26 May, 2005

Appam Recipe

Ammachi's best, we say.

What you need:

Rice 250 gms
Milk from ½ coconut or equivalent of the readymade variety
Yeast !/2 Tsp
Sugar 2 Tsp

Preparation time: 5-6 hours

Cooking Time: 3 minutes

Note: Avoid spills by ensuring that the batter is poured into a container which can hold double the quantity, since the batter will rise after fermentation.

Appam is ideally made in a medium sized pan shaped like a karahi (used for deep frying), a shallow version would be ideal.

Preparation method:

1. Wash and soak the rice for 5-6 hours. Drain the water and spread the rice on a newspaper to dry out. This ensures that although it has soaked the water inside, the rice remains dry from outside.

2. Grind this rice to powder in your mixer/blender.

3. Take two sieves of different sizes to sift this powder. First take the sieve with bigger holes and then sift the powder again in a finer sieve. This technique gives you (a) powder which is fine and (b) powder which is of grainy/rougher quality.

3. Mix 2 tbsp of the grainy powder in a cup of water and bring to boil stirring continuously to avoid lumps. Add more water if the mixture is very thick and difficult to stir. Cook for a minute, remove from heat and allow to cool. We call this mix “thari”

4. Mix the yeast in 2 tsp sugar and warm water or as per instructions on the pack.

5. Prepare a thick batter by thoroughly mixing the fine rice powder, thari, yeast and a pinch of salt. Cover with a lid and allow to ferment at room temperature for about six hours or you can also leave it overnight.

6. Half an hour before cooking the Appam, add coconut milk to the batter to make it thinner. Consistency can be slightly thicker than that of pancake batter.

7. To make the appam, coat the pan with oil and wipe off excess with a cloth, otherwise the batter will not stick to the pan.

8. Heat the pan and pour a ladle full of batter. Holding the pan by the handles give the batter a swirl so that the entire pan surface is covered by the batter. Cover with lid and cook on high flame for a few seconds. Reduce heat to sim and cook for about three minutes.

9. Touch the lightly puffed centre portion of the appam with a spoon. If it comes away clean, the appam is cooked. If not, cook for some more time.