread.

Heat oil in a pan / meen chatty and place the wrapped fish in it. Cover with a tight lid and cook for around 15 minutes, turn it over and cook for another 15 minutes or until done / fragrant. A colour change will also be visible on the banana leaf wrapping indicating that the dish is done. Remove leaf and serve hot with rice.