The spicy beef and the flaky porotta are truly a match made in culinary heaven. Here is a unique dish, beef-porotta 'pothi' or packet, which is actually the dish wrapped in a plantain leaf and cooked to perfection.

The fresh banana leaf adds oodles of flavour to the beef and porotta combination. Check out this fairly simple recipe of beef porotta pothi pollichathu.

Ingredients
1 kg (cut into small pieces)
3 big onions
1 big tomato
Small piece ginger
10 cloves garlic
4 green chillies
1 tbsp chilli powder
1 tbsp coriander powder
¼ tsp turmeric powder
Garam masala, as required
¼ tsp black pepper powder
Curry leaves as required
Plantain leaf for the packet
2 eggs
Palm-full of coriander leaves
Salt as required
Coconut oil as required

Preparation
Wash the beef pieces well
Pressure cook it with turmeric powder and some salt until 1 whistle. Keep this aside
Heat coconut oil and sauté the onions
Into it add crushed ginger and garlic and sauté
Now add the tomato and sauté until they are nice and mushy
Add the chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, garam masala and black pepper powder
Sauté on medium flame until the raw smell of the powders is gone
Into this add the cooked beef and mix well
Add curry leaves as required
Give everything a good mix
Cook for 15 minutes on medium flame with the lid on
Beat the eggs nicely with some salt in it
Pour this into a hot pan and scramble it lightly
On a flaky poraotta, spread the beef masala, coriander leaves, scrambled egg and some more beef masala
Place another porotta on top of these layers
Pass the plantain leaf gently over the flame to soften it up
Wrap the beef-porotta in this leaf
Bake it for 5 minutes in a grill or a regular pan
Turn it over a few times to make sure that the packet is well baked on all sides.

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