Meen pollichattu is an authentic Kerala dish. Meen means fish and pollichathu means burnt/fried. Meen Pollichathu is prepared by frying the fish, then wrapping in banana leaf with a spicy onion masala and fried/roasted again with banana leaf on a pan/tava to get that fried and burnt flavour of banana leaf. The fish usually used in Kerala is the pearl spot fish (karimeen), but I have used whole pomfret fish instead. You can use any firm fish.
Meen pollichathu is cooked in many ways with different spices in each home and in restaurants. This is one of my favourite fish dish and is a good one to impress your friends and/or relatives on special occasions. In this recipe, I wanted a different taste - spicy, juicy and sour. So I have added kokum, also called as fish tamarind (meen puli). If kokum is not available, you can use tamarind paste instead, but kokum gives you the different taste. Sometimes, I don’t fry the fish, but instead directly wrap the marinated fish in banana leaf and bake, which I have shown in the pictures towards the end. This meen pollichathu with kokum is sure to impress fish lovers!
Preparation time: 15 mins
Cooking time: 45 mins
Cuisine: Kerala
Spiciness: Spicy and sour
Serves: 1-2
Marinade
For onion and kokum masala
I have used coconut milk powder to make thick coconut milk. Mix 2 tbsp of coconut milk powder to 1/2 cup or 150 ml of warm water or as per the instructions.
Wash and soak kokum in warm water for about 10 mins to soften it. You can then use the water for cooking instead of using plain water. Chop roughly.
Marinating the fish and frying
Cooking the onion and kokum masala
Wrapping the fish in banana leaf
Frying
Baking