Sardines in Pandan Leaves

Sardines in Pandan Leaves, Pandan Leaves, it is called Ramba in Tamil,  BiriyaniKaitha in malayalam, it has fresh and pleasant aroma. It is used in South East Asia cooking. Especially in Malasia, Thailand and Indonesia. Here I used pandan leaves as a fragrant wrappers. In Indian cooking, the leaf is added whole to biriyani,  both basmati and pandan leaf contain the same aromatic flavouring ingredient.

Ingredients

• Sardines 250 gm
• Pandan Leaves 6 to 8 nos
• Black Pepper Cones 2 tsp
• Shallots 4 nos
• Garlic 2 cloves
• Ginger small piece 
• Curry Leaves 1 sprigs
• Red Chilli Power 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric Powder 1/4 tsp
• Lemon juice 1 tsp
• Salt
• Oil

Method

Clean and keep sardines.

Crush garlic cloves, black pepper cones, shallots, ginger, curry leaves, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt in a blender and make a coarse paste. 

In a medium size bowl mix the above paste with lemon juice. Apply this juice on sardines and keep it for 20 minutes. 

Clean and keep the pandan leaves. Now keep each sardines on pandan leaves and fold it well with tooth pick. Heat oil in a pan and place the pandan leaves with sardines, keep it on medium flame. Cover and cook for 2 minutes. Turn the other side and shallow fry sardines well. Serve warm with Rice.

NB: Pandan leaves gives a good aromatic flavour for this sardine, so whoever doesn't like sardines smell can fry like this you will like it.