Appam

Appam is very popular in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. It is similar to dosai, but the batter is completely different. We use raw rice and coconut for this. I don’t use urad dhal for this. Also we need appa kadai for making this. If you don’t have one,  you can use dosa tava itself. Appa kadai helps to get the center of the appam thick and sides crispier. With tava, you need to spread the batter carefully in such a way that you get thick layer in the center.

Appam is usually served with black channa dhal(kadalai curry) or with coconut milk. This is one of my favorite dish. And I got this recipe from our family friend P. It seems this is how they make in their native (kollam). They use cooked rice to this batter and it helps to ferment as they don’t use urad dhal. So here goes the measurement.

Ingredients: Makes 8-10 appams

• Raw rice – 1 cup
• Cooked rice (You can use leftover rice too) – 1 cup
• Coconut – ½ cup
• Salt – 1 tsp
• Baking soda – ¼ tsp
• Sugar – 2 tsp

Preparing the batter:

• Soak the rice for about 4-5 hrs.
• Wet grind it along with cooked rice and coconut.
• Add water to get the dosa batter consistency.
• Add salt,sugar, baking soda and leave it for up to 8 hrs so that it gets fermented.
• If you are in cold weather or unpredictable weather zone (like me, in bay area you never know how its going to be), you can add a pinch of yeast for fermentation.

Making appams:

• Heat the appakadai. I usually don’t add any oil for appams.
• Once the kadai is hot, add one spatula full of batter and rotate it so that it gets spreaded.
• 
• Cover it with the lid and let it cook for 1 to 1.5 minutes.
• When you open, you should be able to get the appam easily. If the batter is fermented well, it doesn’t stick to the kadai.
• And that’s it, yummy appams are ready.

Serve it with coconut milk or kadala curry.

I will post Kadala curry tomorrow.