YUMMY TREATS: Chatti Pathiri

A Traditional Malabar Cuisine

It's a famous tasty spicy malabar dish, can be served as a starter and as an evening snack.

Chatti pathal / Chatti Pathiri is a dish that has layers of chappathi/ pancakes, that can be made with sweet or spicy non veg filling. I had bookmarked this recipe last Ramadan when my friend Neethu Akhil told me about this dish from Asianet Taste Time Programme. She told it was a must try dish and was too good. So I thought I would give it a try. These kind of snacks are only made during Ramadan for Breaking the fast. I wanted to try this since very long time, so tried and we liked it very much and so sharing with you all. We can make it with egg/beef/ chicken/mutton/ with fish (prawns).Here I explain the preparation of Chatty Pathiri with chicken and scrambled egg.

Ingredients:

I tried it with two layers egg and chicken. You can try it with chicken only or with egg and other items of your choice.

Chicken Layer: First cook chicken with below ingredients

750g chicken on bone or bone less (I used boneless, make it into small cubes)

2 tsp oil

½ tsp black pepper powder

¼ tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp coriander powder

½ to 1 tsp chicken masala powder (optional)

Salt

Scrambled Egg Layer: Total eggs for both coating and for layering is 8 to 9 eggs

3 to 4 Eggs – add a pinch of salt, beaten and keep aside

For masala: for both layer same masala

6 medium or big onions sliced (each for chicken and egg)

6 garlic 1 ½ tbsp, finely chopped (each for chicken and egg)

2 ”, 1 ½ tbsp finley chopped ginger (each for chicken and egg)

5 green chillies finely chopped, 2 tbsp (each)

½ cup finely chopped coriander leaves

¾ tsp garam masala powder (each)

For pancakes:

1 ½ cups plain flour (Maida)

1 large egg

Water – to make dough

¾ tsp salt

2 tsp melted ghee

For egg and milk mix to coat the pancakes or rotis:

4 eggs, or you may use 5 if you don’t have enough eggs to coat the pancakes

½ to 1 cup milk

pinch of salt

Preparations:

For the pancakes/ roti:

Whisk together the flour, salt , egg and enough water to make a smooth dough, and make medium size rotis. (not-so- thick or thin rotis).You can eyeball the diameter of the crepe to the tin/pan you will be layering it.It's perfectly OK to be a little big. Do not overcook the rotis. Make them to the size of the saucepan that you will be doing your final assembly. I cooked in a 9 inch pan, so I made my rotis slightly bigger than the pan, about 10-11 inch, so that I can cover the base of the pan well.

For the filling (Chicken masala):

1. Rub the chicken with salt, turmeric and pepper powder. Place a saucepan, add oil, put all the powders and sauté, add the chicken and salt. Mix it well with the masala and cover and cook on medium heat until the chicken is done. Once the chicken is cooked, boil off the liquid in the pan, turn off the heat.

2. Cool the chicken down, (separate the chicken off the bone,) and shred the chicken using fingers and discard the bones. Keep the shredded chicken pieces aside. For scrambled Egg layer take 3 to 4 eggs and add a pinch of salt, beaten and keep aside.

3. Take two large frying pan or a sauce pan(one for chicken and one foe egg),pour oil or ghee ( I used ghee) throw in half a quantity of (masala ingredients in each pan )the sliced onion, ginger, garlic, green chillies and salt and cook on medium heat until onions are soft, translucent and light golden brown. Add the shredded chicken in one pan and mix it well with the masalas. In other pan pour the beaten eggs and scramble it.

4. Add chopped coriander and garam masala to both items mix it well and keep it aside.

Egg-milk mix:

Break 4 to 5 eggs into a wide bowl and whisk. Add a pinch of salt and keep aside. In another wide bowl take ½ to 1 cup milk or coconut milk. This is used to coat the rotis while layering, and to keep the whole chatti pathiri into one piece without splitting.

For the pancakes and final Assembling: (also refer notes below for the video)

1. Grease Place the saucepan you are going to make your chatti pathiri on low heat put 1 ½ tsp ghee and grease it. Take your first pathiri (roti) and dip it into milk and then to beaten egg and place it onto the base of the pan. (while dipping don’t soak it just dip it and take immediately, otherwise it will break). Scatter some chicken masala on top sparingly and place another pancake dipped in egg-milk mix and on top of that scatter scrambled eggs. Keep repeating the procedure until the roti and filling is over. Note the top layer should be the roti.

2. Pour the remaining egg mix onto the stacked pathiris and tuck in the sides of the pan cakes in.

3. Cover the pan tightly with a tight fitting lid, and place it on low heat Let the Chatti pathiri cook on low heat until the egg mix on top is set and steam has started coming through, about 20-30 minutes depending on the heat and the pan used. Flip this on to a plate, and slide it back to the pan, the top side going down. Cook for 5 more minutes.

You can cut them into squares of serve in wedges and have with ketchup if you like it that way.

Notes: Making this Chattipathiri is not a science. You can use any size pan and make make pancakes to fit that pan.This can also be baked in a pan. Bake it in a moderate temperature oven until the top is just golden.