My parents are out of town for the weekend leaving me and my aunt with my grandma… So, for today’s lunch, we decided to get food delivered and since meals is the preferred choice of the majority, being a democratic household, at least when my parents aren’t around ( π ), we finally decided to go for Pothichoru… Based on my memory of trying the Non-Veg Pothichoru from PinChef Swapna Rakesh, I decided to contact her and ask for availability and finally placed the order… She even let me know what all were going to be included in the Pothichoru and since I am a sucker for the Kerala-style fish fry along with the meals, I decided to buy some extra fish curry and a couple of portions of fish fry for all of us… On searching in PinStove app, the first fish curry and fish fry to show up were the ones from PinChef Athira J… Having had the Pothichoru and a couple of other items from her menu, I decided to give them a try and placed the orders… The result was as can be seen in the pic below π
Essentially, each portion of Pothichoru had banana leaf wrapped the Pothichoru parcel and along with it came with a. portion each of Fish Curry and Pineapple Pulissery as shown in the pic… I went for two portions of the fish fry from pinched Athira J and what came was 4 pieces (all heads) of Mackerel… Both fish curries came with the Mackerel fish… I guess its Mackerel season these days π
Now coming to the Pothichoru parcel, one thing I noticed right off the bat is that size-wise its smaller that how it was when I got last time from the PinChef Swapna Rakesh… The parcel came having rice, Meen (Fish) Peera, Chicken Perattu, Beans Thoran, Vegetables Mezhukkupuratti, Lemon Pickle, Mango Pickle, Chammanthi and the Omlette… The fish curry and the Pineapple Pulissery came packed separately as mentioned before…
Now coming to the taste, I can say that the whole Pothichoru felt nice… But I think the earlier one was actually tasting better than this… The Meen Peera was made with Netholi (Anchovies) fish and coconut (along with of course shallots and tempered with curry leaves and mustard as usual with Thoran recipes)… The Chicken Perattu turned out to be having two succulent pieces of chicken that felt like had been cooked with coconut, black pepper and a version of garam masala that I found to work fairly well with the rice… It was not too spicy but the flavours were quite intense to be honest but in a pleasant way… The Beans Thoran was quite average and so was the Mezhukkupuratty which was made with Bottle Gourd and Ivy Gourds… The Chammanthi as the PinChef informed me was made with Bird’s Eye Chillies (Kanthaari) and Raw Mango among other spices and it was the favourite item in the pack… So, my only complaint is that there was not enough of that to eat the rice with, for me… π The pickles were also awesome to have with everything… The omlette appeared to have been made with a single egg and it clearly was seasoned fairly considering that its not meant to be eaten alone here π
Now coming to the fish curry, as I said before, it was made with Mackerel and it was medium spiced… Each portion of the curry came with a single piece of fish and it worked great with the rice and other side-dishes… The fish was cooked perfectly and the taste was just right… The pineapple pulissery added a bit of a sweet and sour component to the meal when mixed in thanks to the pineapple and buttermilk that was used in it… So, on the overall, it was a nice meal to have for lunch…
Since the PinChef Swapna Rakesh informed me earlier that what all will be there as part of the Pothichoru, I found out that two items that was there in the earlier version were not included… They are the Kappa (Cassava) mash and the fried fish… So, since I craved for some fried fish, I made an separate order to PinChef Athira J for a couple of portions of their fried fish and since there were 3 people here, ordered for one Fish curry as well from her…
Regarding the Fish Fry, I do have one complaint… I placed the order for fish fry after seeing the pic showing pieces of fried Netholi fish (check thumbnail in the PinStove order screenshot) and what I got was 4 fried Mackerel heads… As you may know, the head is not the idea portion of the fish to be fried… I found that the fish curry had the tail of the Mackerel… So, I really wish that the pieces were swapped… Thats is, fish head in the curry and the tail fried… πΒ However, in-spite of that, I really enjoyed how the fried fish tasted like… Classic marinade of-course but cooked absolutely perfectly… The only problem I had was that because of it being the head piece, there was very less amount of the flesh that was as usual difficult to take out thanks to all the bones (the rib section) in there… But still a treat to. the tastebuds indeed especially when accompanied by the fish curry and the Pothichoru π
The fish curry was indeed on the spicy side… But incredibly flavourful as well with the fish, mango, chilly powder, turmeric, etc with obviously the mango and the fish’s flavours dominating… The fish, again Mackarel, was cooked perfectly π
So, thats it… It was a wonderful meal that was enjoyed really well by my grandma, aunt and myself but unfortunately not as good and enjoyable like the last time… However, the fish fry and fish curry from PinChef Athira J ended up saving the day… Anyways, like I said before, based on last experience I had made a decision to stick to home chefs for getting our meals parcels especially the Pothichoru… I think I’ll continue sticking to that decision after all… Based on this experience, I guess the downside of that decision of this is also clear which is the issue with consistency, which considering the home chefs are mostly amateur chef unlike their professionally trained counterparts in the restaurants, even though I have seen examples by now of the former who do a better job than the latter… So, keeping fingers crossed for next time… π