April Daring Cooks' Challenge - Pathiri

I am so sorry I haven't posted in a while! But look at this - two posts in one day? What??

Yup - that's what happens every few months when the posting dates for the Secret Recipe Club and Daring Kitchen collide. I mean coincide.

The April Daring Cooks Challenge was brought to us by Joanna from What’s On The List. She taught us all about Pathiri and challenged us to create our own version of this inspirational Indian dish!

Pathiri was something completely new to me. Pathiri are a type of crepe-like pancake, usually rice based, which can then be used to create all kinds of savory dishes. Our challenge this month was to use these crepes to create a sort of savory crepe cake. Fun!

The given recipe was for a traditional Indian style dish.  Which looked outstanding.

But I only followed the recipe for the crepes.

For my filling, I went with what I had on hand - which happened to be Mexican inspired.  I had some leftover cooked Mexican-style chicken. I chopped the chicken, along with the tomatoes and onions that had cooked with it, and mixed everything together.

To construct my "cake," I spread each crepe with a thin layer of refried beans, then spread on some of the chicken filling.

I repeated these layers until I ran out of filling.

I then smothered the whole thing with a Mexican-spiced tomato sauce, then smothered the whole thing in cheese.

Which baked up...

...perfectly.

The results were super fun to cut into...

...and absolutely delicious to eat.

Well, for me. The kids didn't like it because of the tomato sauce (I made a cheese-free mini-version for little man). But I thought it was really fun and delicious.

Now, I have been wanting to make a (sweet) crepe cake for quite some time, so this challenge  has re-inspired me to try my hand at it, and I definitely want to try another version of the savory version, too, to see if I can find one that is a winner for everyone in the family!

Joanne, thank you so much for introducing me to this fun, delicious dish!

To see the challenge as Joanne presented it, check it out here.

To see the delicious varieties of pathiri cooked up in the kitchen this month, check them out here.


I know I usually put the recipe that I used here at the bottom, but I really just winged my final recipe (and used leftover chicken from a chicken dish that I'd... yeah... totally winged...), so I'll put here the crepe recipe, from the challenge, that I used, and give you a basic overview of the finishing steps.

Pathiri-inspired crepes
(from April Daring Cooks' Challenge)

2 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon grape-seed oil or neutral-tasting oil (I used vegetable oil)
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
pinch of salt
oil for crepe pan (I used non-stick cooking spray)

In a jug or mixing bowl add vinegar to milk; allow to sit for 5 minutes.
In a bowl (or larger jug), combine milk mixture with remaining ingredients; refrigerate for at least one hour.
Heat pan coating pan lightly with oil; remove excess oil with paper towel.
Pour batter to desired size; flip when edges start to lift.
Cook second side until just cooked.

For the final dish, prepare a cooked filling of our choice and allow it to cool. Also prepare a coordinating sauce of your choice.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Spoon a bit of sauce onto a baking dish (so the final product won't stick), and alternate layers of crepes and filling. There is no rule for how many layers you need to use, so go with what works for you. Cover all of the layers with sauce.
Bake in preheated oven until heated through.

Enjoy!