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. 

Chicken Ghassi/ Kori (Koli) Gassi

This chicken curry reminds me of my crazy days in Manipal. Though hostel food was not really worth eating, but some generous local friends did treat us to good Mangalorean food! And it's during this time when I discovered home made Mangalorean cuisine that is so full of life and flavor! 

Chicken Ghassi or popularly known as Kori Ghassi goes so well with the sweetness of Neer Dosa (Neer means water in  Kannada and this dosa is super soft, super light pancake made with a very diluted batter) or steamed rice! I had initially made only 2 doses for myself but ended up eating a lot more!! The lovely coconutty flavor with the spice of the red chili is mouth-watering. It is definitely worth a try. Fairly simple to make too!

You need

For Chicken Marinade:

Chicken, 1 inch pieces - 400 grams

Lemon juice –  ¾ Tbsp

Ginger paste – ½ Tbsp

Garlic paste – ½ Tbsp

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Salt 

Marinade for an hour atleast

For the Curry:

Fresh coconut scraped and dry roasted– ½ Cup 

Coriander seeds – 1 tsp 

Black peppercorns – 4-5 nos. 

Fenugreek seeds/ Methi  – ¼  tsp 

Cumin seeds – ½ tsp 

Whole dry chillies – 3-4 Nos. (adjust to taste)

Oil - 3 tablespoons

Onions – 1 medium size (chopped, will be used in parts)

Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp

Curry leaves – 6-7 nos. 

Garlic – 3-4 cloves (minced)

Tamarind pulp – ¾ Tbsp

Coconut milk – ¼  Cup

1. Marinate chicken with lemon juice, ginger, garlic paste, turmeric and salt for an hour. 
2. In 1 tsp of oil lightly sauté coriander seeds, black peppercorns, fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds and whole red chillies.
3. Grind these along with roasted coconut and half an onion to a fine paste using a little water if required. 
4. Heat remaining oil in pan. Add mustard seeds.
5. Once they splutter, add garlic, remaining onions and curry leaves. Sauté for five minutes on low heat till its golden brown in color. 
6. Add marinated chicken and fry till it turns brown on all sides.
7. Add the ground masala made of the coconut, onion and whole spices  to the chicken and coat it well. Sauté for five minutes till you get nice aroma. 
8. Add 1 cup of water, adjust salt. Stir, cover and cook for ten minutes or until the chicken is cooked.
9. Add tamarind pulp and stir well. 
10. Add coconut milk and remove from heat just when it comes to a boil. 
11. Serve hot with Neer Dosa or steamed rice. 

*To make neer dosa, use regular dosa batter and dilute it till its almost buttermilk consistency. Pour on a hot non-stick griddle and turn your griddle a little bit to spread the batter. You can spread the batter like regular dosa since its too tin. Spray a little oil and fold the dosas into a semicircle and again fold triangles directly on the griddle. Don't worry if they break as they are too soft to stay firm. 

Rava Dosa - Restaurant style (South Indian Crispy Savory Crêpe)

Have you ever wondered how those Rava Dosas in restaurants have that beautiful net like texture. Well, I discovered that recently! I know, some of you may already know the trick, but coming from a North Indian family (where Idli, Dosas were the weekend highlights!) meant limited access to those secrets and tips. There was no Internet and google search my mom could depend on like we all do. She still keeps reminding me how lucky we are to have all this information at our finger tips, while in their times it was only friends, books, magazine and of course the Trial & Error method! :)

Still remember as a kid, mom painstakingly making dosa and idli from scratch. For Sunday breakfast, preparation would start from Friday! - The soaking, grinding and fermenting. I used to be so impatient to try some dosas, would pester mom to make at least an uttapam (soft savory pancakes with vegetables) soon after the batter was made. Mom would keep telling me to hold on till the batter ferments, but me-being-me, would not listen and get it my way. Oh, I can't stop writing stories and my life around food, can I!

OK so back to the recipe. This is super quick, super easy. Go ahead and treat yourself to some nice homemade, hot rava dosas – with texture and taste – restaurant style!

Just add onions to make an onion rava dosa, or stuff masala after it is ready to make a rava masala dosa! 

You need:

Maida/ All purpose flour - 1/2 Cup

Rice flour – 1 Cup

Rava/ Suji/ Semolina – 1 Cup

Ginger – 1 tsp (very fine chopped or grated)

Green chilies – 1tsp (very fine chopped)

Cumin – 1tsp

Crushed Pepper – 1 tsp

Salt – 1 tsp (adjust to taste)

Hing – ¼ tsp (I know a lot of you may not like hing, but it does make a difference here)

Fresh coriander/ Cilantro – handful (fine chopped, try using only the leaves, but that's OK! :) )

Dry grated coconut – 2 tsp (optional)

Buttermilk/ Curd – optional

Onion – 1 medium (finely chopped)

Ghee (clarified butter) or Oil – as much or less as you like. :)

1. Mix all ingredients other than Ghee/Oil and Onions (last two from the list of ingredients above)
2. Add water and make a very thin batter. Almost that of buttermilk consistency. Don't worry, rava dosa batter does in fact look like the buttermilk you get in south indian darshinis!
3. Ok, now to making the dosa restaurant style, heat a nonstick tava/ griddle.
4. Uniformly spread some chopped onions (depending how much you would like) on the tava. Skip if you don't like onions in your rava dosa.
5. Hold the bowl containing the batter close to the griddle (this is to avoid messing your kitchen counter and stove top as the batter is too thin, but please keep safe distance!). Now scoop out the batter in the cup of your palms and sprinkle over hot griddle. Yes, just keep scooping and sprinkling till the entire tava is covered, and that is the only way you will get that nice net like texture. (If it is not a non stick pan , spray non-stick spray ,wipe clean and sprinkle the batter, but this would mean a lot of effort !).
6. Cook on medium high flame. Don't add the oil/ ghee immediately and wait for a while for the dosa to cook a little. This trick makes  it nice golden brown and crispy! And remember, this dosa takes a little longer than regular dosas to get that golden brown color, so be patient. And don't worry about the dosas breaking, they will eventually hold very well once cooked.
7. I have found a nice way to stop my dosas from falling apart. After spreading the dosa, I trickle some batter along the circumference as if joining the edges with dots. And this stopping the net texture from breaking when you are removing the dosas.
8. Serve hot with pickle, or chutney. 

*Please mix the batter with a whisk. I know some of you may be too lazy to use a whisk but trust me it makes the whole process so risk free of those annoying lumps. Last thing you want to do in this quick recipe is searching for lumps and removing them! Use a whisk, in fact for any recipe that requires making a batter, it will save you a whole lot of unwanted effort. Stressing on this of course means I have been lazy before and learnt it the hard way :)

** You can use potato stuffing, the same one you use in masala dosa to make a nice rava masala dosas.  

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)

Suji Upma/ Rava Upma

Classic South-Indian breakfast and snack.  Some how it took me a lot of time (read attempts) to get  this recipe right, so I decided to share it with everyone . This upma is the soft, granular and fluffy kind and not the sticky variety. 

Eat it with chutney, pickle or sambhar.

You need:

Suji/ Semolina – ¾ Cup (fine variety) 

Onion – ½ medium size (fine chopped)

Oil – 3 Tbsp

Cumin seeds – ¾  tsp 

Mustard seeds – ¾ tsp tsp 

Curry leaves – 7-8 nos

Green Chili – 2 nos. (adjust to taste)

Hing/ Asafoetida –  Pinch / 

Lime juice (optional) – 1 tsp

Chana Dal/ Split bengal gram – 1.2 Tbsp

Urad dal/ black gram washed – 1 Tbsp

Salt

Water – 1.5 Cups

Green peas – 1/3 cup (I use frozen baby sweet peas)

1. In a pan, roast suji in a tbsp of oil, on a very low heat, till it becomes golden brown. Transfer to a bowl.
2. Now heat the remaining oil, add the mustard and cumin seeds. Once they crackle, add hing, green slit green chilies, chana dal, urad dal and cook till chana dal gets a pinkish color. Now add the curry leaves. Stir for 30 secs. 
3. Add onion and fry till translucent. Now add the peas, water and salt and bring it to a boil. 
4. Add suji while stirring continuously. 
5. Keep stirring till all the water dries up. Now lower the heat, cover and cook for another minute.
6. Stir again, switch off the flame and cover. Open after 3-4 min.           
7. Ready to serve! 

*Adding roasted peanuts is optional (though I prefer not to put any)

** You can also add chopped veggies like carrot, beans, tomatoes etc.   

Dal Vada/Masala Vada (Chana dal)

Dal vada, coconut chutney and filter coffee. Need I say more!! Super Easy, Super Quick! Give it a try.

I usually don't deep fry. Pan frying in 2 tablespoon of oil is good too!!

You need:

Chana dal (split black gram)– 1 Cup (soak in hot water for 30- 40 min)

Onion – half medium size (very fine chopped)

Ginger – 1 inch (fine chopped)


Green chili – 2 nos (fine chopped)

Curry leaves – 7-8 nos. (chopped)

Coconut – 1 Tbsp (grated)

Cumin seeds – ½ tsp

Red chili powder – ½ tsp (adjust to taste)

Salt

Oil

1. Take half portion each of chana dal (decant all water), ginger, curry leaves in a blender. Add all the grated coconut, cumin seeds and blend to a fine paste. Transfer to a bowl.
2. Now coarsely grind the remaining chana dal. (only pulse so that most chana dals should be quartered or halved). Add this to the bowl too.
3. Now add remaining chopped ginger and curry leaves. Add all the onions, green chilis, red chili powder and salt to taste. Mix really well.
4. Roll a small portion into a ball and press between your palms to form a patty/ disc, 1 cm thick. If you feel this will break while frying, add 1 tbsp gram flour/ corn flour/ rice flour (though it should mostly hold without adding any of these ).
5. On medium high pan fry using 1-2 tbsp of oil.

Serve with coconut chutney or ketchup.  

Beans Poriyal/ French beans with fresh coconut

A quick, simple stir fry veggie, yet so flavorful!

You need:

Beans – 250 grams (chopped very fine)

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Asafoetida – ¼ tsp

Whole dry red chili – 2 nos.

Fresh coconut – 4-5 Tbsp (grated)

Curry leaves

Lime juice – 1 tsp

Salt

1. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds. Once it starts spluttering, add asafoetida and whole red chilies.
2. Add curry leaves, beans, salt. Fry for a minute. 
3. Add coconut and stir well. Cover and cook till done. 
4. Once beans is cooked, add the lime juice and mix well. Serve hot. 
5. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves. 

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

Sambhar - Sarvana Bhavan Style

I have always loved the Sarvana Bhavan sambhar, which is so very different from the kind you get in Bangalore darshinis. I may not understand the subtle nuances between all the varieties, but all I know is that this sambhar has a very mild flavor of lentils, coriander seeds, curry leaves and just a hint of tang. And this ensures you get to enjoy a true 'sambhar-dip-idli'.


I have tried numerous recipes and various versions but this one seemed to have the perfect balance. Thanks to my friend Deepa (Kannan), who shared this magic masala with me that could only have been handed down from grandmothers to mothers to daughters. And am sure she must have put in a lot of effort converting 'handful', 'pinch', 'as per taste' to measurable 'Cups' 'Tbsp' and 'tsp' !! :)

You need: Serves 2

For the sambhar powder:

Coriander seeds - 4 tsp

Jeera/Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Fenugreek/ Methi seeds - 1/4 tsp

Curry leaves - as desired ( I add around 6-7 nos.)

Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp

Chana dal/ Bengal Gram - 1/3 tsp

Toor dal - 1/3 tsp

Whole red chillies - 5 nos.

Cinnamon sticks - a very small piece (1 cm)

Cardamom skin - a few pieces

Dry coconut powder - 3-4 tsp

For the sambhar:

Toor Dal - 1/2 Cup

Tomato - 1 medium size (chopped fine)

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Mustard seeds- 1 tsp

Curry leaves - 6-7 nos.

Jaggery - 1/2 tsp

Hing/ Asfoetia - 1/4 tsp

Baby shallots - 7-8 nos. (I use peeled and frozen)

Vegetables of your choice - carrots, beans, drumstick, eggplant etc. (boiled)

Salt

Making the sambhar powder:

1) Dry roast each of the following ingredients separately : Coriander seeds, Cumin seeds, Methi seeds, Curry leaves, Mustard seeds, Chana dal, Toor dal, Whole red chillies.
2) Fry cinnamon sticks and cardamom skin in1 tsp of oil.

3) Grind all of the above along with dry coconut powder. Add 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder.

Making the sambhar:

1) Cook half cup of toor dal till it is soft and can be mashed.

2) Add the sambhar powder and boiled vegetables, baby shallots, tomatoes and jaggery. Boil till all the froth comes on top and the sambhar powder has totally incorporated into the dal. Takes approximately 8-12 min.

3) Temper with mustard seeds, hing, whole red chilies and curry leaves.

4) Garnish with fresh coriander leaves / cilantro.