Appam (Rice flour Pancake - Kerala Cuisine)

No Kerala style stew is complete without appams. It must be a torture to both stew and the appam. It must be like pulling the twins aparts. It's like asking you to chose between Tiramisu and Trifle Pudding! That's quite dramatic, isn't it!! Having watched Bollywood all my life, you couldn't expect any lesser! :) But that also means I just love eating hot appams with this nice flavorful stew! Appams (Plain hoppers) are nothing but pancakes made from riceflour and coconut milk with a spongy center. They are nice, sweet, succulent and crispy, all at the same time. 

And yeah, there is another version! If you are a bulls-eye or sunny-side-up lover, then Mutta- Appam (Egg Hopper) is your kind of thing. You have the egg broken right in the centre of the appam. Nothing like alternating between dipping your appam into stew and an egg!


Treat your friends to a nice dinner from 'God's Own Country - Kerala'!

You need:

Rice Flour - 2 cups

Rapid Rise Highly Active Yeast – 1 tsp

Sugar – 3 tbsp

Rava/ Semolina – 2 tbsp

Thick Coconut Milk – 1/2 to 1 Cup (I use Thai brand canned coconut milk)

Water – As needed

Salt – 1 tsp 

Preparing the batter:

1. First you need to make the rava paste. This is the only step that requires any work at all, rest all is just mixing the ingredients. For making rava paste, take 2 cups of water and 2 Tbsp of rava in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil stirring continuously and then boil it on simmer flame till it is reduced to almost half. Stir continuously so that the rava doesn’t lump up or stick to the base.  When the mixture changes to a thick paste, almost to the consistency of custard or porridge, remove it from heat and allow it to cool completely.
2. In a large bowl (since it will rise to almost double when fermented) combine rice flour, sugar, cooled rava paste, rapid rise yeast along with 1/2 cup coconut milk and salt. Add around 1/2 to 1 cup water or more and whisk everything to form a smooth and thick batter. The batter should be thick because after fermentation it will rise and become thinner in consistency.
3. Leave the batter in a warm place for around 3-4 hours and allow it to ferment. I prefer to pre-heat the oven to the 150 F for 5 min and switch off the oven. Then place the bowl with batter in the oven and keep the door closed. 
4. Once the batter is ready, adjust the consistency by adding water. It should be similar to that of a dosa batter. 

Making the appams:

1. Heat a non stick pan on medium flame. The pan should be slightly deep in the center. Like a small non-stick kadhai. 
2. Pour ladle full of batter into pan and swirl the pan lightly, spreading batter to the sides of the pan. And a little should batter should be left to collect in the center of the pan. 
3. Cover with lid and allow it to cook for around 3 minutes on medium heat. When the center of appam is done (basically the entire appam should be spongy and not have any white uncooked patch) and the edges start detaching, remove the appam carefully from the pan. There is no need to flip it to the other side to cook or brown.  If you like your appams more crispy and golden brown, add a little more sugar to the batter.
4. To make mutta-appam (egg appam), just break and egg in the centre of the appam once it has been cooked for a while and the centre is a little firm. You need the center of the appam to be cooked a little so as to not get have a puddle of batter uncooked beneath the egg. It's like serving an egg sunny side up in the center of an appam!

* I use Fleischman Rapid Rise Yeast for quicker fermentation. If you are using Ordinary Active Dry Yeast, then mix the yeast in lukewarm water (105 F-115 F) with 1 tsp of sugar. Keep it aside for 7-10 min. till the mixture gets frothy. Make sure the water is not too hot as it will kill the yeast and the fermentation will not happen in 3-4 hours. If such a thing does happen, just let it ferment naturally for 9-10 hrs in a warm place.

 **As always, I insist, please use a whisk to make the batter. It will lump-free with no effort at all! :)

Vegetable Stew - Kerala Cusine (Mild coconut based Veg-Stew)

What can I say! My first appam-stew experience was at my friend's (Leena Mohan) place when I was in school. Ever since I have been absolutely bonkers over this delicious, mild, flavorful stew served with crunchy yet soft sweet appams (pan cakes). Infact I can have this stew just like that as my dinner! One of those things I absolutely adore. 

My love affair with appam-stew continued at Coconut Grove (Bangalore, Church Street). The guys at Coconut Grove (CG) always got some extra stew for me since they knew one bowl wasn't sufficient! The appams were always served one after another so that they come steaming hot into your plate. Of course fried fish was an integral part of this combo in CG. The music was relaxing, the tender coconut water was soothing, the fried fish was tongue tickling and the appam stew was comforting. I still love going to CG on any given day! 

Ok, so since CG can't come here, I have there is work cut out for myslef to re-create the appam-stew magic! So I called my sister-in-law Nisha (who is originally from - god's own country – Kerala) to get the authentic stew recipe. Now I know,  a typical staple food made at home can never have a standard recipe (for that matter there is nothing called the real authentic recipe, each one has their own version based on taste and liking). But then, there is always that one little secret which only mom's know! And Nisha had her mom next to her explaining the recipe to me! That's called luck! And trust me, I got that one secret ingredient from her which no recipe (books, online, cookery show) mentions. And that is saunf/ fennel powder. The minute I tasted the stew, I knew it, I had hit the jackpot!! I have made this stew countless number of times, but this time around, the CG taste was in my stew!!! Ah the stew!!

Just realised, I was here to share the recipe! :) Last quick note - check out the nice dinner menu from 'God's Own Country - Kerala'!

You need: 

(serves 2 – I could have eaten it all alone but there were two of us for dinner :) )

Potatoes – 2 medium size (boiled, peeled and roughly cut into cubes)

Pearl white onions – ½ Cup (or cut onions into big chunks)

Carrot – 1 medium (peeled and cut into 1 cm pieces)

Green chilies – 2-3 (slit)

Bay leaf – 1 no. 

Cloves – 3-4

Green cardamom – 3-4

Cinnamon stick – 1 inch

Curry leaves – 7-10 

Saunf powder – 1.5 tsp (must, must, this is the secret ingredient)

Coriander powder – 1 tsp 

Salt – to taste

Coconut oil – 2 tsp  (will be used in parts)

Good quality coconut milk – 14-16 Oz can (I used almost half, you may want to adjust this as per your taste and the quality of the coconut milk)

1. Heat 1 tsp of oil in a pressure cooker, add green chilies, bayleaf, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon stick. curry leaves and fry for 30 secs. 
2. Now add the saunf and coriander powder. Fry for 15 sec. 
3. Add carrots and pearl onions. Give a stir and add enough water to just cover the vegetables. 
4. On a high flame pressure cook the vegetables for exact 3 min. Whether whistle happens or not, switch off the heat and ease the pressure. You could either run it under cold water or lift the whistle. This is to make sure the vegetables are cooked but still firm. 
5. Transfer all the contents to a sauce pan, add the potatoes and bring to a boil. 
6. After 5 min, add the coconut milk and adjust the salt. Cook for min, drizzle the remaining 1 tsp coconut oil and mix (you can skip this if you don't like the smell of coconut so much but it does make a difference). 
7. Switch off and serve hot with hot appams! 
8. Once the stew cools it thickens a little so adjust the consistency if you plan to cool it a little and eat. But this dish should be eaten steaming hot!

*You can also make appams with hardly any effort. Try the Appam and Mutta-Appam recipe. 

Dinner from 'God's Own Country – Kerala'

The Kerala cuisine dinner menu consisted of:

Beverage :: Thenga Neer

Chilled tender coconut water

Appetizer :: Fish Fry

Pan fried Pomfret in spicy marinade

Entree' 1:: Vegetable Stew with Appams and Mutta-Appams

A mild vegetable stew made with coconut milk, whole spices and served with Plain Hoppers and Egg Hoppers

Entree' 2 :: Mutta Roast served with Kerala Paratha

Boiled eggs in spicy and tangy masala served with pan fried fluffy, layered Indian bread.

Dessert :: Semiyan Payasam

Pudding made with thin vermicelli, cream and sugar

(Did not make this for dinner last night but I do love this for dessert)

Mutta Roast (Spicy egg curry - Kerala style)

This is an attempt to make the Mutta Roast (Egg roast/ Egg curry) we used to eat in Coconut Grove (Bangalore). To be honest, I haven't been able to recreate the same magic but this has been fairly close.

It tastes best with kerala paratha (good substitute is the frozen Malaysian parathas you get in Indian stores).

You need:

Boiled eggs - 4 (soft boiled and cut into half)

Onion - 2 medium size (cut into half and then thinly slice)

Ginger-Garlic paste - 2 Tbsp

Green chili - 6-7 (slit and deseeded)

Shredded coconut - 4-5 Tbsp

Cumin powder - 1tsp

Coriander powder - 1Tbsp

Red chili powder - 1tsp

Tomato - 1/2 medium size (finely shopped)

Curry leaves - 10-12 No.

Tamarind paste - As per taste

Mustard seeds

Asafoetida- 1/4 tsp

Oil

Salt

1) Heat oil in a pan. Crackle mustard seeds. Add asafoetida followed by curry leaves, green chilies, ginger garlic paste. Fry for a minute.

2) Add onions, salt, turmeric powder, red chili powder and fry till golden brown in color. Now add the shredded coconut and fry for another minute

3) Now add coriander powder. Let it toast a little and then add the tomato. Cover and cook till masala has no raw smell. (do not overcook as we want the masala to have a nice texture, and not be too mushy- thats why we have not added any water).

4) Once the masala is cooked add tamarind paste. Fry on high flame to desired consistency.

5) Add eggs and garnish with coriander leaves