KERALA STYLE APPAMS

Kerala Style Appams are thin lacy, bowl-shaped pancakes, generally served for breakfast, made from fermented rice flour and coconut milk. They derive their shape from the small special curved shape pan in which it’s cooked, which is called appachatti in malayalam. If you don’t have appachatti, don’t worry…you can make it in a normal skillet or non-stick pan just like a pancake. They are fairly neutral in taste and mostly served with some spicy curry, vegetarian or non-vegetarian stews or with normal milk and sugar.

Kerala style appams are also called vellaeappam or paalappam. I generally change the shape of appams to make them more appealing to kids.

Ingredients

• 2 cups Raw Rice (I use Basmati rice)
• 1 cup Cooked Rice (I use parboiled rice)
• ½ cup Grated Coconut
• Salt, to taste

For Yeast solution:

• 1 tsp. Sugar
• 1 tsp. Dry yeast
• ¼ cup Warm Water

Method

• Soak raw rice for about 4 hours and drain.
• Grind the raw rice with cooked rice and grated coconut in a mixer grinder to get a smooth batter. (Note: You can add coconut water while grinding or instead of grated coconut you can use coconut milk if using coconut milk then there is no need to add water or add very little water.)
• Then mix sugar with warm water. Add yeast and keep aside for 10-15 minutes or until a froth appears on the surface.
• Mix sugar, yeast solution and salt to the batter. Leave the mixture for fermentation for 8 hours or over night.
• Heat a non-stick appachatty on a medium flame. Grease the appachatty with little oil if required.
• Pour one ladleful of appam batter to the appachatty. Lift the pan from the stove and slightly twist around to spread the batter in the pan to make circular shape or any shape you like.
• Close it with a lid and cook on low heat till the edges are golden brown.
• When the Appam is ready the edges resemble crisp lace and centre becomes soft.
• Serve lacy appams with any stew (veg or non-veg), kadala or even with coconut milk and enjoy!!

Kerala Style Appam