Wednesday, February 08, 2017

Appam




The typical breakfast or dinner dish of Kerala. It also finds place in the menus of  Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. This pancake with a soft spongy center and laced outer crust is simply a beauty to sight and taste. Paired usually with egg curry, vegetable stew or meat stew, this can be relished during anytime of the day.

Basically these are pancakes made by grinding rice and coconut, followed by fermenting the batter with yeast, and then made in a special pan called appa chatti. There are many variations in the process of grinding the batter for the appam. I have tried various methods, but felt this one gives the best appams in terms of taste, texture and appearance. So over to the recipe of appam.


 Ingredients
2 cups idli rice
1 coconut grated
2-3 Tbsp sugar
1/4- 1/2 tsp yeast(I used instant yeast)
salt to taste
water for grinding

Method
  • Soak the idli rice for atleast 3 hours.
  • Grind the soaked rice with the coconut into a very smooth batter by adding enough water.
  • Take a laddle full of the batter into a sauce pan and add 1 cup of water to it. Mix well.
  • Bring this mixture to a boil and on a medium flame cook this stirring continuously until it turns into a thick paste.
  • Remove from heat and allow this paste to cool.
  • In the blender take this cooled paste, add 1 cup of water, yeast, sugar and salt.
  • Blend this for one minute until everything is combined well. Add this mixture into the remaining rice and coconut batter prepared before and mix everything well.
  • Keep the batter aside and allow it to ferment for about 4 hours.
  • You can see a risen foamy batter once the fermentation is done.
  • Heat an appam kadai(appa chatti). Smear with some oil if you are not using a non-stick one.
  • Mix the batter well and take a laddle full of the fermented batter and pour into the appa chatti. 
  • Now pick up the appa chatti and swirl in a circular way once. This leaves a thick center part and thinner, lace like outer sides. 
  • Cover and cook the appam on a medium low flame until the center of the appam is cooked and the sides turn to light golden brown.
  • Serve this immediately - from the pan directly to the plate.
  • Appams are delicious when served with egg curries, vegetable stew or meat stew or any other curries.
  • Many like to have these appams hot with just a dash of some sugar sprinkled on top.


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